Things to do in Hull and East Yorkshire

Flamborough Head is a great chalk promontory projecting into the North Sea from the East Yorkshire coast, its brilliant white cliffs, sea stacks and wave-cut arches formed from the same Cretaceous chalk that underlies the White Cliffs of Dover and visible for miles offshore. The headland is one of the most important geological and wildlife sites on the Yorkshire coast, its combination of chalk cliff habitats, rich offshore fishing grounds and strategic position as a first landfall for migrating birds making it a site of exceptional natural interest across every season. The seabird colonies on the Flamborough cliffs are among the most significant on the east coast of England. Tens of thousands of kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and puffins breed on the ledges and sea cave roofs during the spring and summer season, their noise and movement creating a spectacle of wildlife abundance that is one of the finest available on the Yorkshire coast. The clifftop path north of Flamborough village toward Thornwick and North Landing provides the best access to the cliff-nesting birds, with viewpoints overlooking densely occupied ledges at close range throughout the breeding season. The lighthouse at the tip of the headland has guided vessels clear of the chalk stacks and submerged reefs since 1806, its position marking one of the most hazardous sections of the Yorkshire coast. The Battle of Flamborough Head in September 1779, in which the American naval commander John Paul Jones defeated a British convoy escort in one of the most dramatic single-ship actions of the American Revolutionary War, is commemorated in the area's maritime heritage. The chalk arch at Thornwick Bay and the sea caves accessible on foot at low tide from North and South Landing provide geological features of considerable interest and the connection with Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve a short walk to the north makes this one of the finest short stretches of coastal walking in Yorkshire.

Burton Agnes Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire is one of the finest Elizabethan country houses in England, a red brick mansion of 1598 built by Sir Henry Griffith that has remained largely unchanged in its external appearance for over four centuries while its interior has been enriched by successive generations of the same family with a remarkable collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings acquired primarily in the early twentieth century. The combination of the outstanding Elizabethan architecture and a collection of considerable art historical importance makes Burton Agnes one of the most rewarding country house visits in the north of England. The house was designed by Robert Smythson, the architect responsible for Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire and Longleat in Wiltshire, and the characteristic Smythson style of symmetrical facade, large windows and disciplined proportion is clearly evident in the Burton Agnes design. The entrance front, approached through an elaborate gatehouse of the same period, presents a long red brick facade of considerable authority and elegance, the symmetrical arrangement of windows and the slightly projecting bay of the great hall section creating a composition of controlled confidence typical of the best Elizabethan country house architecture. The interior of Burton Agnes retains its Jacobean plasterwork ceilings, carved overmantels and carved wood panelling in a series of rooms of exceptional quality. The great hall with its carved alabaster and plaster overmantel, the drawing room and the long gallery are among the most complete Jacobean interiors in any English country house still in private occupation. The art collection assembled by the Cotton family in the early twentieth century includes works by Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Manet and Pisarro displayed in these historic rooms. The walled garden with its yew topiary, the potager kitchen garden and the children's games and mazes in the grounds provide extensive outdoor interest.

Skipsea Castle near Skipsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire is a large and well-preserved motte-and-bailey earthwork castle of the late eleventh or early twelfth century, one of the finest surviving examples of early Norman earthwork castle construction in northeast England. The castle was built by Drogo de la Beuvrière, one of William the Conqueror's companions, and the large circular motte rising to a considerable height above the surrounding flat coastal plain remains clearly visible and accessible. The castle site overlooks Skipsea Mere, a former lake now reduced to a small wetland area, which historically provided additional natural defence for the castle. The East Yorkshire coast at Skipsea is subject to rapid erosion, and the castle stands as an important monument in an area of significant coastal change. The site is managed by English Heritage and freely accessible.

Ballintubber Abbey in County Mayo is one of the most remarkable ecclesiastical sites in Ireland, a medieval abbey church that has been in continuous liturgical use for over eight hundred years without interruption, a claim that very few religious buildings anywhere in Europe can match. The abbey was founded in 1216 by Cathal O'Connor, King of Connacht, for the Augustinian Canons, and despite the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, despite periods of suppression and persecution of Catholic worship, and despite the long rooflessness of much of the building, Mass has been celebrated at Ballintubber in every century since its foundation. The abbey building itself is a substantial piece of early thirteenth-century Hiberno-Romanesque and early Gothic architecture, retaining its cruciform plan, the round-arched doorway of the west front, the lancet windows and the cloister garth around which the canons' domestic buildings were arranged. The nave was reroofed and restored in the twentieth century and is now used for regular worship, while the ruined sections of the monastery complex have been partially consolidated and interpreted for visitors. The combination of working church and ancient ruin gives the site a dual character that is both historically evocative and practically alive. Ballintubber Abbey stands at the eastern end of Tóchar Phádraig, the ancient pilgrimage route to Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain of the west of Ireland where St Patrick is traditionally believed to have fasted for forty days. The route connecting the abbey to the mountain summit has been walked by pilgrims for over a thousand years, and a programme of waymarking and path improvement has made the Tóchar Phádraig a designated walking route of thirty kilometres through the heart of County Mayo. Beginning a pilgrimage walk at the abbey and ending it on the summit of Croagh Patrick gives the journey a historical resonance that is unique in the Irish landscape. The landscape of west Mayo surrounding the abbey is characterised by the wide, flat plains of the Castlebar district with the hills of Connemara and the distinctive profile of Croagh Patrick visible to the west, a setting that anchors the abbey firmly in its geographical and spiritual context.

Bridlington Harbour on the East Yorkshire coast is the largest fishing harbour on the Yorkshire coast and one of the most active working fishing ports in northeast England, a double-basin harbour enclosing a substantial fleet of inshore fishing vessels and a thriving commercial fishing industry that provides much of the Yorkshire coast's supply of crab, lobster, cod and other North Sea species. The harbour divides into the Old Town above and the Victorian resort development along the seafront below, and the combination of the working harbour, the fishing vessel activity and the seaside resort character gives Bridlington a dual personality that makes it one of the more interesting coastal towns on the Yorkshire coast. The harbour itself is the most visually engaging part of the town, the stone quays enclosing a basin where fishing vessels land their catches in the mornings and pleasure craft moor through the summer season. Fish can be bought directly from the boats and from the fish stalls along the quayside in the morning, providing some of the freshest and most competitively priced seafood available anywhere in Yorkshire. The combination of the working harbour atmosphere and the opportunity to buy genuinely local fish is one of Bridlington's most distinctive and enjoyable visitor experiences. The Old Town of Bridlington, separated from the harbour and seafront by a distance of nearly a kilometre, contains the priory church of St Mary, one of the finest medieval churches in East Yorkshire, whose gatehouse survives as a particularly impressive example of late medieval monastic gatehouse architecture. The priory was founded in 1114 and its most celebrated prior, St John of Bridlington, was canonised in 1401 and became one of the most venerated saints of medieval northern England. The broad sandy beaches north and south of the harbour are among the most extensive on the Yorkshire coast, and the combination of beach, harbour and the chalk cliffs of Flamborough Head to the north provides excellent coastal walking opportunities.

Beverley Minster in the East Riding of Yorkshire is one of the largest and most magnificent parish churches in England, a building of cathedral dimensions that surpasses many English cathedrals in the quality and ambition of its Gothic architecture. The minster was built in two main phases between approximately 1220 and 1420, producing a building in which the Early English Gothic of the east end and the fully developed Perpendicular Gothic of the west front represent the full range of English medieval church architecture within a single building, the stylistic development across two centuries displayed as a coherent architectural history in stone. The west front of Beverley Minster is among the finest pieces of English Gothic church architecture, a screen of towers and niched statuary that was the direct inspiration for the west front of Westminster Abbey as designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in the eighteenth century. The twin towers rise with elegant authority above the town and the surrounding East Riding plain and provide the visual anchor for the historic townscape of Beverley. Inside, the nave of extraordinary length and height creates an impression of soaring Gothic space that belies the building's parish church status, while the fourteenth-century Percy Tomb is one of the most exquisite pieces of Gothic funerary sculpture in England. The Saxon origins of Beverley Minster give the building a depth of history that extends beyond its Gothic fabric. St John of Beverley, the eighth-century Bishop of York who established the first religious community here, became one of the most venerated saints of medieval England and the minster's status as a place of pilgrimage and sanctuary made it one of the most important churches in northern England throughout the medieval period. The sanctuary stone, indicating the bounds within which the right of sanctuary applied, still stands outside the minster door. The market town of Beverley surrounding the minster is one of the finest in Yorkshire, its medieval street pattern, guild hall and Georgian townscape providing an excellent setting for a minster visit.