UK attractions

The country's most beautiful and curious places, nation by nation, with history, tips and how to get there.

England

Hever Castle

Guide to Hever Castle in Kent: Anne Boleyn's childhood home, Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves, the Books of Hours, William Waldorf Astor and the Italian…

Leeds Castle

Guide to Leeds Castle in Kent (not Leeds in Yorkshire): the Norman castle on the lake, the six medieval queens, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon…

Vindolanda

Guide to Vindolanda in Northumberland: the Roman fort older than Hadrian's Wall, the Vindolanda tablets and Claudia Severa's birthday invitation, the…

St Michael's Mount

Guide to St Michael's Mount in Cornwall: the tidal island twinned with Mont-Saint-Michel, the legend of the archangel and the giant Cormoran, the St…

Lost Gardens of Heligan

Guide to the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall: the Tremayne family, the gardeners who left for the Great War, Tim Smit's rediscovery in 1990, the…

Royal Pavilion (Brighton)

Guide to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton: the Prince Regent and future George IV, Henry Holland and John Nash, the Indian-style exterior and Chinese…

SS Great Britain

Guide to the SS Great Britain in Bristol: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the first ship with an iron hull and screw propeller, the emigrant voyages to…

Alnwick Garden

Guide to the Alnwick Garden in Northumberland: Duchess Jane Percy, the Grand Cascade, the Poison Garden and its deadly plants, the rose garden, the…

Eden Project

Guide to the Eden Project in Cornwall: Tim Smit and the old china clay pit, Nicholas Grimshaw's biomes, the rainforest and canopy walkway, the…

Ironbridge Gorge

Guide to Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire: Abraham Darby and iron smelted with coke, the 1779 Iron Bridge, Blists Hill Victorian Town, the Museum of…

Tank Museum

Guide to the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset: the largest collection of tanks in the world, the birth of the tank in the Great War, Little Willie…

Royal Observatory (Greenwich)

Guide to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich: Charles II and Christopher Wren, the longitude problem, John Harrison and his marine timekeepers, the…

Kew Gardens

Guide to Kew Gardens in London: Princess Augusta and Joseph Banks, the Palm House and the Temperate House, the Great Pagoda and its dragons, Kew…

Bodleian Library

Guide to the Bodleian Library in Oxford: Duke Humfrey and Sir Thomas Bodley, the right to a copy of every book, the readers' oath, the Divinity…

Ashmolean Museum

Guide to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford: the Tradescants and Elias Ashmole, its opening in 1683, Egyptian and Minoan antiquities, the Alfred Jewel…

National Railway Museum

Guide to the National Railway Museum in York: Britain as the home of the railway, the Great Hall and its turntable, record-breaking Mallard, Rocket…

Farne Islands

Guide to the Farne Islands: St Cuthbert the hermit on Inner Farne, Grace Darling and Longstone lighthouse, the colonies of puffins, guillemots and…

Lindisfarne

Guide to Lindisfarne, Holy Island: St Aidan and St Cuthbert, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Viking raid of 793, the priory, Lutyens' castle and…

Bamburgh Castle

Guide to Bamburgh Castle: the capital of the kings of Northumbria, the Norman fortress, the Wars of the Roses siege, Lord Armstrong's restoration…

Housesteads

Guide to Housesteads Roman Fort (Vercovicium): Emperor Hadrian and the Wall, the Tungrian garrison, the barracks, granaries, hospital and latrines…

Durham Cathedral

Guide to Durham Cathedral: St Cuthbert and the birth of the city, the Prince-Bishops, the carved columns and rib vaults, the tombs of St Cuthbert and…

Fountains Abbey

Guide to Fountains Abbey: the thirteen monks of 1132, the wealth of wool, Henry VIII's Dissolution, the cellarium, John Aislabie and the Georgian…

Chatsworth House

Guide to Chatsworth House: Bess of Hardwick, Mary Queen of Scots, the Baroque house, the Painted Hall, paintings by Rembrandt and sculptures by…

Blenheim Palace

Guide to Blenheim Palace: the battle of 1704 and Queen Anne's gift, John Vanbrugh and Duchess Sarah, the birth of Winston Churchill, the Great Hall…

Stourhead

Guide to Stourhead: the Hoare banking family, Henry Hoare the Magnificent and the Grand Tour, the walk around the lake, the Pantheon, the Grotto, the…

Castle Howard

Guide to Castle Howard: the 3rd Earl of Carlisle and John Vanbrugh, the Great Hall and the dome rebuilt after the 1940 fire, the Temple of the Four…

Dover Castle

Guide to Dover Castle: the Roman lighthouse and Saxon church, Henry II's Great Tower, the siege of 1216, the Secret Wartime Tunnels and Operation…

Hampton Court

Guide to Hampton Court Palace: Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII, the Great Hall, the astronomical clock, the Tudor kitchens, the Chapel Royal…

Warwick Castle

Guide to Warwick Castle: William the Conqueror, Caesar's Tower and Guy's Tower, the Kingmaker and the Wars of the Roses, the Grevilles, the Great…

Canterbury Cathedral

Guide to Canterbury Cathedral: St Augustine and 597, the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, the Gothic rebuilding, the nave and Bell Harry Tower, the…

Whitby Abbey

Guide to Whitby Abbey: St Hilda and the monastery of 657, the Synod of Whitby, the poet Cædmon, the Gothic ruins, Cholmley House, Bram Stoker and…

Roman Baths

Guide to the Roman Baths in Bath: the legend of Bladud, Aquae Sulis and the goddess Sulis Minerva, the Great Bath, the Sacred Spring at 46 degrees…

Durdle Door

Guide to Durdle Door and the Jurassic Coast: 185 million years of geology, Mary Anning and the fossils of Lyme Regis, the arch and the beach…

Corfe Castle

Guide to Corfe Castle: Edward the Martyr, William the Conqueror and King John, Lady Mary Bankes and the Civil War sieges, the demolition of 1646, the…

Lake District

Guide to the Lake District: glaciers and lakes, the Lake Poets and William Wordsworth at Dove Cottage, Beatrix Potter and Hill Top, Windermere and…

Stratford-upon-Avon

Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon: the life of William Shakespeare, the birthplace on Henley Street, New Place and Hall's Croft, his grave in Holy Trinity…

Ely Cathedral

Guide to Ely Cathedral: St Etheldreda and the isle of eels, Hereward the Wake, the Norman church, the collapse of 1322 and Alan of Walsingham's…

Minack Theatre

Guide to the Minack Theatre: Rowena Cade and the building of the theatre, the first performance in 1932, the hand-decorated terraces, the Atlantic…

Bletchley Park

Guide to Bletchley Park: the Government Code and Cypher School, Alan Turing and Hut 8, Enigma and the Bombes, Colossus and the Lorenz cipher, the ten…

Seven Sisters

Guide to the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head: how the chalk formed, erosion and Belle Tout lighthouse, Cuckmere Haven and the Country Park, the view…

Cotswolds

Guide to the Cotswolds: wool wealth and the wool churches, William Morris, Bibury and Arlington Row, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold, the…

Yorkshire Dales

Guide to the Yorkshire Dales: Vikings and monks, dry-stone walls and field barns, Malham Cove and Gordale Scar, the Three Peaks, Ribblehead Viaduct…

Peak District

Guide to the Peak District: Dark Peak and White Peak, the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, Mam Tor and Edale, the Castleton caves and Blue John, Dovedale…

New Forest

Guide to the New Forest: William the Conqueror's royal forest, the death of William II, the commoners and the Verderers, free-roaming ponies, cattle…

Wells Cathedral

Guide to Wells Cathedral: the springs and the Saxon church, the birth of English Gothic, the west front with three hundred statues, William Joy's…

Lacock

Guide to Lacock: the abbey founded by Ela of Salisbury, William Sharington, Fox Talbot and the first photographic negative, the Hogwarts cloisters…

Salisbury Cathedral

Guide to Salisbury Cathedral: from Old Sarum to the new city, a building raised in 38 years, the 123-metre spire, the font, the medieval clock, Magna…

Hadrian's Wall Path

Guide to Hadrian's Wall Path: Emperor Hadrian and the Roman frontier, the national trail of 2003, Segedunum and Chesters, the central Whin Sill…

Scotland

Rosslyn Chapel

Guide to Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh: William Sinclair and its founding in 1446, the carvings, the green men and the maize, the Apprentice Pillar…

Skara Brae

Guide to Skara Brae in Orkney: the stone village of 3100 BC, the 1850 storm, the houses with stone beds and dressers, the museum and replica house…

Italian Chapel (Orkney)

The story of Orkney's Italian Chapel: Scapa Flow and the Churchill Barriers, the Italian prisoners of Camp 60, the Nissen huts, Domenico Chiocchetti…

Culloden

Guide to Culloden battlefield: the Jacobites and Charles Edward Stuart, the battle of 16 April 1746, the repression and the tartan ban, the visitor…

RRS Discovery

Guide to the RRS Discovery in Dundee: the ship built in 1901 for Scott and Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, two winters in the ice at McMurdo, the…

Burrell Collection

Guide to the Burrell Collection in Glasgow: Sir William Burrell and his 1944 gift, the museum in Pollok Country Park reopened in 2022, Chinese…

Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis

Guide to Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis: St Mungo and the founding of the city, the Gothic cathedral that survived the Reformation, the crypt…

Camera Obscura

Guide to Camera Obscura and World of Illusions in Edinburgh: Maria Short and the Outlook Tower, Patrick Geddes, the camera obscura show, the Vortex…

Edinburgh Zoo

Guide to Edinburgh Zoo: its founding in 1913, the first king penguins, the knighted penguin Sir Nils Olav, the giant pandas, Penguins Rock and the…

Eilean Donan

Guide to Eilean Donan Castle: St Donnán, Clan Mackenzie and the Macraes, the destruction of 1719 with the Spanish soldiers, MacRae-Gilstrap's…

Urquhart Castle

Guide to Urquhart Castle: Edward I and Robert the Bruce, the MacDonalds and the Grants, the destruction of 1692, the Grant Tower, the trebuchet, the…

Glenfinnan

Guide to Glenfinnan: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 1745 rising, the Glenfinnan Monument, the West Highland Line and Concrete Bob, the 21-arch…

Royal Yacht Britannia

Guide to the Royal Yacht Britannia: the 1953 launch, 44 years of royal voyages, Charles and Diana's honeymoon, Hong Kong and the 1997…

Kelvingrove

Guide to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum: the 1901 exhibition, the back-to-front legend, Dalí's Christ of Saint John of the Cross, Botticelli…

Isle of Skye

Guide to the Isle of Skye: Flora MacDonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Trotternish with the Old Man of Storr, the Quiraing and Kilt Rock, the Cuillin…

Holyroodhouse

Guide to the Palace of Holyroodhouse: the legend of David I and the Holy Rood, James IV, Mary, Queen of Scots and the murder of David Rizzio, the…

St Andrews

Guide to St Andrews: St Andrew and the cathedral, the university of 1413, the Reformation and the castle siege, the Old Course and the Swilcan…

Iona

Guide to the island of Iona: St Columba and the monastery of 563, the Book of Kells, the Vikings and Martyrs' Bay, the abbey and St Martin's Cross…

Loch Lomond

Guide to Loch Lomond: the Highland Boundary Fault, Rob Roy MacGregor, the Bonnie Banks song, Balloch and Loch Lomond Shores, the village of Luss, the…

Glencoe and Ben Nevis

Guide to Glencoe and Ben Nevis: the Massacre of Glencoe, Buachaille Etive Mòr and the Three Sisters, the visitor centre and the Lost Valley, climbing…

The Kelpies

Guide to the Kelpies at Falkirk: sculptor Andy Scott, the heavy horses of the canals, The Helix park, tours inside the sculptures, the evening…

Wales

Portmeirion

Guide to Portmeirion in north Wales: Clough Williams-Ellis's Mediterranean village, the rescued and rebuilt buildings, Noël Coward and Blithe Spirit…

Harlech Castle

Guide to Harlech Castle in Wales: Edward I and Master James of St George, the concentric plan, the Way from the Sea, Owain Glyndŵr, the seven-year…

Big Pit

Guide to Big Pit in Blaenavon: the history of Welsh coal, the mine opened in 1880, the descent to 90 metres with helmet and lamp led by former…

St Fagans

Guide to St Fagans near Cardiff: the open-air museum founded in 1948, the Rhyd-y-car cottages, St Teilo's Church, the court of Llys Llywelyn, the…

Conwy Castle

Guide to Conwy Castle: Edward I and Master James of St George, the eight towers, the royal apartments, Richard II and Owain Glyndŵr, the 1.3 km town…

St Davids

Guide to St Davids, Wales: St David the patron saint of Wales, medieval pilgrimages, the cathedral with its oak ceiling and shrine, the Bishop's…

Caernarfon Castle

Guide to Caernarfon Castle: Edward I's conquest, Master James of St George, the walls inspired by Constantinople, the Eagle Tower, the birth of the…

Beaumaris Castle

Guide to Beaumaris Castle: the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn, Edward I and Master James of St George, the concentric plan, the wall-walks, the moat and…

Tintern Abbey

Guide to Tintern Abbey: the Cistercian foundation of 1131, Roger Bigod's Gothic church, the Dissolution of 1536, Turner and Wordsworth, the roofless…

Snowdon

Guide to Snowdon, Yr Wyddfa: the legend of King Arthur, the slate quarries, the Snowdon Mountain Railway from Llanberis, the Llanberis Path, Pyg…

Bodnant Garden

Guide to Bodnant Garden: Henry Pochin and the Aberconway family, the Puddle gardeners, the Italianate terraces, the Canal Terrace and the Pin Mill…

Cardiff Castle

Guide to Cardiff Castle: the Roman fort, the Norman keep and Robert of Normandy, the Marquesses of Bute and William Burges, the Banqueting Hall, the…

Castell Coch

Guide to Castell Coch: Gilbert de Clare's castle, the Marquess of Bute and William Burges, the rebuilding of 1875-1891, the drawbridge, the Drawing…

Pembrokeshire Coast

Guide to the Pembrokeshire coast: the national park of 1952, the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, Skomer and its puffins, Ramsey and the seals, Barafundle…