North Yorkshire

D1 Wednesday, 14 July

Wallington

Tim will meet you at the Hampton by Hilton Edinburgh Airport at 9.30 am.

We’ll load the minibus and drive south to visit Wallington, the much-loved home to generations of the unconventional Trevelyan family. In an unusual move for the land-owning gentry, Sir Charles Trevelyan joined the Labour Party and served in Britain’s first Labour government; in 1942 he gave Wallington to the National Trust. We’ll have time to explore the house, and all its treasures, and the gardens, especially East Wood and its hidden walled garden.

Wallington is about halfway on our journey to the lovely North Yorkshire village of Harome, and The Pheasant Hotel, our home-from-home for the next four nights, where we’ll arrive in good time to check in, relax and enjoy drinks and dinner.

Today's driving is about 200 miles/320 km

D2 Thursday, 15 July

Castle Howard & Scampston

We start the day at nearby Castle Howard, a fabulous house, forever linked with Brideshead Revisited. Home to the Howard family for over 300 years and designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, Castle Howard is a masterpiece of English Baroque architecture. Work began in 1699, but wasn’t completed until 1811! Today, it is renowned for its richly layered interiors and world-class art collections. We will have plenty of time to explore the house and its wonderful walled garden, and as much of its vast parkland and woodlands as you care to walk through.

After lunch we’ll visit Scampston Hall to admire the Piet Oudolf-designed walled garden. The Hall’s original 18th-century walled garden had lain empty for over fifty years until, in 1999, the family commissioned Oudolf to design a new garden. The result, Oudolf’s largest UK garden at the time, is a stunning contemporary garden divided into 12 distinct hedge-enclosed rooms.

From Scampston we cross the North York Moors for a scenic drive to Whitby, a wonderful harbour town, the birthplace of Capt James Cook, Dracula and, at the 644 Synod of Whitby, a date for Easter!

We stay in Whitby for fantastic Fish & Chips at the Magpie Cafe.

Today's driving is about 100 miles/160 km

D3 Friday, 16 July

Helmsley Walled & Mount Grace Priory

We have stayed at The Pheasant for the better part of twenty years and never once stopped in Helmsley, Harome’s neighbouring market town – until our last Yorkshire tour in 2025, and now we can’t wait to go back.

Without a doubt, the star of the show is Helmsley Walled Garden, originally built to supply fruit and vegetables to nearby Duncombe Park, but today, thanks to the vision of a local nurse, it is a beautiful community garden maintained by a dedicated band of volunteers. Next door is Helmsley Castle, a once mighty medieval fortress, which we’ll visit before lunch.

After lunch, we’ll cross the Moors to visit Mount Grace Priory, the last of the great Yorkshire monasteries, founded in 1398, and the best-preserved Carthusian monastery in England. After the Reformation, the monastery became home to wealthy aristocrats and industrialists, including Lowthian Bell, who remodelled part of the priory in the Arts and Crafts style and created terraced gardens.

We return to Harome for dinner at The Star Inn.

Today's driving is about 60 miles/100 km

D4 Saturday, 17 July

Burton Agnes & Jackson’s Wold

We start the day in Malton, a traditional market town and self-appointed food capital of North Yorkshire, to visit its Saturday market, before visiting two gardens we’ve never been to before.

The first of them is Burton Agnes, a family home that, since the original Norman house was built in 1173, has never changed hands by sale. Today we see its successor, a glorious Tudor house designed and built by Queen Elizabeth I’s master mason, Robert Smythson. We’ll explore the house and its beautiful, award-winning gardens, including a walled garden containing many thousands of plant species, herbaceous borders, a yew maze and an arboretum walk.

After lunch, we’ll visit Jackson's Wold, home to Richard and Sarah Cundall, who moved into their nineteenth-century farmhouse when they were newly married in 1984. The garden, which is perched on top of the Yorkshire Wolds, was originally rough paddocks and an array of farmyard buildings with no trees, beds or borders. Today, after some 40 years of passion and good design, the Cundalls have created a delightful three-acre garden and protected their endeavours by surrounding it with a woodland shelterbelt.

We’ll return to Harome for drinks and dinner at The Pheasant Hotel.

Today's driving is about 100 miles/160 km

D5 Sunday, 18 July

Fountains Abbey & Newby Hall

After loading the minibus, we leave Harome to visit Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, a peculiar combination of the hauntingly beautiful ruins of Fountains Abbey, a magnificent 12th-century Cistercian abbey, and Studley Royal, one of Britain's finest landscaped water gardens – a landscape of lakes, formal canals, water features and sweeping lawns. The whole is unique, historically important and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a large area, with much to see and explore, and we’ll ensure that there’s plenty of time to do so.

After lunch, if time allows, we’ll stop in the neighbouring market town of Ripon, before spending the rest of the afternoon in the gardens at Newby Hall. Designed by Christopher Wren, architect of St Paul's Cathedral, Newby Hall is a handsome William & Mary house surrounded by 25 acres of stunning gardens. Largely created in the early 1920s, the gardens comprise several distinct gardens, sitting on either side of its famous double herbaceous border, which, at 172m in length, is one of the longest in the country.

From Newby Hall we drive to our new home-from-home for the final three nights, at The Devonshire Arms, where, again, we’ll arrive in good time to check in, relax and enjoy drinks and dinner at the hotel.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D6 Monday, 19 July

Harlow Carr, Parcevall & the Dales

Our day starts on the outskirts of Harrogate, a genteel Victorian spa town, at RHS Garden Harlow Carr. Now one of the family of five RHS gardens, it was once the home of the Northern Horticultural Society, and is widely regarded as the 'Wisley of the North'. It is an extensive, superbly maintained garden, with some exceptional features. It also boasts a branch of Bettys Tea Rooms and that alone is worth the visit.

After lunch we’ll drive north into the Yorkshire Dales to visit Parceval Hall, a once-derelict 16th-century shell of a house, rebuilt in 1927 by Sir William Milner. He made it his home and designed the Arts & Crafts-style garden, creating the broad terraces with their stunning views across Wharfedale.

We’ll drive along Wharfedale to take in some of the Dales’ magnificent scenery – an iconic landscape of upland pasture with an estimated 5,000 miles of dry-stone walls! We’ll stop in Grassington, the beating heart of the Yorkshire Dales, and home to Darrowby, the setting for All Creatures Great and Small, the memoirs of James Herriot. It is also where the world watched the start of the 2014 Tour de France and the setting for the film Calendar Girls!

We’ll dine at one of several popular Dales pubs.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D7 Tuesday, 20 July

A day in York

We’ll take the 09:34 train from Harrogate Railway Station into York, where you’ll have the whole day free to explore this great, historic city.

We will organise a private guided tour of York Minster, one of the world’s most magnificent cathedrals, for those who wish to join us, and we’ll help you plan your day, but otherwise, the day is yours.

We particularly recommend taking a hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus tour, if only to orientate yourself. Otherwise, some of the better-known attractions include the internationally renowned National Railway Museum, the Jorvik Viking Centre, which brings Viking York to life, and the York Castle Museum, which tells the story of York, its history, art, and culture. We also highly recommend lunch or afternoon tea at Bettys, a veritable Yorkshire institution.

Whatever we do, we will meet back at the railway station for a late afternoon train back to Harrogate and an end-of-tour dinner at our hotel.

Today's driving is about 30 miles/50 km

D8 Wednesday, 21 July

Raby Castle

Our final visit is to Raby Castle, a 14th-century castle built by the powerful Neville family and one of the most impressive castles in England. In 1626, the Nevilles sold it to Henry Vane, whose 23-year-old son was elected Governor of Massachusetts and was elected Governor in 1636 – it is still the Vane family home.

There would have been a garden in the Middle Ages to provide herbs and plants for medicines, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that a formal garden was established. Today, although much altered, many original features remain, including a White Ischia Fig tree which was brought to Raby in 1786, two fine old yew hedges, the ornamental pond originally constructed to provide water for the kitchen garden, and the gateway made in the early 18th century for Shipbourne Church.

We’ll have lunch at Raby, and stop for tea and cake at The Redesdale Arms, about halfway on the drive back to the Hampton by Hilton Hotel, Edinburgh Airport, where the tour ends and where we expect to be by 18:00.

Today's driving is about 200 miles/320 km