Thirsk has six places to spend a wet day, and all six are within five minutes' walk of our door on the Market Place. The catch is the calendar. Two of them close on a Sunday, one closes on a Monday, and one shuts for the winter at the end of October, so the day of the week decides the plan more than the weather does.
The museum, the Herriot house, Rural Arts and the Ritz were checked on 28 September 2026, and each place's page carries the date its facts were checked. The rainy day list has most of these plus a few worth a drive. We're at 87 Market Place, and every walk below starts from there.
Which doors are open, day by day
Until 31 October:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rural Arts | shut | open | open | open | open | open | shut |
| Thirsk Museum | open | open | open | open | open | morning | shut |
| World of James Herriot | open | open | open | open | open | open | open |
| Charity shops | open | open | open | open | open | open | a few |
| Leisure centre pool, to a timetable | open | open | open | open | open | open | open |
| The Ritz | evening | evening | matinee, evening | evening | evening | matinee, evening | matinee, evening |
Ritz matinees run when one is scheduled, so check the programme. From 1 November the museum is closed for the winter and the Herriot house opens later in the day. Hours for each place are on its own page, linked below.
A wet weekday, in order
Start on Kirkgate. Thirsk Museum is three minutes from the square and free, run by volunteers in the house where Thomas Lord was born. The Busby Stoop chair is the exhibit people come out talking about. Twenty minutes gets the highlights and forty-five does it properly. From November the museum is shut for the winter, so start at the Herriot house instead.
The World of James Herriot is a few steps further up the same street, and it is the one museum here open every day of the week. Allow the full ninety minutes: the surgery and the dispensary are where most people slow down. We have written the whole day around it if that is the part you came for.
Back down to the square for the charity shop trail, eight shops within a minute or two of each other. Twenty-five minutes covers the ones on the square. An hour does the lot, and hardback Herriots turn up often enough to make it a fair hunt.
Then Westgate. Rural Arts at The Courthouse is five minutes away, free to walk into, with a gallery that changes its exhibitions through the year and a shop of work by independent makers. The shop keeps shorter hours than the gallery, so if the shop is the reason you are going, check its page before you set off. Half an hour covers both.
For the afternoon, two options. The leisure centre on Chapel Street is five minutes south of the square and has a teaching pool kept at 30 to 32 degrees for small children, separate from the main pool. In term time school swimming takes most weekday mornings, which is why it sits in the afternoon here. Or the Ritz, a volunteer-run cinema on Westgate that has shown films since 1912, with an evening screening every night.
Rural Arts and the Ritz are both stops on the blue plaque trail, a few doors apart. Our walk round the plaques names three stops you can go inside when it rains, the Ritz among them.
Getting there and parking
Everything here is on foot from the square, five minutes at most and flat the whole way. If you are driving in, the Market Place is closest for the museum and the Herriot house, and where to leave a car in Thirsk covers the longer stays. The leisure centre has its own free car park with a time limit, which helps if a swim is the last thing you do.
Sunday and Monday
These are the days to plan around. On a Sunday, Rural Arts and the museum are both shut and only a few charity shops open, on short hours. The World of James Herriot, the pool and a Ritz matinee, when one is scheduled, carry the day. On a Monday, Rural Arts is shut, but the charity shops are open, and so is the museum until 31 October. It is market day on the square, so leave more time to cross it.
The pool has one rule worth knowing before you go: one adult can take a maximum of two children under eight into the water. A parent on their own with three needs a second adult.
With a pushchair or a wheelchair
Rural Arts is the easiest building on the list: step-free throughout, a lift to the first floor, a Changing Places toilet and baby changing. The World of James Herriot has a lift and access to every floor except the air-raid shelter. The museum's ground floor is ramped and its first floor is stairs only, with an iPad tour of the upstairs rooms. The charity shop doorways vary shop by shop.
Where we fit
Breakfast before you set out, or soup and a sconotti when the museum and the shops are done. The menu has both, and hot chocolate in dark or milk for anyone who got wet between doors. If there are six or more of you, book a table so there is room for everyone when you come in out of the rain.
