Plan a day in Thirsk · 23 places
Historic places near Thirsk
Two of the finest ruined abbeys in the country are within half an hour, and the town itself holds a 1940s vet's surgery, a Perpendicular church begun around 1430 and the birthplace of the man Lord's cricket ground is named after.
1World of James Herriot
4 min walk · Thirsk on foot
The house at 23 Kirkgate where Alf Wight lived and practised, kept as the Skeldale House of the books
Adults 10, children 5, under-3s free · allow about 1.5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about World of James Herriot
2Thirsk Museum
3 min walk · Thirsk on foot
Free volunteer-run museum in the house where Thomas Lord, founder of Lord's Cricket Ground, was born in 1755
Free entry, donations invited · allow about 45 minutes
Add to my dayRead more about Thirsk Museum
3St Mary's Church, Thirsk
6 min walk · Thirsk on foot
The town's 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic parish church at the top of Kirkgate, free to walk into
Free entry, donations welcome · allow about 30 minutes
Add to my dayRead more about St Mary's Church, Thirsk
Heritage illustration4Byland Abbey
20 min drive · Short drive
The free ruin of one of Britain's largest Cistercian abbeys, with the rose window that inspired York Minster
Free · allow about 45 minutes
Add to my dayRead more about Byland Abbey- 5
Rievaulx Abbey
40 min drive · Short drive
The most complete of England's abbey ruins, standing in a wooded valley where 600 Cistercian monks once lived
On the gate, adults pay 12.70 to 16.30 depending on the... · allow about 2 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Rievaulx Abbey - 6
Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal
35 min drive · Short drive
The largest monastic ruins in Britain set in a Georgian water garden, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of 800 acres near Ripon
Free to National Trust members, English Heritage members... · allow about 5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal - 7
Mount Grace Priory, House and Gardens
22 min drive · Short drive
The best-preserved Carthusian charterhouse in England, twenty minutes up the A19, with a reconstructed monk's cell, an Arts and Crafts house and a well-known family of stoats
Adults pay 10.79 to 13.85 depending on the day when... · allow about 1.8 hours
- 8
Middleham Castle
50 min drive · Worth the day
The Neville stronghold in Wensleydale where Richard III spent much of his childhood, built around one of the largest Norman keeps in England
Adults pay 7.65 to 9.26 depending on the day when booked... · allow about 1.3 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Middleham Castle 
9Thirsk Castle Garth
5 min walk · Thirsk on foot
What is left of a Norman motte and bailey castle, five minutes from the square, on ground that has never once been built on
Free · allow about 20 minutes
Add to my dayRead more about Thirsk Castle Garth- 10
Newburgh Priory
20 min drive · Short drive
A private house grown out of a 1145 Augustinian priory, opened for a handful of days each spring, with a water garden, a lake and a Cromwell legend
There is a small admission charge on open days, but the... · allow about 1.8 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Newburgh Priory - 11
Shandy Hall and Coxwold
20 min drive · Short drive
The parsonage where Laurence Sterne wrote Tristram Shandy, with a walled garden, a small museum and one of the prettiest villages in the county outside the door
Garden only 5, house and garden together 10 for 2026 · allow about 1.3 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Shandy Hall and Coxwold - 12
Helmsley
25 min drive · Short drive
A market town with a ruined castle above it, a five acre Georgian walled garden below, and a square of independent shops between the two
Helmsley Walled Garden adults 10 including the 1.50 gift... · allow about 4 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Helmsley 
Garden illustration13Nunnington Hall
30 min drive · Short drive
A 17th century manor on the River Rye with oak panelling, peacocks in the garden and a collection of miniature rooms that steals the show
Adults around 14.30, children aged 5 to 17 around 7.20,... · allow about 2.5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Nunnington Hall- 14
Jervaulx Abbey
32 min drive · Short drive
A privately owned Cistercian ruin left as a wild garden, with wild flowers growing out of the walls and almost no signage
An honesty box at the entrance rather than a ticket desk · allow about 1.5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Jervaulx Abbey - 15
Easby Abbey
35 min drive · Short drive
A free, unstaffed Premonstratensian ruin by the Swale, with a working parish church inside the precinct and rare medieval wall paintings
Free · allow about 1 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Easby Abbey - 16
Ripon
28 min drive · Worth the day
A small cathedral city half an hour down the A61, with an Anglo-Saxon crypt of 672 under the cathedral floor, a rebuilt Victorian workhouse museum and a market square that has been trading since the eleventh century
Cathedral free to enter with donations welcome, and a... · allow about 5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Ripon - 17
Castle Howard
35 min drive · Worth the day
The Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor house of Brideshead Revisited and Bridgerton, set in a thousand acres of parkland with temples, a mausoleum, a walled garden and a lake
House and Gardens was 27 for an adult and 13.50 for a... · allow about 5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Castle Howard - 18
Beningbrough Hall, Gallery and Gardens
40 min drive · Worth the day
A Grade I listed Baroque hall of 1716 near York with a National Portrait Gallery partnership, eight acres of garden and an Andy Sturgeon Mediterranean garden
Adult 16, or 17.60 with Gift Aid; child aged 5 to 17 is 8... · allow about 4 hours
- 19
Turkish Baths Harrogate
40 min drive · Worth the day
The only working Victorian Turkish baths in England built in Victoria's reign, still doing the job it was built for in 1897
A mixed session is 29 Monday to Thursday and 39 Friday to... · allow about 2.8 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Turkish Baths Harrogate - 20
York by Train
40 min drive · Worth the day
A car-free day in one of the great historic cities of England, 16 to 23 minutes by train from Thirsk with everything walkable from the station
Rail fares from around 8 if you book in advance, more if... · allow about 8 hours
Add to my dayRead more about York by Train 
Railway illustration21North Yorkshire Moors Railway
50 min drive · Worth the day
A 24-mile heritage line running steam and heritage diesel from Pickering through Newtondale to Levisham, Goathland and Grosmont, deep inside the North York Moors National Park
Day Rover adults 48.95 at the regular rate or 38.50 on... · allow about 6 hours
Add to my dayRead more about North Yorkshire Moors Railway- 22
Bolton Abbey
51 min drive · Worth the day
A working parish church inside a ruined priory, 62 stepping stones across the Wharfe, and one price for the whole car
The charge is per vehicle, not per person · allow about 5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Bolton Abbey - 23
Ampleforth Abbey and Orchard
25 min drive · Short drive
A working Benedictine community above the valley, free to visit, with a 200 year old heritage orchard of 1,500 trees and its own cider mill
Free to visit the abbey church, the grounds, the orchard... · allow about 2.5 hours
Add to my dayRead more about Ampleforth Abbey and Orchard
More ideas
Other ways to spend the day
The great abbey ruins near Thirsk
Six monastic ruins within an hour or so of the market square, and no two of them run the same way.
Walks from Thirsk market square
Flat riverside loops you can do in an hour, a lime avenue out to Sowerby, and the cliff-top paths above Sutton Bank when you want a view.
Things to do near Thirsk with children
Animals to feed, a vet's surgery children can play in, birds of prey flying twice a day, and enough open grass to let everyone off the lead.
What to do in Thirsk when it rains
Yorkshire being Yorkshire, this is the list people actually need.
Dog-friendly days out from Thirsk
Riverside walks, market-square mornings and a ride on the moors railway, where dogs travel for 3 pounds.
Every one of these starts or finishes well at Tea Time Cafe, 87 Market Place. Build a plan with walk times and print it for the day.