Yorkshire

A great place to start!

A big Yorkshire welcome to our expanding independent guide to the most scenically diverse region of the UK, produced for you right here in Yorkshire.

Scroll down this page to get up to date with what is going on in Yorkshire and some of the newest additions to Yorkshire.guide

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If you’re new to Yorkshire see what it has to offer on our Introduction page.

We have now added more than 1,000 places to our A to Y Gazetteer of Yorkshire. We've listed the cities and towns and now many of the villages, with links to pages providing more information or to pinpoint villages on our unique Yorkshire map.

The Home button links you to many other parts of Yorkshire.guide

And look below for our frequently updated page with some of our newest items about Yorkshire issues and events in more detail .......

Seabird spotting at Yorkshire Puffin Festival

Puffins at Flamborough North Landing, FlamboroughThe Flamborough headland in the East Riding holds the Yorkshire Puffin Festival 2025 this weekend (June 7-8).

Guided walks, boat trips and photography workshops are being organised to spot the characterful seabirds that spend a few months a year in Yorkshire. There are also many other seabirds that can be spotted from the Flamborough Cliffs Nature Reserve. There will also be an evening Dusk Wildlife Walk, puffin puppet making and storytelling.

The event is organised by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

The spectacular chalk cliffs at Flamborough form one of Yorkshire's three Heritage Coasts.

More information at the

YWT - Yorkshire Puffin Festival website.

Flamborough

Yorkshire.guide/Flamborough

Two weeks of music and arts at Swaledale Festival

A Save Our Swale guided walk in Richmond on Thursday June 5 focuses on the health of the River Swale Jervaulx Singers perform The Dream at St Andrew's Church, Aysgarth, in Wensleydale on Saturday May 31The Swaledale Festival in North Yorkshire is a two-week annual celebration of music and arts across the northern Yorkshire Dales which continues until Saturday June 7.

The Festival has been held for more than 50 years with venues in villages not just in Swaledale but also in Wensleydale and Arkengarthdale.

It offers a programme of more than 60 events including music, workshops, talks, comedy and guided walks.

Details of all events of the festival can be found at the Swaledale Festival website.

Gallery brings art to a new generation

Ferens Art Gallerty, Kingston upon HullOne of Yorkshire's foremost art galleries brings art to a new generation in a free family exhibition of digital art which opens this Saturday (May 24) and continues until Sunday September 7.

The exhibition Microworld at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull aims to immerse visitors in digital art where creative creatures respond to movements. The exhibition also offers a programme of linked events starting this Saturday (May 24) with a drop-in Family Launch Fun Day and bookable Microworld dance party workshops on Sunday (May 25).

The gallery also offers one of the UK's finest art collections spanning around 700 years of art from Renaissance to modern with some internationally renowned maritime art inbetween.

More information can be found at the Ferens Art Gallery web page.

Kingston upon Hull

Yorkshire.guide/Hull

Railway upgrade work has different changes over weekend

Click for SAT-SUN MON-FRI
Dewsbury has trains to Leeds over the weekendThere is a long summer of disruption and diversion ahead on the route of the Trans Pennine railway upgrade affecting services in many parts of Yorkshire and the changes over this weekend (June 7-8) are different to those on weekdays until June 20.

While the line is closed at Dewsbury on weekdays, the weekend closure is at Mirfield, affecting more services. This weekend there is also a line closure east of Leeds causing bus replacement of Northern services and diversion of TransPennine Express services between Leeds and York and between Leeds and Selby.

There are no trains from Huddersfield in the direction of Mirfield and Dewsbury or towards Wakefield. Replacement buses operate on those routes. There are, however, trains to stops between Dewsbury and Leeds.

TransPennine Express trains from Liverpool terminate at Huddersfield. Trains from Manchester Airport also serve the stations between Manchester and Huddersfield, where trains terminate. Trains to Hull and to Redcar start at Dewsbury also serving stops between Dewsbury and Leeds. Trains to Newcastle start at Leeds. Trains to Scarborough start at York. Northern Wigan-Manchester-Leeds trains divert via Halifax and Bradford instead of Mirfield and Dewsbury on Saturday — the route has no Sunday service.

Grand Central services to London are diverted between Bradford and Wakefield Kirkgate. Two journeys begin at Halifax before the diversion from Bradford. There are be no stops at Low Moor and fewer trains at Pontefract. Brighouse and Mirfield have bus replacements to Wakefield Kirkgate.

Buses replace trains between Huddersfield - Brighouse - Halifax, Huddersfield - Wakefield, Huddersfield - Dewsbury and a 50-minute direct bus also operates between Huddersfield and Leeds.

The weekend is the second of three affecting services via Mirfield.

On Monday the second of four weeks of no weekday trains via Dewsbury begins with similar services to last week, including diverting Trans-Pennine Express trains between Huddersfield amd Leeds.

More detail on our Yorkshire.guide interactive Rail map.

More about work on this line at the TransPennine Route Upgrade website.

Check details of your journey at the National Rail website.

Rail map

A dozen Seaside Awards for Yorkshire in 2025

The beach at Whitby has both a Blue Flag and a Seaside Award in 2025 Hornsea has a 2025 Blue Flag Withernsea has a 2025 Blue FlagOnce again a dozen Yorkshire beaches have Seaside Awards in 2025 and three Yorkshire beaches have international Blue Flag awards.

The awards each year are made by the environment charity Keep Britain Tidy — the international Blue Flags on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education.

Beaches with Seaside Awards in 2025 are Redcar (Lifeboat Station beach), Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Runswick Bay, Sandsend, Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay, Scarborough (North Bay), Cayton Bay, Filey, South Landing at Flamborough, Bridlington (North beach) and (Wilsthorpe beach). The awards are presented to England's best beaches.

Whitby together with Hornsea and Withernsea have the Blue Flag, the world’s most recognised award for beaches, marinas and bathing waters which are measured against the highest bathing water standards of the European Union. The award highlights beaches with like standards across the world.

Find out more on our Seaside page.

Seaside

Yorkshire.guide/seaside

Year of events in City of Culture

The Bradford Live entertainment venue Bradford, West Yorkshire's second-largest city, continues its year as UK City of Culture 2025 which began with a big opening show in January.

2025 sees the city and surrounding metropolitan district present hundreds of arts performances and events during the year.

Look back at the opening show at this Bradford City of Culture page.

Find out more about events taking place at the official Bradford 2025 - UK City of Culture website.

Bradford

Yorkshire.guide/Bradford

New National Nature Reserve in West Yorkshire

The iconic Ilkley Moor is part of the new Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature ReserveA collection of eight natural areas of the Bradford metropolitan district of West Yorkshire have recently been declared one of the King's Series of National Nature Reserves.

Eight separate sites make up the reserve named the Bradford Pennine Gateway and they include Ilkley Moor with its iconic Cow and Calf Rocks. The sites, covering nearly five square miles in total, feature moorland, woodlands wetlands and meadows.

As well as Ilkley Moor there are areas at Baildon Moor above Baildon, Bingley Bog North near to the Five Rise Locks at Bingley, Penistone Hill Country Park near Haworth, Shipley Glen and the nearby Trench Meadows between Bingley, Baildon and Saltaire, the St Ives Country Park at Harden and Harden Moor, which has a bronze age stone circle.

Discover Yorkshire castles

Richmond Castle, North YorkshireYorkshire is a region of fine stone castles, though much of this grand architecture has been reduced to ruins during turbulent times in the region's past.

The castles are rich in their history as homes in times of peace and strongholds in times of civil war. Some still dominate the landscape while in some locations there is now little evidence of their darkest days.

Our Castles page tells you more about their history, which castles have open access and those with an admissions policy. You can follow our links to the castle managers' own websites to check when the sites are open, admission prices and if you need to book before your visit.

Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire (featured in our picture) is one of the finest and most complete Norman castles in Britain, around which the town of Richmond developed. Its vast square keep, 100ft (30 metres) high, is a dominant feature of the town with magnificent views.

Castles
Yorkshire.guide/castles

Yorkshire's railway heritage stretches beyond 200 years

The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railwayWhile a "Railway 200" celebration is launched by Network Rail in 2025 as the "200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway" it is worth remembering that the railway history of Yorkshire stretches back many decades before then.

The anniversary marks the 200th anniversary of The Stockton & Darlington Railway which was opened on September 27, 1825, on a route between the two towns in historic County Durham but was later extended into Yorkshire and the port of Middlesbrough.

Yorkshire however can trace its railway history back long before 1825.

The Middleton Railway, near Leeds, has the distinction of being the world's oldest continuously working railway, established 67 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1758.

It became the first railway to the authorised by an act of Parliament, the Middleton Railway Act 1757.

Blenkinsop's 1812 rack locomotive Salamanca From 1829 engraving. Public domain source at Wikimedia Commons It initially operated as a horse-drawn waggon-way to take coal from the Middleton collieries towards Leeds. But the steam age also arrived earlier in Yorkshire, when in 1812, some 13 years before the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the Middleton railway operated the first successful commercial steam locomotive.

The locomotive Salamanca was the first of four built for the colliery railway. With its twin-cylinder design it was more sophisticated than the experimental steam locomotives of Richard Trevithick a few years earlier. The locomotives were designed and built in Leeds by Matthew Murray to work with a rack railway track which had been designed and patented by John Blenkinsop, the colliery manager.

The Middleton Railway today runs as a heritage passenger line with a museum at its Moor Road station revealing its long history. The line reopened after winter maintenance on Saturday April 5.

The Penistone Line Partnership is running a viaduct photography competition Scarborough has the world's longest station seatThe Keighley and Worth Valley Railway steam galaA train at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway's recent steam galaAs part of the Railway 200 celebrations the Middleton Railway will be hosting a series of three evening talks during May, June and July commemorating the contribution of Leeds to the development of the railways. The railway is also restoring the world's smallest standard gauge diesel locomotive, built 90 years ago by the Hunslet Engine Co, to mark the pioneering role Leeds played also in diesel locomotive development.

Many other Railway 200 events are taking place to celebrate railway heritage in Yorkshire, including a viaducts photography competition on the Penistone Line which runs between West and South Yorkshire, art and photography exhibitions, drama, rail tours and even a student attempt to seat as many people as possible on the world's longest station seat at Scarborough station.

More about Railway 200 at Network Rail.

More about the Middleton Railway.

More about the Penistone Line Partrnership Viaducts Photography Competition.

Heritage Railways

Yorkshire mixture

Here are links to a few of the most popular pages at Yorkshire.guide:

Cities Largest towns and cities Population Gazetteer Abbeys Castles Film locations Forest of Bowland Heritage Coast Heritage railways Highest mountains Historic Houses Howardian Hills Museums Nidderdale North Pennines North York Moors Peak District Racecourses Seaside York Yorkshire Dales Yorkshire football Railway stations

On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at

If you’re from Yorkshire you will probably recognise our background picture as the Cow and Calf Rocks on Ilkley Moor, famous as the location of the Yorkshire dialect anthem "On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at". More on Ilkley.

Yorkshire news topics

ARCHIVED
Bus rebranding plan: Weaver Network follows route of West Yorkshire's industrial past

Election 2025 results: Success for Reform UK in local elections in a few parts of Yorkshire.

Pennine Way 60: Anniversary of long-distance walking route with more than 100 miles in Yorkshire.

Bradford City of Culture: Opening show for West Yorkshire city named City of Culture 2025.

News archive 2024: News from 2024.

News archive 2023: News from 2023.

News archive 2022: News from 2022.

News archive 2021: News from 2021.

News archive 2020: News from 2020.

News archive 2019: News from 2019.

News archive 2018: News from 2018.

News archive 2017: News from 2017.

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