Favourite historical site to visit in the UK

[AntonDuPig]

Planning ahead for the coming summer, we'll have overseas visitors who would love to explore our green and pleasant land!
So please can you tell me what you consider to be your must visit sites?

Stonehenge and Salisbury could be a full day out (Not sure if the copy of Magna carta is still in Salisbury Cathedral?)

If you can do a longer trip you could go to south Wales and visit The Big Pit (mine) St Fagans National Museum of History.

I see you've already done Cornwall or I'd recommend Tintagel.

If you're going North York is good and full of History and combine with a visit to Yorkshire moors perhaps if they like walking/nature. Or go to the coast and visit Whitby and Robin Hoods bay?

St davids in Pembrokeshire and Pembroke castle. York. Hever castle and Chiddingstone in Kent. St Pauls Cathedral. Cambridge.

@Jamesblonde2 Absolutely!
Some of these we have visited ourselves but am loving all the recommendations, especially the London ones as I work there but rarely have time to be tourist.
I can see myself working through the list, even without our visitors 😄

If you want to revisit the peak District, you can cover a lot of history.

There's lots of pre-mediaeval stuff if you know where to look but it's not always very spectacular! But there are some really interesting Anglo-Saxon carvings etc at some churches - Bakewell and Wirksworth spring to mind.

For more recent history, combine Chatsworth and Hardwick halls (they belonged to the same family but are very different). Then go to Masson and Cromford mills on the river Derwent - the birthplace of the industrial revolution (though Quarry Bank mill in Cheshire has more working machinery etc). Derby is surprisingly good for a day trip - Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire is buried there, and there's some good museums and the old silk mill. There's a good choice of places to stay in the Peaks too.

Warwick Castle
Stratford upon Avon
then Broadway/Chipping Camden
Cirencester - stopping at the roman ruins on the way
Then onto Bath
then down to ~Laycock

I would not bother with Stonehenge.
It is £££ and you get to stand at a rope with dozens of people taking selfies.

For ancient sites
Avebury / West Kennet (Silbury cannot be climbed)
Salisbury and Old Sarum
Knowlton / Badbury / Danebury
Cerne Abbas is a lovely village
and of course Glastonbury Tor

Cambridge and east Anglia.

walsingham in particular is lovely, was a medieval pilgrimage site and has many many churches of various denominations as well as the Anglican Church which has the holy spring in it and an icon. Good second hand bookshop as well.

Kentwell hall which is out by bury at Edmund’s (good shopping and an old abbey) does Tudor re-enactments each summer where people live there got three weeks and dress and live and work as the tudirs would. Can’t recommend it enough.

sutton hoo as well.

Tower of London.

If you work in London but tend not explore, try this one
https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/hidden-london

Hampton Court

I've been to York many times and don't understand the allure. It always seems over-hyped and over touristy, and don't get me started on the one way system.

Northumberland: Bamburgh, Alnwick, Holy Island beat it hands down.

Agree with Chatsworth and detour to Bakewell. Not far away is a super boutique hotel The Bulls Head at Holymoorside. Fabulous menu. One of our favourites en-route to the north.

Northumberland -

bambrugh castle is amazing. Been in use since Saxon times. Lovely beach as well. Holy island is also quite close (you need to watch the tides on f driving) and has the remains of the monastery that was the site of the first Viking attack on Britain.

There is also Alnwick castle and gardens including the poison garden - they do tours of this and it’s really worth going to.

beamish open air museum of Victorian times - great to wander around and they have buses and steam trains.

@Deliberations We have not been to Tintagel!
It's on the list, thanks 🙂

For a day out which must be fairly local to you, St Albans Abbey & the Veruliam Museum are both interesting and, whilst only an hour or so each, are within easy walking distance of each other and there are plenty of places for lunch in St A too.
Another local option would be Berkhamsted, a canal side walk and the castle

York Minster.

Any period of history or types of site in particular they have an interest in?

Ancient burial chamber is quite different to an NT Georgian townhouse?

Anyway throwing in the hat for south wales road trip- the stat is apparently more castles per square mile than anywhere else in Europe (which depending on how you define castle surely means anywhere in the world?).

Plus everything from burial chambers to roman forts, to 20th century mining pits, via pretty old towns like tenby, Cowbridge etc.

St Fagans is basically 2000 years of Welsh buildings in one museum (and free!). Cardiff Castle is a 2 for 1 - buy a Norman keep and get a bonus gothic revival victorian castle 😀 There's a tiny hamlet in Bridgend that is a bit of a hidden gem - basically all thatched cottages but without all the tourists of Lacock, castle coombe/bibury etc.

There aren't loads of NT type houses but Powis Castle is NT and lovely, or travelling from London you could hit up one of the ones near oxford/Bristol (and thise cities themselves which also have a lot of history) on the way.

Or alternativ could do Liverpool/chester and then North Wales.

City of London - London without the masses of tourists
St Paul's and all the other Wren churches, many of them tucked away down little side streets
Guildhall Art Gallery and the Roman amphitheatre

If you've been to Cornwall with them I expect you've 'done' the seaside, but if they live far from the sea they may not appreciate its importance in English history. The Kent coast from Thanet to Folkestone has 2000 years of history in a few miles. You can take in Canterbury too. If you're North of London you can get high speed trains from St Pancras if you don't fancy tackling the M25.

Also, depending on where they are from, a trip to the First World War battlefields and cemeteries in France or Belgium?

Ring of Brodgar in Orkney

@latetothefisting

Any period of history or types of site in particular they have an interest in?

Not really. They are lazy happy to go with whatever itinerary we suggest, which is why I've come to you all for your personal recommendations.

Agree that we are very lucky to have such an abundance of places and sites to visit.

I was going to say Kentwell Hall, not just the Tudor re-enactments but the other periods they do, the multiperiod events with everything from prehistoric to 1980s are incredible.

And it goes well with either Cambridge or the medieval wool towns like Lavenham which are so well preserved and atmospheric.

Would a few nights in Edinburgh be out of the question? Very different to England and easy enough on the train.

Definitely York and some little north Yorkshire villages.

Liverpool is a bit different, plenty of 'proper' history and more modern cultural history.

@ChristmasHug Edinburgh is one of my very favourite places! We have been three times and would definitely go again if they so wish.

Also been to
Bamburgh Castle and Holy Island.
Have not been to Whitby but would love to.
Have not been to Liverpool, but would love to.
Also any recommendations for the Dorset Coast?
We've done a day trip to Lyme Regis decades ago, but would love to revisit!

All be Welsh recommendations have been duly noted.
We plan to stay somewhere for 5-7 days and explore (hence this post now, so I can start booking!)

Dunstanburgh castle
Whitby (walk to Sandsend and sit in a cafe there)
Durham
Montacute House then walk round the village and out to Ham Hill.
North Wales for the castles and scenery
Middleham Castle

I like castles.

Another vote for Avebury here.

Dorset : Base yourselves in Bridport.

Walk down to West Bay
Take in Burton Bradstock and Hive Beach
Drive along to the Swannery at Abbotsbury then down Chesil Beach and explore Portland

Another outing up to Dorchester and Maiden Castle and Cerne Abbas

Another trip along to Lyme Regis and across the border into Sidmouth

Head back home via Purbeck - Corfe Casle, Kimmeridge Bay, the Etches Collection
and maybe Brownsea Island for the red squirrels

Have not been to Whitby but would love to.

I've been to Whitby twice, both times late June/early July. Both times it was very, very busy, to the point it was difficult/uncomfortable to walk around because of the crowds. Problem is, it's a very narrow location, along two sides of a river, with nowhere for visitors to spread out.

(And the public loos cost 50p and of course no-one had a 50p piece!)