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?

Whitby is lovely but far too busy and a tad overrated. York is well worth a visit, to add to the other recommendations, Clifford's Tower is great and has an amazing 360 degrees view of York.

It’s a 17th century house, and a fair bit of the original structure survived the 1989 fire, although you’re right in as much as there was a lot of reconstruction and restoration work carried out.

I'd suggest one of the many industrial heritage sites such as

Ironbridge and Blists Hill
Beamish
One of the many steam railways
National Railway museum
Science Museum
York castle museum
Tower Bridge
Brunel's SS Great Britain
Black country living museum
Quarry bank mill
Anderton boat lift

I find York an absolute nightmare these days, nowhere to park/unreliable park & ride, crowded streets. But of course the big things like the walls and Minster and Jorvik are still there. I think it works better if you are going by train.

HMS Victory tour in Portsmouth. Staffed by retired navy servicemen. Also HMS Belfast in London.
We are v fortunate to have so many varied and interesting places to visit.

Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Hever Castle. The castles on the south east coast - also has the white cliffs.

Definitely Avebury (NT) instead of Stonehenge.
Then down to Salisbury for the cathedral and the Magna Carta.
Next head west to Wells for the Cathedral, Bishop’s palace gardens and just the general vibe with a good range of independent shops.
On to Glastonbury for the myths, the Tor and the new age woo.
From there head to Bath for Georgian architecture, Jane Austen vibes and a visit to the Roman Baths, plus a visit at Thermae Spa taking in the waters, and Afternoon tea at the Pump Rooms.
Finally, detour to Lacock village and abbey (NT) for a medieval hit.

If you going up north, maybe a drive to Glencoe for some stunning scenery, plus a visit to Loch Ness to hunt for Nessie.

I'm from York and love it. Could combine with a trip on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to Whitby, and a visit to Castle Howard.
The Tower of London and Hampton Court are two of my favourite places. There's so much history in both.

Lincoln has some lovely historical gems...
The Guildhall - a fabulous tour takes you through the history of the city and how significant it was centuries ago. They have some amazing regalia too. It's in the city centre near the shops and if you've been to Lincoln, you've probably walked under The Guildhall as it's know as the Stone bow.
The Cathedral - it looks magnificent as the sun shines on it. Beautiful stained glass and wonderful to visit.
The Castle - another site that has a fascinating history and it's still used as a (law) court today. You can walk the castle walls & see some fabulous views.

I always think of Lincoln as York's quiet, unassuming cousin! Well worth a visit.

Has anyone else been to Lincoln?

Northumberland castles Warkworth, Bamburgh, Dunstanborough

beamish ! Absolutely love it there

Dover Castle is an amazing and full day out. As long as they’re not from Italy or similar Roman-heavy place, Richborough near Dover is a good afternoon out.

what about a few days on the Isle of Wight? On the way do as much of Portsmouth’s attractions as you can, then Osborne House, Carisbrooke Castle, dinosaur stuff and all the lovely tourist things there.

Hamton Court, Tower of London, Dover Castle, Portsmouth Harbour. All full days out and very interesting.

Arundel Castle. We used to go on holiday nearby when I was a kid. Always loved it since then.

I agree with this! I went there for the first time last year and loved it.

I also agree with the Yorkshire recommendations. I previously did a trip around the North York Moors and then went to the Dales afterwards. If you head up there, it's lovely to stop at the baths in Harrogate (don't forget a trip to Betty's tea house) and I also loved Rievaulx Abbey (my favourite of the three we visited - we also went to Whitby Abbey and Fountains Abbey). There's a lot to see up there, we didn't manage it all!

Go to Harrogate and visit the Turkish baths
https://www.turkishbathsharrogate.co.uk/

Could have a potter around the town or go to the valley gardens or Ripley Castle.

Then over to Brimham Rocks and Fountains Abbey / Studley Royal.
https://share.google/2WGdDHnVAMaWnTg9j

Then make your way over to Whitby, maybe stop at the north york moors railway

Go back south via York for the Minster and a walk round the walls

That would be a nice few days exploring north Yorkshire, although there are lots of other good bits!

As others have said, you can fly easily to Orkney or Shetland.
Hire cars are plentiful, but expect older cars often rather than brand new. Orkney has great bus service.
Accomodation is pretty good, but limited the further out from capitals that you get.
Both Orkney and Shetland have good ferries between all the islands, and a few internal flights as well.
While summer can have better weather, all things relative being closer to artic than to London. Pack your waterproofs and a warm hat.
I found some of the more out the way places were easily as good as the more famous places to visit.
Enjoy!

HMS Victory

https://www.historichouses.org is a good website for many historic houses. Chatsworth is the best one I have been to.

Places love Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Isle of Skye, Isles of Scilly. If visiting in July it's puffin season (Skomer or Farne Island etc) and end of July it's Sandringham Flower Show.

Waddesden Manor. The number 1 property owned by The National Trust.

Winchester, Salisbury, the Roman villa at Fishbourne.

I used to work near there. My locally born colleague always described Waddesdon as ‘the evil Chateau on the hill’.

Oooh @SabrinaThwaite why??

Leeds Castle has beautiful grounds and the castle is great. If there are children in the group, there is a fantastic playground and a maze. You can also do other activities there like go ape I think.

I’m sure he elaborated at the time but I’ve forgotten - it might have been that anything unfortunate that happened to you or your family could be attributed to the new lords of the manor, or it might just have been a leg pulling exercise.