Over the Moors to Northumberland

We travel the short distance to RHS Harlow Carr where we will enjoy a guided tour. This handsome and well-wooded site encompasses a rose garden, a bulb garden, an arboretum, rockeries and trial gardens. In the afternoon we transfer to York for free time, though many of us will wish to visit the National Railway Museum, home to the world’s largest collection of railway memorabilia from tickets and posters to giant locomotives.

From Pickering, we’ll enjoy a one-way trip to Whitby on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, as featured on Channel 5’s TV series The Yorkshire Steam Railway, reopened in 1973 by the North York Moors Historical Railway Trust. On arrival in the pretty harbour town of Whitby, famous for its association with Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, we will enjoy some free time before visiting a full-size replica of Captain James Cook’s bark Endeavour. We return to our hotel by coach.

After breakfast we transfer to Skipton, the starting point for our two-hour journey by diesel train over the famous Settle and Carlisle Railway. Highlights include the 24-arch Ribblehead Viaduct, 2,629 yard-long Blea Moor Tunnel, the Dent Head Viaduct and the summit at Aisgill, the highest point reached by main-line trains in England. On arrival in Carlisle we rejoin our coach and head east for our hotel in Newcastle, travelling via the road which runs parallel to Hadrian’s Wall.

After breakfast we depart for a guided tour of Alnwick Garden, a unique garden project inspired by the Duchess of Northumberland, which has established itself as one of the most notable gardens in England. There will also be an opportunity to visit Barter Books, one of the largest second-hand bookshops in Europe, which is uniquely housed in the former Alnwick Railway Station. We continue north along the dramatic Northumberland coast to Bamburgh Castle, one of the largest inhabited castles in the country and which houses a unique collection of artwork, ceramics and objets d’art.

This morning we head south of Newcastle for a visit to the North of England Open Air Museum at Beamish, which vividly recreates life in the North of England in the 19th and early 20th centuries, where costumed staff demonstrate a past way of life. Following our visit here our coach will return to our hotel and to the railway station in Newcastle to allow guests to depart independently for home.