Harrogate is gracious and rather grand, a sophisticated Georgian gem and Victorian spa town a stone’s throw from the medieval city of Ripon with its surreal wood carvings, sitting in an official Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The charming old market towns of Boroughbridge, Knaresborough, Masham and Pateley Bridge are also on the radar. Whether you’re into spending time in the surrounding rugged natural beauty or exploring the ultimate in urban sophistication, Harrogate has it all.
Great public transport links
Harrogate railway station opened in 1862, a magnificent edifice designed by architect Thomas Prosser and the town’s first brick building. These days there’s so sign of the original design but it’s still a station, good news for public transport users with regular services to Leeds, London and York as well as local destinations.
A fresh green town in constant bloom
The town’s manicured parks and gardens are a legend in their own right, offering gorgeous displays all year round to complement the immaculately kept streets, smart shops and gleaming windows. An enormous 200 acre open space surrounds the entire town centre, nicknamed The Stray and giving this place powerful lungs. The air here is remarkably fresh. Grade II listed Valley Gardens is a gem, attracting 3 million people every year all on its own.
RHS Harlow Carr Gardens is a must-see for anyone who adores the green stuff. It has its own bird hide to watch the resident and migrating birds do their thing, an annual flower show, outdoor theatre, guided walks, discovery trails, planting and wildlife workshops, exhibits, displays and demonstrations.
Stockeld Park is another magical destination, just out of town and a fun time for grown ups and kids. In summer it’s all about treetop nets and zip lines, a cool Enchanted Forest full of tree sculptures and exciting interactive play areas. Plus a lake with boat rides, spaces to picnic, stunning gardens and a spookily good Halloween season. There’s a scary mummy maze, the Enchanted Forest turns into a ghostly surprise, and as winter approaches the Park veers off into festive themed fun including ice skating and illuminated pathways. Basically there’s loads to do every season.
Perfect for nature lovers, the countless delights of the Yorkshire Dales are right on the doorstep, heavenly for hikers and a thrill per second for anyone into extreme sports and rugged outdoor pursuits. Mountain biking, pony trekking, rock climbing, abseiling or simply lying in the heather drinking in the endless views and vast skies are all on the menu. Travel deep enough into the Dales and you can easily be the only people around for miles.
Stunning old buildings and world-class spas
Architecture fans enjoy the mellow Georgian and fancy Victorian homes and civic buildings, also beautifully preserved. Don’t miss the world-renowned Turkish Baths and Health Spa, which have been making visitors feel great since the 1800s. The spa treatments, as you’d expect from Harrogate, are quite something.
The 1800s Pump Room was built to welcome Victorian visitors, now a museum telling the story of the town’s spa history. Wander over to the nearby Mercer Gallery afterwards for more history plus centuries’ worth of great art to admire. Then there’s popular Rudding Park Spa, one of England’s best. Their Roof Top Spa and Garden offers everything from thermotherapy and hydrotherapy to an indoor pool, juniper log sauna, bucket shower, mud rasul, manicure, pedicure, make up bar, hair studio and stunning treatment rooms. What a treat for the mind, body and spirit.
Classy retail therapy and exceptional cuisine
Then there’s the shopping. Harrogate and first class retail therapy go hand in hand, with all sorts of retail treats in store, some the ultimate in international luxury and others celebrating local creativity. It is also a top destination for foodies and lovers of the finest booze, known for marvellous food and drink, including a huge range of delicious local produce from cheeses to honey, gins to preserves.
Elegant afternoon teas
Afternoon tea doesn’t come a lot better than Betty’s, a tea room so well known it is a tourist highlight in its own right. Dating back to 1919, Betty’s was conceived by a young Swiss baker and confectioner, Fritz Bützer, who had decided to seek his fortune in England. Having put down new roots in Harrogate, he changed his name to Frederick Belmont and became a Chocolate Specialist, opening his tea room in 1919 after marrying his landlady’s daughter.
Bizarre Brimham Rocks
Brimham Rocks is close to town, mentioned in the Domesday Book as Birnebeam, which suggests it was once woodland so dense it couldn’t be farmed or lived on. In the 1200s the monks from Fountains Abbey – another superb historic attraction – grazed their cattle and sheep amongst the rocks.
Expect a spectacle and you won’t be disappointed. The Brimham Rocks site is a suite of giant rock formations created by a huge river dating back 100 million years before the first dinosaurs, sculpted over 350 million years of climate chaos and plate tectonics. Smooth and rounded with a gritty surface, they’ve formed into strange shapes with names to match: the Dancing Bear, Gorilla, Eagle, Turtle, Smartie Tube and the dizzyingly high Rocking Stones. The rocks and the surrounding landscape are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, loved by kids who scramble on the formations and adults who enjoy photographing and marvelling at them.
The rock you’re standing on was once a huge mountain range. It was eroded into a warm equatorial sea then turned into Millstone Grit rock – used to make old-school millstones – over millions of years being squashed and hardened. The enormous holes were made by violent, fast river waters swirling around rocks in the ancient river, and the weird tunnels made by over-sized tree roots buried in the silt before it became rock.
When North Africa collided with Europe 25-50 million years ago, rocks in what is now northern England broke under the stress. Eagle Rock is a good example. You can see where the two rocks once fitted together perfectly. And the last ice age, between 18 and 30 thousand years ago, saw the millstone rock resist the ice that ground the softer rocks away, leaving the stones we see today standing high above the surrounding landscape.
There’s nowt quite like Harrogate
Harrogate’s gorgeous river, lovely arched bridge, tunnels and wells, theatres, gardens, fab pubs, memorials and statues, hotels and spas, shops and restaurants make it an exclusive destination to enjoy the finer things in life, surrounded by some of the county’s most dramatic natural splendours. As the locals say, there’s nowt quite like Harrogate.
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