Advice on car rental and must sees in northern England

Check prices and other details with other companies like Hertz before you book your rental, but Arnold Clark is a company you should consider.

Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms started in York, but now has several locations in the UK. For afternoon tea, that’s your place.

Thank you! Arnold Clark was the name I could not remember.

The ruins of Fountains Abbey are well worth a visit, as is Castle Howard. Both are drivable from York.

You should also look at Celtic Legend, a company closely associated with Arnold Clark and use their cars but sometimes have better deals.

You will have access to Britain’s best supermarket, Booths. They have several stores in the Lakes and two in Yorkshire, in Settle and Ilkley.

Betty’s does have a cafe in York (used to have 2) but the original cafe is in Harrogate.

Pickering - a busy market town with a good range of shops. Russells cafe and bakery, 20 Market Place is highly recommended. Buy your picnic lunch here. There is Pickering Castle and also Pickering Church which has medieval wall Paintings.

This is also the terminus of the North York Moors Railway, a preserved steam railway, which is a wonderful run across the Moors to Goathland and Grosmont and then onto Whitby. Definitely worth doing

Helmsley is just a short drive - again another small market town but more tourist orientated than Pickering. There is the ruined Helmsley Castle. The church is also worth a quick look. Helmsley Walled Garden is a lovely place to drop out.
If you are walkers there is a lovely walk along the river to Rievaulx Abbey .This is one of the Great Yorkshire Abbeys and well worth visitng.

Other ruined abbeys to consider are Byland Abbey and also Mount Grace Priory. This is a bit different to the other abbeys as it belonged to the Carthusians. The monks lived as hermits and each had his own cell with a small garden attached where they worked, prayed and slept. They only time they joined the other monks was for services. You can still see the individual cellls around the cloister and one has been restored giving an impression as to what it would have been like to licve in as a monk.

St Andrews Church in Middleton (just down the road from Pickering) has some of the best carved Viking crosses in England.

St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale is also worth finding. This is just off the A170 between Nawton and Kirkbymoorside . There is a small sign off the A 170 just to the east of Nawton. Coming from Nawton, continue straight on along the unclassified road when the A170 bends right. Continue straight at the next two road junctions and then bear left at the fork to find the church. (See the map at the end of this article.)

It’s a delightful setting tucked away in a deep valley. There has been a church here since 750Ad although the present church was built between 1055-1065, complete with its 1000 year old sundial above the door. Inside it is a small and unchanged church with very old tomb slab.

Ryedale Folk Museum is also worth visiting. This is an open air folk museum in Hutton le Hole which must be one of the prettiest villages in the North York Moors with a stream running down the centre. (It is the equal of anywhere in the Cotswolds...) More than 20 buildings have been rebuilt here including a street scene with old shops and photography studio as well as rural buildings from small farms to larger manor houses. There is even a full scale replica of an Iron Age round house... Allow plenty of time for a visit as there is a lot to see. Also choose a dry day as there is little shelter around the sirte apart from in the houses! There is no cafe on the site, but the Barn Tearoom close by is highly recommended!

Completely different is Eden Camp, on the outskirts of Malton . A WW2 prisoner of war camp has been turned into an excellcent museum with each of the different huts covering different aspects of the history of WW2 from the rise of the Nazi party to VJ day. This also includes life at home as well as Prisoners of War. The remit has been extended to include the Korean War, Suez, the Falklands and Kosova.

You can easily spend a full day here as there are also examples of military vehicles, aircraft, gins etc around the site. There is something for everyone.

Well, I need to visit the Harrogate Betty’s ;-)

You should take the free tour of York that is given by locals. The one I took walked on the wall.

Cyn - there are 2 Betty’s in Harrogate (note spelling). The original in the centre of town and one at RHS Harlow Carr garden on the western edge of town. The gardens are well worth visiting themselves.

As John writes above , rent Arnold Clark via Celtic Legend , the arrangement is a better deal that way

I doubt you will be able to rent a hammer, especially as you need it in three different locations. As regards Cumbria/the Lake District you could contact the Cumberland Geological Society via their website and ask for their advice.
As I understand it the best coastal place in Cumbria for fossils is a village called Parton.
Not the most exciting village, even if it does have 2 good WW1 stories to its name.
If you went there you could stay a night at Moresby Hall (just up from Parton)- a real authentic old Manor House.
They have non dynamic pricing, always the same very reasonable rate.

Parton is only 30 minutes or so drive from Keswick.

Your husband would probably enjoy the Threlkeld Quarrying Museum.

I spent 10 days in the northeastern county of Northumberland in Aug. 2026/. I will limit my comments to Hadrian's Wall. There is such an abundance of sites along Hadrian's Wall. I recommend that you do a little research and think through what interests you most. I visited Housesteads, Vindolanda, briefly stopped at the wall at Steel Rigg, and did a 30 minute there and back walk along the wall from Cawfields Quarry.

I found that seeing the wall itself interested me more than seeing the ruins of the Roman fort at Housesteads and Vindolanda. It may be the opposite for you. The collection at Vindolanda's museum is very impressive. Although I did not see it, the Roman Army Museum also is highly regarded.

What I can say categorically is that the car park at Steel Rigg is VERY small and tight. Many people seemed to be starting hikes from there. I chose to view the wall but not hike from there because: 1. the wind was brutally cold, even though it was early August and 2. that stretch of the wall hike seemed to be very up and down, and I didn't have a hiking stick.

In contrast, the car park at Cawfields Quarry (only a few miles west of Steel Rigg and Housesteads) has many more parking places, and the immediate hike from there east is not as vertical. At that point the wall overlooks a farm. I found it lovely and not at all crowded at 9:00 a.m. on a weekday.

We visited all those places several years ago after renting a car at Heathrow.
York is my favorite city in the UK.
Don't miss the Minster and The National Railway Museum.
We stayed at The Minster Hotel walking distance from the north gate, it had parking for our car and the breakfasts were super.
We rented from Europcar but I don't recommend them.
Best to compare more than one choice. Highly recommend that you have a navigation system on your car, unless your phone has a similar system that is reliable.
We rented from Budget on another shorter trip and it was good.

Also, consider a day visit in Durham.

I’d agree with Elizabeth that the walk east from Cawfields car part is one of the best. This is one of the better preserved sections of wall standing 3-4’ high Not only is there the remains of a milecastle, you also get 360˚ views across Northumberland and It tends to be less busy than Steel Rigg. It is about a mile a mile to the road at Shield on the Wall. This is the best section and is very easy walking. If you only walk one bit of the wall, make it this bit!

Beyond Shield on the Wall, the wall is less well preserved and is more like an ordinary field wall. It also begins to climb towards Winshields Crag at the highest point. of the wall. There are several smaller summits to scale on the way and it is a lot more strenuous walking. With the time you have available, this isn't worth doing.

The Old School House in Haltwhistle is recommend for B&B

If you are feeling energetic there is a lovely walk up Haltwhistle Burn to the Milecastle Inn on the B3618. Cawfields is signed across the road. with the walk to Shield on the Hill this would make a really nice morning. The Milecastle Inn opens at 12 o'clock so this would be a good place for lunch! (It also has accommodation if you don't want to stop in Haltwhistle.)

If visiting Housesteasds Roman Fort, don’t miss the latrines. There was a constant flow of water through them and the bowls were for damping a sponge - there being no toilet paper...

You can also walk west along the wall from Housesteads past another milecastle to Hotbank Crags towards Crag Lough and Steel Rigg. (Yes the climb up from Steel Rigg is steep!)

Fossil collecting - You need to check the regulations for this. Collecting loose fossils from a beach like Parton Bay mentioned by isn31c is OK but hammering into bedrock or a non-loose cliff faces does requires explicit landowner permission. You could be prosecuted for stealing if you remove fossils without permission.

Many geological and quarry sites inside and bordering the Lake District carry SSSI status where hammering, excavating, or removing rock/fossils is strictly prohibited or requires explicit consent from Natural England. This also applies to other SSSI sites in England designated for their geology.

There is information about collecting fossils along the north Yorkshire coast here. Fossil hunting is permitted for personal, non-commercial use, provided you collect only loose surface material and avoid damaging cliffs, bedrock, or protected structures.

Yorkshire Coast Rocks offers fossil hunting tours.

There is some general information here which you may find helpful.