Day trips from York including Haworth

Hi vlkilgore -

I suppose it depends where you wanted to get to (apart from Howarth), and I assume car hire is not really an option (you really, really don’t need a car in the centre of York!). While most places are served by either train or bus, it’s the frequency of them that’s the issue. For instance, if going to Howarth you’d have to take several trains from York to get to Keighley and then take the privately owned and relatively infrequent Keighley and Worth Valley Railway to get to Howarth (you’d then have a long steep climb up to the Parsonage museum, Howarth is built on the side of a hill and the railway station is at the bottom). Buses, from my own limited investigations, tend to be so infrequent as to be not worth considering. If you wanted to visit Top Withens - the alleged site of Wuthering Heights, although it has a large plaque on the wall suggesting that while it may be the setting of the WH the original house bore no relation to the building Emily Bronte describes in the book! - then you are faced with a several hours long hike onto the moors and back to visit the moorland ruins. You could speed things up with a taxi or, if really lucky, an appropriately timed bus, by starting from Stanbury.

What concerns me most here is that you’d probably spend more time actually getting to and from sites, than you would be there, especially in the case of Howarth. But take for instance, Fountains Abbey, another excellent site a little closer to York. You’d still have to catch the bus to Ripon and connect with another bus to take you to the Abbey. Time consuming and not always ‘joined up’ transport. You could of course take taxis, but that gets expensive pretty quickly. Or you could walk the three miles or so from Ripon!

For that reason I’d say to max out your time and for pure convenience I’d suggest tours, at least for the more far flung places, like Howarth.

Have you got a ‘hit list’ of places to visit from York? If so, let us know and I’m sure we can advise on what’s possible to get to where, as I’m also aware that taking a large number of tours also gets expensive quickly.

Feel free to ask away! Although for bus and train timetables we need Stuart (isn31c) to weigh in - he’s encyclopaedic! As is Nigel!

Ian

What I would do personally to get to Haworth from York is to catch a York to Blackpool train every hour, as far as Hebden Bridge.

It leaves at 23 minutes past each hour for its 75 minute journey, arriving at 39 past.

There Bus #B3 leaves from the station forecourt at 10 minutes past each hour for the 30 minute journey to Haworth, returning at 19 minutes past each hour.

The return train leaves at xx43, but there is also an xx15 change at Leeds- very slightly longer overall journey time.

Other buses run from Keighley (the B3 in the other direction, the B2 and the B1- so every 20 minutes combined frequency) but it's a 10 minute walk from Keighley Rail Station to Bus Station.

The 'B' in the Bus number stands for 'Bronte'.

York to Keighley by train is a 1 hour journey, twice an hour, changing at Leeds.

So you could go out via Hebden Bridge, return via Keighley or vv.

If you timed it to come back on the steam train (so a downhill walk to the station) the steam and the 'normal' trains use the same station at Keighley- just over the bridge.

EDIT- the hourly bus B1, above, continues on to Stanbury from Haworth.

For Fountains Abbey go on a Sunday when there is a direct dalesbus from York, #822. After the Abbey take the same bus back to Ripon for the afternoon or even the scenic run to Grassington or Pateley Bridge.

There you go! Encyclopaedic! Thanks Stuart!

Ian

Regarding the Brontes I have been in the broader Keighley area today, visiting some off the beaten track places, on a request from my London office.
And I found out that their birth place at 72 to 74 Market Street, Thornton is now owned by a trust. They are current!y creating a museum there which they hope to open in 2025.
Thornton is a village in the outer suburbs of Bradford, easily accessed by bu

www.brontebirthplace.com

York has so many options! I also found it easy to get to Castle Howard and back by bus - a 1 hr ride each way.

If you're a James Herriot fan then his museum in Thirsk is easily reached by bus from York. Trains go there too but the station is about a mile out of town.