Suggestions for towns to stay in England and Scotland

Given what you say I would favour Alnmouth over Alnwick. The station is at Alnmouth, with regular buses into Alnwick, and down the much neglected south Northumberland coast to Newcastle. In a few weeks time the Newcastle buses will link up with a new railhead at Ashington when that station re-opens.

Also the buses up the coast (needs careful planning as they are only every few hours) to Seahouses and Bamburgh Castle. Alnmouth is the very pleasant seaside town.

Rather than Pitlochry, which is very touristy IMO, you could look at Blair Atholl a bit further north (for Blair Castle) or the less well known towns of Kingussie and Newtonmore (of which Kingussie would be my personal preference).

Settle would be a very good choice. Another good option in the area, little known on the forum would be Gargrave. That meets all your wishes, including a railway station.

I'm happy for you to omit the Lake District this time but there are many places on the Coastal Fringe of the County which are off the tourist radar but would be very good for you. Take a brief look at the Cumbria Coastal Route 200. Currently it is set up mostly for RV use. But there is no real reason why it can't be adapted for normal car drivers or for those on public transport. In fact Cumbria Tourism are having a workshop today on that very theme- to broaden the current niche marketing it currently has and spread the tourist load.

You have certainly already been to and now picked out some interesting places rather than the usual culprits we see here all the time.

I think I would stick to Settle rather than Gargrave, mainly as the station in the latter is a bit of a walk out of the village. It's also a bit small and therefore doesn't have much in the way of services. On the other hand you can easily and quickly get into Skipton for connections up into the Dales better than Settle.

Settle is a really nice town in a lovely area.

I think I would stick to Settle rather than Gargrave, mainly as the station in the latter is a bit of a walk out of the village.

Well that's me told then. To me the 10 minutes or a bit less isn't far (I normally add a stop at the Village Church on the way in but do it as a straight walk back out) isn't far but clearly it is. Gargrave is also on the hourly bus route between Settle and Skipton. Also on the 2 hourly bus route to Clapham, Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale, and on the 4 days a week bus route to Malham (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday).

It is also on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and on the Pennine Way. A pub, a good sized Co-op food Store, a very good Fish and Chip Shop (proper Yorkshire Fish and Chips), an Indian take away and the Dalesman Cafe (which I believe is only open in the daytime). It even has a Premier Inn now (the euphemistically named Skipton North Premier Inn).

Clapham and Ingleton both have great walks. Ingleton also has the White Scar Cave and Ingleborough Cave. Clapham does also have a station, but that is certainly well out of the village it serves.

Come on Stuart. I haven't told you anything, just offered my opinion. I think Settle would be a better base and you think Gargrave. Fair enough. I also did offer a point in Gargrave's favour. But anywhere with a branch of Booths supermarket and a cafe called Ye Old Naked Man has to have my vote.

In the north of England, York is amazing, need at least 3 days there.
Durham is another city worth two days.
Explore Hadrian's Wall, we did that at Haltwhistle.

In the south of England, love Stratford Upon Avon, Bath, Winchester, Salisbury, Canterbury, Oxford and Cambridge.

Rye is delightful - an excellent choice!

Settle makes a good base and you can easily spend a full week there walking and using bus and train without having to use your car.

Another aternative would be either Helmsley or Pickering, both in the North York moors. They aren't on network rai, although Pickering is the terminus of the North York Moors Railway. (By a Rover Ticket and this gives you free travezl for the next 12 months - good value if you are intending to use the railway to give access to walks in Dalby Forest or the walk along the old railway line beteeen Grosmont and Goathland.) Both have good bus links and are bustling small towns with shops, plenty of choice of eateries and access to some wonderful scenery!

I've been to Alnmouth and Alnwick, and have Rye very high on my list right now. I was hoping to stay in Alnmouth but couldn't find anything in my budget, so I opted for Seahouses, which I really enjoyed. I did visit some of your previous stays as well, and loved Hathersage.

I agree with wasleys that Helmsley or Pickering would be nice choices. Pickering is a bit larger than Helmsley but as pointed out, has the local NYMR there. Helmsley was really nice, and they do have bus service to a lot of places; including York. I rented a cottage about 7-8 miles away for a week and went to Helmsley regularly. Nice restaurants, groceries and shops; some good hiking, a castle ruin, and close to Rievaulx Abbey, which is just incredible. You also are close to some really charming villages like Hutton-le-Hole, which has the wonderful Ryedale Folk Museum. And that area has some of the loveliest historic small churches going back to pre-Saxon times, like St. Gregory’s Minster in Kirkdale, and St. Hilda’s Church in Ellerburn, near Thornton-le-Dale, which is a tiny church almost 1200 years old. There are so many wonderful places in that area.

You are also close to the RSPB at Bempton Cliffs, where hundreds of thousands of sea birds gather between March and August to breed, mate, and survive. There are puffins, gannets, guillemots and many more birds flying in and out and nesting on the cliffs.

Whatever you choose, I'm sure they will be wonderful, based on your previous stays. I am curious, though, as your post was a little unclear. Are you staying for 5-7 days in each place? I hope so, especially since you are coming from a distance. :-)

We really enjoyed FROME as a great place to stay and use as a base of operations for a week. Lots of good places to eat. Local market. Independent shops. Public transit connections to Bath and Bristol. Easy train (one connection) from London. Took the MadMax tour of the Cotswolds/Stonehenge out of Bath.

Helmsley has exactly one return bus service a day to York- which gives you 3 hours in the City (that is the day when Mardee got stuck and had to taxi back after mis reading the timetable).

The only other bus from Helmsley is the one to Scarborough- it runs every 2 hours- first bus at 1025 arriving at Scarborough at 1209 with the last bus back at 1630. So not an ideal place to stay if reliant on public transport. Pickering has 2 earlier services on the same route and a later 1830 return so is the better of the two.

On a Summer Saturday and Sunday Pickering is also the hub of the Moorsbus network with buses spreading out to all corners of the North York Moors. (subject to funding for the 2025 season). That is the best time to go to Rievaulx with the Moorbus special service.

Likewise Seahouses only has the restricted every 3 or 4 hours bus up the coast from Alnwick to Berwick (the much better service goes straight up the A1), plus 2 return extras on the Alnwick to Wooler (an inland town in Northumberland) service and a morning and evening service to meet the two Chathill to Newcastle services a day, so fairly limiting. It can be made to work if determined, but is not ideal.

After Mardee swopped to Seahouses (using the car) more budget friendly places were found in Alnmouth (after taking advice from a local)- the list will be somewhere on here if really interested.

Thank you everyone for your excellent suggestions and help. I’ll have a look more closely at Gargrave vs Settle and the alternative suggestions for Scotland. I did worry that Pitlochry might be too touristy. Helmsley sounds lovely, but might be tricky unless we bite the bullet and hire a car. I should have mentioned that we’ve previously been to lots of the usual places like York, Oxford, Bath, Cotswolds, Durham, Salisbury etc. (even if it was 30 years ago!) so are looking for somewhere a bit more off the beaten track of international tourism. Isn31c (Stuart?) thank you for suggesting the Cumbria Coast - I’ve never considered that before. I’m wondering if you have any particular suggestions for a town to use as a base there.

For clarification, we plan on staying 5-7 days in each location. We are happy to spend our days in a leisurely way - perhaps a walk, browse of shops, museums or churches, cup of tea in the garden, trying local foods, lunch out, pre dinner pint at the pub, etc. - with the odd day out further afield. My husband does like to do some more challenging walking and wildlife spotting.

Re - the Cumbria Coast the choice to me if you had the better part of a week would be whether to concentrate on the south of the County or the West.
The publicity for the route is quite interesting in that it promotes slow travel and in depth exploration.
As for where to stay-
In the South have a look for yourself at Grange over Sands, Ulverston and Dalton in Furness.
Grange is a nice Victorian seaside resort which benefits from never really having fully developed.
Ulverston is a very historic market town, the start of the Cumbria Way walk, Laurel and Hardy connections, one of the shortest canals in the UK, the Hoad Hill "lighthouse" and more.
Dalton is a little known town with a Castle, an interesting mining history, and very close to Furness Abbey- once a very important monastic foundation.
Each has their merits, some here know which of the 3 I would send you to, but you make your choice.
In the West it kind of depends on what exactly you want. Look into St Bees (a village)- start of the C2C walk and St Bees Priory - another of the great religious places of the county. The village website has a huge amount of stuff on the history.
Or Whitehaven- once the 3rd largest port in the UK. Coal mining history, a lot of history of the links to the USA (Virginian Tobacco, and the first President), Rum and Sugar in the Caribbean:
Or Maryport-
like Dalton or Gargrave it's the wild card. But the web will tell you of its History. Another good harbour there, an aquarium and a good walking centre aided by the new bus service up through Allonby to Silloth.
Also look into Seascale with its new and very good fish restaurant (Salt) and Mawson's Ice Cream Parlour- just moved to new much larger premises.
There is a good Co-op food store in the village. It is another planned seaside resort that was only ever partially built, but does have a "pier" - a local slightly wry joke.
I was actually invited to yesterday's tourism workshop, but decided there were direct stakeholders who would be more suited to the limited space available.

Hi again,

I have started a new thread called 'Lancashire Day' which I, or John New will flesh out in due course. I've picked up some very interesting stuff there this morning.

I've been into Gargrave tonight for my fish and chips on the way home from near Leeds, between trains.
Yes they are that good
Somehow I had 90 minutes there and only just caught the next train by a whisker, there would have been two later ones.
Walked down the Canal between the bridges in the deep dusk, and got to look inside the village Church again after dark. 93 miles to Liverpool, 34 to Leeds by water and 5 3/4 to Malham on the Pennine Way. So nice to be ever so briefly back on t'cut (the canals).
Anyone who goes don't miss the wonderful modern wrought iron Churchyard gates.
I timed myself- it was 7 minutes walk from the station to the Village Square and another 8 minutes on from there to the PI.
For anyone interested both pubs - the Mason's Arms and the Old Swan do rooms (I checked) and both have web sites. Of the two the Mason's Arms would be my favourite for both location and being a proper little country pub.
One note - the platform from Leeds has no level access not that that at all stopped one man with a bike and two with luggage.
Also the road is unlit, until you get to the property in the village, so not the best at night.

Thanks again isn31c for all of your detailed suggestions - brilliant. We do like the look of the area around Ulverston and Grange. And nice to have so many places accessible by train. Off do more research…

Mallaig, gives you train, bus and boat options for vists.
Very good widelife spotting.

Penrith I have a liking for distinctive buildings and again a transport hotspot.