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York to Durham

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The recommended tour takes you across the North York Moors National Park, visiting
Castle Howard and Rievaulx Abbey.

As usual you can take your choice of two touring routes:

The fast way: If you just want to get there as quickly as possible (not the best idea) then take the
A59 from the centre of York.

Route 2 on the map.

Go to the bottom of the next page for those nav. notes. (And go to the Naughty Step for even
thinking of it!)

The recommended way – via the North York Moors

Route 1 on the map . . .

What’s to be seen along the way?

Rievaulx Abbey. (Pron. reevo). Set in a remote valley in the North York Moors National Park,
Rievaulx is one of the most complete, and atmospheric, of England’s abbey ruins.

Castle Howard is an 18th century stately residence, set in 1,000
landscaped acres just outside York. It is widely regarded as one of the
finest Grand Houses of Britain.The house, designed by the leading
architect of the day, Sir John Vanbrugh, features many major works of
art. The grounds include lakes, fountains, temples and woodland as
well as a formal walled garden and children’s adventure playground.

Discover the wonder of ancient trees and wild birds of prey in the
North York Moors National Park. Moorland covers a third of the North
York Moors National Park and most of the higher ground is covered in
heather.

red grouse, curlew and golden plover. Later, as the summer evenings
draw in, the flowering heather turns the moors into a purple carpet that
stretches for mile after mile. In winter the moors can be exceptionally
Castle Howard beautiful, with mist and cloud rising above the sweeping expanses and
crisp dustings of frost and snow turning the landscape an ethereal
white.

Durham

The big attractions here are Durham Cathedral and nearby Durham Castle in this UNESCO World
Heritage Site, standing side by side on a prominent hill top and encircled by the wooded slopes of
the meandering River Wear. Durham Cathedral was voted the UK’s number one landmark in
2013. Started in 1093 and completed in 1133, it is the finest example on Normal church
architecture in the country. Marvel at the work of the stonemasons that created the richly
ornamented interior, particularly the vaulted ceiling – it was the first church to use ribbed vaulting
on such a scale.