Barnard Castle

Barnard Castle makes a handsome, walkable base for exploring Teesdale, with a good choice of traditional inns and small hotels clustered around the historic Market Cross. Several occupy Georgian coaching-inn buildings that once served traffic on the old road west towards Cumbria, giving them genuine character alongside modern comforts. Bed and breakfasts are plentiful both in the town and scattered along the lanes leading out towards the dale, many run from converted farmhouses with views towards the North Pennines.

For visitors keen to be closer to the Bowes Museum or the castle ruins, staying within the town itself means everything is within a short walk, including the riverside paths down to the Tees and across to Flatts Wood. Those wanting a quieter base, or planning to explore further up the dale towards Middleton-in-Teesdale, Romaldkirk or the waterfalls at Low Force and High Force, will find country inns and self-catering cottages spread throughout the villages of Teesdale, many offering easy access to walking routes on the Pennine Way and across the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Booking ahead is worthwhile during the summer months and around the town's Meet in the Middle festival, when demand for the more characterful in-town options is highest. Outside peak season, Barnard Castle is a good option for a quieter break, with the added benefit of the A66 giving fast onward access to the Lake District, Durham and the wider north-east should visitors want to combine stays.

Barnard Castle rewards a slow wander, and the surrounding dale gives plenty of reason to stay longer than an afternoon.

• Barnard Castle ruins — the Norman fortress that gives the town its name, with substantial remains of the keep and curtain wall set high above the Tees; in the care of English Heritage.
• The Bowes Museum — an extraordinary purpose-built French chateau-style building on the edge of town, home to paintings by Goya, Canaletto and El Greco and to the celebrated Silver Swan automaton, which performs daily.
• Egglestone Abbey — a peaceful ruined Premonstratensian abbey a short walk or drive from town beside the Tees, founded around 1195 and now a quiet, little-visited English Heritage site.
• Deepdale Nature Reserve — a wooded gorge a few minutes from the centre, with footpaths, footbridges and stepping stones over the Tees.
• Teesdale and the Pennine Way — the dale stretches west towards Middleton-in-Teesdale and on to Low Force and High Force, England's highest waterfall, through some of the North Pennines' best walking country.
• Raby Castle — a genuinely lived-in medieval castle a few miles north-east of the town, with extensive deer park and gardens, seat of the Vane family for generations.
• The medieval bridge and riverside walks — the old County Bridge over the Tees and a network of waymarked paths through Flatts Wood give some of the best views back up to the castle ruins.

The Market Cross end of town has a good spread of independent cafes and traditional pubs. The Old Well Inn and the Golden Lion are long-standing fixtures for a pint and a straightforward pub meal, while the Blagraves House restaurant, in one of the town's oldest surviving buildings, offers a more formal dining option. Teesdale's farm shops and butchers, including those supplying the town's weekly Wednesday market, reflect the area's farming heritage, and a scattering of tearooms along the main street cater well to walkers coming off the riverside paths.

Teesdale's open moorland and river valleys make it excellent walking and camping country, but as with the rest of England, wild camping without the landowner's permission is not legal, so a proper site or a landowner's explicit consent is essential before pitching up. The good news is that the dale has a solid spread of proper campsites and caravan parks, many set along the Tees itself or tucked into the valleys running up towards the high Pennines, with pitches ranging from simple grass tent fields to fully serviced touring plots.

The terrain around Barnard Castle shifts quickly from gentle riverside pasture near the town to the exposed heather moorland of the North Pennines further west, so conditions can vary a great deal within a short drive. Sites closer to the town and lower Teesdale tend to be more sheltered, while those further up the dale towards Middleton-in-Teesdale and the approaches to High Force sit higher and more exposed, better suited to well-prepared campers used to changeable weather even in summer.

Late spring through to early autumn is the most reliable window, when daylight is longest and the moorland tracks and riverside paths are driest underfoot; the North Pennines can turn wet and boggy after prolonged rain, and higher ground is occasionally affected by low cloud and stronger winds even outside winter. For those who like the outdoors but want a bit more comfort, glamping options have grown steadily in the dale, with shepherd's huts, safari tents and camping pods offering a halfway point between a hotel and a tent, often on farms with direct access to walking routes and views across Teesdale. Whatever the choice of pitch, the reward is some of the darkest skies and quietest countryside in northern England, with the castle ruins and the Bowes Museum both within easy reach for a change of pace.