Ripon

Ripon's hotels cluster around its market square and cathedral, many of them historic coaching inns with centuries of history behind their frontages, ideal if you want to step out of the door straight onto cobbled streets and into the nightly hornblowing ceremony. Townhouse hotels and B&Bs fill in the gaps along the approach roads, offering a quieter, more affordable alternative within walking distance of the centre. Booking a night or two in the city itself makes sense if your main interest is the cathedral, the museums and the market, since everything is within a few minutes' walk.

If you are planning to spend more time at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, or exploring further into the Yorkshire Dales, it can be worth looking slightly further out. Villages around Ripon and along the Ure valley have country house hotels, farm stays and converted barns offering more space and a rural outlook, usually still within a ten to fifteen minute drive of the city centre. Harrogate, twenty minutes south, has a much larger choice of hotels including several well-known spa and Victorian grand hotels, and works well as an alternative base for anyone wanting to combine a Ripon day trip with a bigger town's restaurants and shops. Whichever you choose, book ahead for race days at Ripon Racecourse and for the summer festival season, when the city's smaller hotels fill up quickly.

Ripon rewards a slow wander, but there is also a genuine cluster of nationally significant sights within easy reach of the city centre.

• Ripon Cathedral — Consecrated on the site of St Wilfrid's 7th-century monastery, the cathedral mixes Norman, Early English and Gothic architecture above one of the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon crypts in England.
• The Ripon Hornblower — Every night at 9pm, a hornblower in traditional dress sounds a horn at the market square obelisk, a ceremony recorded since the 9th century and said never to have been missed in over 1,100 years.
• Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden — A few miles southwest of the city, this National Trust-run UNESCO World Heritage Site combines the largest monastic ruins in England with an 18th-century landscaped water garden and a medieval deer park.
• Ripon Racecourse — Known as 'the garden racecourse' for its well-kept grounds, it hosts a regular calendar of flat racing through spring and summer and is one of the prettiest small racecourses in the north of England.
• Newby Hall and Gardens — A short drive from the city, this Adam-designed stately home has gardens laid out along the River Ure, along with a miniature railway and adventure gardens for families.
• Ripon Museum Trust sites — The Workhouse Museum, Prison and Police Museum and Courthouse Museum together tell the story of law, order and poverty in Georgian and Victorian Ripon.
• Market Square and the Wakeman's House — One of the largest market squares in England, framed by the timber-framed Wakeman's House and a busy Thursday street market.

The Old Deanery, in a 17th-century former deanery next to the cathedral, is one of the city's best-known restaurants with rooms. The Royal Oak on Kirkgate is a popular gastropub serving modern British food in the heart of the city, while The Wheatsheaf and other market square pubs offer a more traditional Yorkshire pint and pub lunch. Ripon's Thursday market brings local produce into the square, and the city's bakeries and tearooms, several tucked into its narrow lanes, are a good spot for a break between sights.

Ripon's setting on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, with the Rivers Ure and Skell running close by and Fountains Abbey's parkland just down the road, makes it a good base for campers who want easy access to walking country without straying too far from a market town's pubs and shops. As with everywhere else in England, wild camping is illegal without the express permission of the landowner, so stick to licensed campsites and caravan parks, of which there are several within a short drive of the city, ranging from simple touring pitches to larger family-friendly sites with facilities.

The terrain around Ripon is gentler than the high fells further west in the Dales, rolling farmland and river valleys rather than exposed moorland, which makes it a comfortable spot for campers who want scenery without a strenuous approach. That said, North Yorkshire weather is changeable even in summer, so it is worth packing for rain and wind whatever the forecast says. Most sites in the area open from around Easter through to October, with the driest and warmest camping weather typically falling between May and September; this is also when Fountains Abbey's grounds, the deer park at Studley Royal and the wider Dales are at their most walkable, and when Ripon Racecourse's summer race meetings add another reason to base yourself locally.

For those who would rather skip tents altogether, glamping has taken hold across this part of Yorkshire, with shepherd's huts, safari tents and wooden pods available on farms and small sites around Ripon and towards the Dales. These tend to offer proper beds, heating and sometimes their own fire pits or hot tubs, while keeping you close to the same walking and cycling routes along the Ure and Skell valleys that campers use. Many are dog-friendly and geared towards couples or small families wanting a comfortable countryside base rather than a full back-to-basics camping trip, and they book up well in advance for the summer months, so it pays to plan ahead.