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Sledmere House, Georgian country house via Mike Seaman

Castle Howard, near York via RW Jemmett

Brodsworth Hall and Gardens - A mesmerizing blend of history and nature via James Michael Morris

Castle Howard, engraving c. 1780.

Yorkshire Houses & Gardens - Parks and gardens, architecture and decoration, art and furniture

Overview Practicalities

Section:

Tour highlights

The finest country houses and gardens in Yorkshire, the county with the greatest number and widest range of these in England.
All aspects of the country house are studied – architecture, furniture, decoration, works of art; gardens and parks; historical context and daily life; conservation and custodianship.
Many of the houses have excellent gardens and are set in classic landscaped parks.
Stay in one hotel throughout.
Special arrangements and out-of-hours visits.
This tour can be combined with the Martin Randall Travel music festival, Early Music in Yorkshire, 6–11 May 2026.

Yorkshire is England’s largest county, and one of its most beautiful, renowned for spectacular countryside. It is also blessed with a range of outstanding country houses, of all periods and sizes, though the 18th century – and large scale – predominate.

The story begins in the Middle Ages at Markenfield Hall, a remarkable survival of a walled and moated manor house which is still part of a working farm. The splendours of the English Renaissance can be found at Temple Newsam and Burton Agnes; Castle Howard is a great Baroque edifice, equal in magnificence to some of the European palaces of the time.

Britain’s tentative flirtation with Baroque was succeeded by devotion to Palladianism, of which Wentworth Woodhouse is the grandest manifestation. Under the threat of collapse or demolition for many decades and visited by very few, in 2017 it’s future was secured through a trust set up by SAVE. Harewood House is only marginally less magnificent – ‘a St Petersburg palace on a Yorkshire ridge’.

Robert Adam makes several appearances – at Harewood, Nostell Priory and Newby Hall. So does Thomas Chippendale, a London-based Yorkshireman, who provided much of the furniture at Nostell, Harewood and Newby. Many houses have such museum-quality treasures, among them the Gobelins tapestries at Newby Hall, Burne-Jones glass at Castle Howard, Old Masters at Harewood (Bellini, Titian, El Greco, Turner, Gainsborough) and modern French paintings at Burton Agnes (Pissarro, Cézanne, Gaugin, Matisse).

Most of the houses are privately owned, some still in the hands of the families who built them. As on most of our tours, we have made arrangements for out-of-hours visits to some of the properties.

The hotel is the former headquarters of North Eastern Railway in York, which has one of the finest concentrations of historic buildings in England.

Practicalities

Two sharing: A$7540. Single occupancy: A$9,050.

Hotel accommodation; private coach throughout; breakfasts and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; admission to houses, gardens and sites; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

The Grand, York: the former headquarters of North Eastern Railway, the hotel retains many original features. It is a few minutes on foot from the railway station and the Minster. Service is plentiful and helpful. There is an indoor swimming pool. Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

Unavoidably there is quite a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Coaches can rarely park near the houses, many of the parks and gardens are extensive and most of the houses visited don’t have lifts. Average distance by coach per day: c. 60 miles.

Between 10 and 22 participants.

Before booking, please refer to Smartraveller to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting. As a British company we follow the advice of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.

Combine this tour with:

Istanbul Revealed, 3–10 May 2026

Early Music in Yorkshire, 6–11 May 2026

Arts & Crafts in the Cotswolds, 18–23 May 2026

The Western Balkans, 18–31 May 2026

Moldavia & Transylvania, 21–31 May 2026

Franconia, 22–29 May 2026