Introducing Yorkshire
Yorkshire is England’s most interesting region. A bold statement, no doubt, but they’d expect nothing less in God’s Own Country, as Yorkshire folk half-jokingly refer to where they’re from, a place so bloody huge that it’s divided into four separate counties: South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. The last of these is the only geographical hangover from the far-off days of the Danelaw, the 9th-century Viking-governed region that roughly covered the same territory when the notion of ‘England’ as we know it didn’t even exist.
So what is it about this place that’s so heaven-blessed? Well, the landscapes for one: from the dark moors and brooding hills that roll their way to the dramatic cliffs of the coast, Yorkshire has been walked on, climbed over, cycled through and written about for centuries.
Secondly, there’s the sheer breadth of history and place. In Yorkshire you can explore virtually every facet of the English experience – past and present – from the Middle Ages to today, in abbeys, castles, historic houses, medieval cities, industrial centres and urban playgrounds.
But the most compelling argument for Yorkshire’s greatness is the people themselves, the English epitome – and stereotype – of ‘them up north’. Proud, industrious, hard-living and terribly opinionated about all subjects great and small, Yorkshire folk can be tough nuts to crack but they’re a warm and welcoming bunch that don’t stand on ceremony and dispel all notions of the English as cool and distant.
Activities in Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
This, the largest of Yorkshire's four counties – and the largest county in England – is also the most beautiful.
West Yorkshire
It was the tough and unforgiving textile industry that drove West Yorkshire's economy from the 18th century on.
Yorkshire destination guides
York
Nowhere in northern England says 'medieval' quite like York, a city of extraordinary cultural and historical wealth that has lost little of its pre-industrial lustre.
Hotels in Yorkshire
Budget Hotels & Hostels in Yorkshire
Guesthouses and B&Bs in Yorkshire
Apartments in Yorkshire
Leeds
One of the fastest growing cities in the UK, Leeds is the glitzy embodiment of rediscovered northern self-confidence.
Need to know
Entertainment in Yorkshire
North York Moors National Park
Inland from the north Yorkshire coast, the wild and windswept North York Moors rise in desolate splendour.
Shopping in Yorkshire