Our guided walks are so popular - just read these recent, unsolicited reviews from TripAdvisor and Google:

"Tom our guide was amazing, extremely knowledgeable and entertaining."

"Julie was very personable, friendly and knowledgeable and pitched the speed of her tour and information at just the right level. This was a lovely introduction to Richmond."

"Just returned from an excellent FREE guided walk Tour of Richmond. Our guide was very considerate of my limited walking ability , very well informed & super friendly. Highly recommended."

"We took a wonderful, free walking tour of the town. The volunteer guide was enthusiastic, very knowledgeable and obviously proud to be a resident of charming Richmond. We highly recommend taking this tour a must for visitors!! "

"Judith was very enthusiastic and informative and gave us a great introduction to the town. I would highly recommend this walking tour to any first-time visitors to the town."

"Everyone in the tourist office was friendly and very helpful. The conducted tour of the town was excellent. We learnt so much. Take a bow everyone you are brilliant 👏 👏👏"

If you're planning to visit Richmond, even if you're not a first-timer, be sure to come on one of our guided walking tours. They leave the Market Hall at 11:00 every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and last about an hour and a quarter. Numbers are capped, so you are strongly recommended to book ahead! You can:

• Visit Richmond Information Centre in the Market Hall (daily, 10:00–16:00), or...
• Phone 01748 826468 (same hours as above), or...
• Email [email protected], indicating date and number of places wanted.

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You can find more details here. Don't take our word for it - just look at what our visitors say!

And not just any old locomotives - these are history-makers, from the very dawn of the age of powered transport

Locomotion No. 1, built by the pioneering engineers Robert and George Stephenson, became the first steam locomotive, in 1825, to haul a passenger-carrying train on a public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway. (Note that date.) This is the original loco, not a reproduction...

The other two locomotives, the high-pressured Pen-y-Darren (1804) and the Steam Elephant (illustrated - 1815) were designed by equally famous engineers - "equally famous" meaning that even the author of this post, who is spectacularly ignorant about steam engines, recognises the names of their great designers, Richard Trevithick and John Buddle/William Chapman. 

These three ground-breaking machines, along with hundreds of other sooty and oily pieces of railwayana, will go on display at the Railway Pioneers exhibition, celebrating 200 years of the railways, from 4 April to 22 June.

The exhibition is at Hopetown railway museum in Darlington. It is free to enter but, given its likely popularity,  you are strongly advised to book ahead! More details here: hopetowndarlington.co.uk.

Today's Lucky Dip into What's On Richmond has pulled out... the famous Carducci string quartet. Not only famous, but also very regular visitors to our area: they've often performed at the Swaledale Festival, Ripon Festival, North York Moors Chamber Festival, Ryedale Festival, Darlington Music Society, Richmondshire Concerts... You get the idea. They clearly like North Yorkshire, and North Yorkshire audiences clearly like them!

On Saturday 8 March they'll be the guests of the Richmondshire Concerts in a programme of music by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich. The performance is at 19:30 in Richmond School. Tickets are £20, either at the link above or on the door.

Snowdrops now, daffodils soon... It's time to plan your springtime outings to the Dales!

"But it's still cold and rainy outside!", you say.

True. But you can start planning right now, from the comfort of your chair.

Need somewhere to stay? Visit our Accommodation database for a lovely choice of cottages, furnished properties, hotels and inns. Films, theatre, music? Take a look in our What's On area. Planning a few walks? Visit our online shop, where you can find and order guides, histories and maps. Ideas for local visits, bus routes, stately homes, keeping children entertained..? Browse this site. And if you still can't find what you're looking for, ask our volunteers.

Call us on 01748 826468 (10:00 - 16:00 daily)

​Email us at [email protected]

Kiplin Hall - one of our favourite local destinations - has just reopened after a winter break. They've used the break to build an attractive new cafe and Visitor Centre near the car park. The cakes are exceedingly good, as you'd expect.

But let's move past the cakes. I said, let's move past the cakes... Kiplin is famous, among other things, for its spectacular Snowdrop Strolls, around the formal garden and lake, and in the woods and parkland. If you're tired of winter, and want a preview of Spring, pop  into Kiplin, where you can enjoy the ancient house, the walks and the snowdrops.

OK - and the cakes.

www.kiplinhall.co.uk

Kids getting under your feet? Take them down to The Station, Richmond's wonderful multi-activity centre in an old railway terminus, and set them off on an I Spy trail. Their challenge? To find all the cheerful signs of Spring that are hiding inside The Station, from bugs and floofy baby animals to birds and flowers. And you can do all this snugly indoors, even if Spring is siling down outside!

Trail sheets are just £1 per child and are available from The Station Shop daily, from 10am - 4pm, from 15 February to 2 March. When the children complete the trail, they can return the form for a small prize.
When you've exhausted your little monsters, why not refuel them at the Station Cafe, or the ice cream shop, or the bakery, or the sweet shop? Or treat them to a film at one of the three in-house cinema screens? Honestly, you could easily spend half a day here.

("Floofy"? "Siling"? Words that the webmaster loves to use...)