Explore Ripon

The grim atmosphere of the Workhouse Museum has been carefully maintained in order to give visitors a sense of what life in a Victorian Workhouse could have been.

Sit in a prison cell, hear the door slam shut and imagine the harsh conditions of Victorian prison regimes. Try on prison uniforms, imagine the horror of being set in the pillory, strapped in a restraint chair or hung in chains. Turn the crank, carry out shot drill or work the treadmill.

The history of policing is traced through displays of uniforms and artefacts from the Trust's extensive collections of police and prison memorabilia.

The Courthouse Museum on Minster Road can be easily found as it is lies just to the north of Ripon Cathedral. It is a minute’s walk from Ripon Tourist Information Centre (which is housed in the Old Courthouse building) and it is just behind Sainsbury’s supermarket, very close to the top of the long-stay car park, accessed by a snicket (alley).

Welcome to the Ripon Local Studies Research Centre website.  On the site you can find out more information about the Centre, its aims and how it can help you in your local Ripon or family history research.

Ripon Cathedral has a history stretching back almost fourteen centuries. Throughout this time it has offered an unbroken tradition of witness to the Christian faith, both in the city of Ripon and across North Yorkshire.

Ripon has hosted some of the most exciting, prestigious and enjoyable racing in the country for more than 300 years. It never fails to impress year on year with its outstanding back drop and exciting atmosphere.

A World Heritage Site, Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal is a huge estate of beauty, contrasts and surprises including the largest abbey ruins in the country and one of England’s most spectacular Georgian water gardens.

Lightwater Valley - One of the leading Theme Parks in the UK. Childrens and Kids Amusement Park. Family fun days out in the North of England.

A late medieval manor house with Stuart and Georgian additions.

Markenfield Hall is a spectacular mediaeval house, built mainly in 1310, and completely surrounded by its moat. It has been wonderfully little altered since, and is the most complete surviving medium-sized fourteenth century country house left in England.

Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, with some of Britain’s finest Robert Adam interiors Newby Hall is home to a wonderful collection of Chippendale furniture, Gobelins tapestries and classical statuary.

John Aislabie of Studley Royal built the Obelisk, the earliest freestanding obelisk in the country, in 1702, replacing the mediaeval market cross. It was here that the Hornblower sounded his horn to 'set the watch' as night fell, a ceremony that continues to the present day. Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor the Obelisk is crowned by a golden horn, the symbol of the city, and a rowel, a spiked wheel attached to a spur, a reference to the manufacture of spurs for which the town had a reputation in the 17th and 18th centuries. Aislabie's son William restored the structure in 1781.

Ripon Tourist Information Centre staff will help you plan your visit to Ripon.

Just five minutes’ stroll from Ripon’s ancient market square is the delightful Ripon Spa Hotel. The Spa itself is now purely historic, but our luxury Ripon Hotel has countless pleasures to offer.

Set in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, the Black Sheep Brewery is the ideal location for a day or evening out.

Tiffin's Café, located next to Ripon Community House on Allhallowgate, has a reputation for quality home cooked food that offers great value for money - made using locally sourced ingredients.

Deli on duck hill looks out on Ripon Cathedral in the pretty arcade of Ripon Small Shops.

Lockwoods Café bar and Restaurant aims to celebrate the best of Ripon's rich Cathedral City history, and the outstanding natural beauty of the surrounding area, whilst challenging it into the future.