Richmond area guide: where to stay at the mouth of Swaledale
Richmond Castle keep above the cobbled market square and the River Swale
A Norman keep over a cobbled square, a Georgian theatre from 1788 and a waterfall five minutes from the Market Place — Richmond costs £100-160 a night and is the best-looking town base in North Yorkshire that isn’t York.
Who Richmond suits
Richmond is a hill town wrapped around a huge cobbled market square, with an eleventh-century castle keep standing over a bend in the Swale and Georgian streets falling away down Frenchgate and Millgate. It suits couples and walkers who want a beautiful base with real infrastructure, anyone heading up Swaledale to Reeth, Gunnerside and Keld, and visitors to Catterick Garrison four miles south. It also suits people who like their sightseeing dense: castle, Georgian Theatre Royal, regimental museum, riverside abbey walk and waterfall, all on foot.
It does not suit anyone who needs level ground. Richmond is steep in every direction from the square, the cobbles are ankle-testing, and Cornforth Hill and Bargate are proper climbs. It is also not on a railway. Families wanting theme parks and beaches are three hours from the wrong side of the county. And in high summer the square doubles as a car park and a coach stop, which takes some of the shine off the postcard.
What a night costs
Reckon £100-160 for a double at the Market Place inns and the Georgian townhouse B&Bs, rising to £140-190 at summer weekends and during the town's festival dates. The guesthouses on Frenchgate and Victoria Road run £85-120 and are the value play. Out at Catterick Garrison and along the A6136 you find modern hotels and lodges at £65-95, which are the cheapest beds in the area and a ten-minute drive from the square.
That puts Richmond about £20-40 above Northallerton, level with or slightly below Helmsley, and £30-70 under a York weekend. The town sells out around its September walking and book festival and its summer live music weekend — check the current dates before fixing plans. Garrison events and Catterick Racecourse fixtures also tighten supply. Two-night minimums are common at weekends from May to September. Midweek in March or November you will find £85 rooms in the centre without effort.
Where to sleep street by street
On the Market Place: coaching inns and hotels with the best position in town and rooms overlooking the cobbles. Saturday market noise starts early and the square is busy until evening; take a rear room if you are a light sleeper. Frenchgate, the steep Georgian street running north-east, holds the handsomest townhouse B&Bs — a three-minute walk uphill back from dinner and worth it for the buildings alone.
Millgate and the streets dropping towards the river give you Swale views and the shortest route to the falls and the Easby path, with a stiff climb back. Newbiggin, the enormously wide cobbled street west of the square, is quiet and central. For families and groups, the holiday cottages in the lanes off Bargate at £700-1,300 a summer week beat two hotel rooms. Up Swaledale, Reeth's green-side inns and the farmhouse B&Bs at Grinton and Marske are the alternative if you want the dale rather than the town.
Arriving, parking and the missing railway
Richmond lost its railway in the 1960s. The nearest main-line station is Darlington, twelve miles north-east on the East Coast Main Line, with a bus and taxi link into town; Northallerton is fifteen miles south-east. Buses run from Darlington and Catterick and up Swaledale to Reeth and Keld, but Swaledale frequencies are sparse and seasonal — check with the operator, and look at the Dales-focused weekend services if you are walking without a car.
By road, Scotch Corner and the A1(M) are five miles east, which makes Richmond very easy from the motorway despite feeling remote. Parking is the town's weak point in summer: the Market Place has bays, with car parks at Nuns Close, Station Yard by the river and Victoria Road. Saturday market day fills the square. Charges are set by North Yorkshire Council and change, so read the signage. Several central inns have limited courtyard parking — confirm a space when booking rather than assuming.
What is within walking distance
Richmond Castle, English Heritage, sits directly off the square: the hundred-foot keep gives the best view in the district, and the cell block with First World War conscientious objectors' graffiti is the most affecting part. The Georgian Theatre Royal on Victoria Road, built in 1788, is the most complete Georgian playhouse in Britain still working, and the backstage tour is short and excellent. Holy Trinity in the middle of the square houses the Green Howards Museum.
Down at the river, the Swale drops over a shelf of rock at the falls a few minutes below the castle, loud after rain. From there a flat riverside mile leads to Easby Abbey, a Premonstratensian ruin with a parish church full of medieval wall paintings and no admission charge for the church. The Station, the restored 1846 railway building on the far bank, holds a cinema, bakery, café and galleries. Culloden Tower and the Drummer Boy walk fill a second morning.
Eating and drinking
The Market Place carries most of it: pub dining rooms, a couple of bistros, several cafés, a good bakery and a fish and chip shop, plus a Saturday market that sells cheese, bread and Swaledale meat. Standards are decent and getting better; the town has a couple of genuinely ambitious small kitchens now, and they need booking a week ahead for Friday and Saturday. The Station's café and bakery on the river is the best breakfast and lunch stop in town.
For a special dinner, the destination inns are in the villages: Marske, Ravensworth and the Swaledale road towards Reeth all have kitchens worth the ten to twenty minute drive, and Reeth's green has three pubs within thirty seconds of each other. Book taxis in advance in the evening. In town, kitchens generally stop around nine and choice narrows on Sunday and Monday nights, particularly outside the summer season.
The Swaledale radius, timing and the alternative
From Richmond, Swaledale opens west: Marske four miles, Reeth eleven, Gunnerside sixteen, Keld twenty-two, with the Buttertubs Pass over to Hawes beyond. Easby is a walk, Bolton Castle and Wensleydale are around twenty-five miles via Leyburn, and the Coast to Coast route passes through Reeth and Richmond itself. Catterick Racecourse is six miles, Barnard Castle and the Bowes Museum sixteen north-west, Darlington twelve. It is the natural base for the northern Dales.
Come in May and June for the Swaledale hay meadows, which are among the best surviving in England and at their peak from late May into early July, or in late September for the festival and the colour. August is busy and full price. January can be beautiful and half-shut. Book Leyburn instead if Wensleydale rather than Swaledale is your target, and Reeth instead if you want to walk from the door every day. For a first visit to the northern Dales, though, Richmond is the town I would book.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Richmond.
Not since the 1960s. The nearest main-line station is Darlington, twelve miles away on the East Coast Main Line, connected by bus and taxi; Northallerton is fifteen miles. The old 1846 station building in Richmond survives as The Station, now a cinema, bakery and gallery on the riverbank.
Yes, and you should. A flat riverside path runs about a mile downstream from below the castle to the abbey ruins, taking twenty-five minutes each way. English Heritage manages the ruins and opening arrangements vary by season, so check before setting off. The adjoining parish church with medieval wall paintings is usually open free.
It is the best town base for it. Reeth is eleven miles west, Gunnerside sixteen and Keld twenty-two, with the Coast to Coast passing through both Richmond and Reeth. Bus services up the dale exist but are sparse and seasonal, so check the operator's timetable or plan on driving.
Tight from mid-morning between May and September. The Market Place bays and the Nuns Close, Station Yard and Victoria Road car parks fill, and Saturday market day is worst. Confirm courtyard parking with your inn at booking, and check current tariffs with North Yorkshire Council rather than assuming.
