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29 Best Museums In North Yorkshire
The gap between the largest and the smallest museum on this list is enormous, and the two ends need completely different planning. National Railway Museum is national-collection scale: big halls, big machines, and a child with any interest at all can be in there for hours. Eden Camp and Yorkshire Air Museum are site museums spread over former military ground, which means walking between buildings, so the weather still gets a say even though everything here is flagged indoor. At the small end, Museum of Victorian Science, Beck Isle Museum and Old Coastguard Station are focused places small enough to take in properly inside an afternoon, and they are often the ones children talk about afterwards, because nothing in them is too big to take in. World of James Herriot and The Scarborough Fair Collection sit between, each built around a single subject.
Top museums in North Yorkshire
Showing 1–12 of 29
MuseumsMuseum of Victorian Science
SightseeingWorld of James Herriot
MuseumsEden Camp
MuseumsNational Railway Museum
MuseumsYorkshire Air Museum
MuseumsThe Scarborough Fair Collection
MuseumsBeck Isle Museum
MuseumsOld Coastguard Station
MuseumsWhitby Museum
MuseumsDorman Museum
MuseumsCraven Museum and Gallery
MuseumsYork Castle Museum
All twenty-nine carry an indoor flag, which makes museums the strongest wet-weather category in North Yorkshire, with the caveat that a museum spread across old airfield ground involves a good deal of outside. Eleven of the twenty-nine have outdoor space flagged as well, and that is where a coat stops being optional. Decide before you go whether you want one big place or two small ones, because the second plan fails less often with young children.
Museums in North Yorkshire: FAQs
What is different about a site museum?
You walk. Exhibits sit in separate buildings, so the visit becomes a series of short indoor stops joined by outdoor stretches, and on a cold day that changes the experience considerably. It also makes them better for restless children than a single hall does, because movement is built into the layout. Coats, sensible shoes and a realistic view of the weather matter more than they would at a town museum.
How long does the biggest one take?
Longer than you plan for. A national collection can hold an interested child for most of a day, and the temptation is to try to see everything, which is how a good visit turns into a march. Choose two or three things, do them properly, and leave with something unseen. You leave with a reason to return, and children rarely mind.
Which end of the list suits a five-year-old?
Either, for different reasons. A big hall gives scale and things that move, which is what a five-year-old responds to. A small museum gives a manageable amount and somebody willing to talk. What does not work at that age is a museum built around reading, so look at what a place has rather than what it is about. The Scarborough Fair Collection is the sort of single-subject site that lands well young.
Is there anything unusual worth packing?
Snacks and water first, then a coat if you are heading for anything spread over a site. Ear defenders are worth considering for a child who finds engine noise distressing, since working machinery features at several of these. And leave the buggy behind at older or multi-building sites, where you would spend the visit lifting it over things.