Beverley Minster is free and its roof tour £12. Sewerby Hall is £13.75, Skidby Mill £2.50, Withernsea Lighthouse £5.50. Eleven places, prices checked.
The East Riding is not a district you do in a day. It is 360,000 people spread across a county town, two seaside resorts, the wolds and 50 miles of coastline, and the good days out are scattered accordingly. What follows is eleven places worth the drive, each one checked against its own website in August 2026, with what it actually costs to get in.
The short version: three of the best things here are free, the most expensive is £13.75, and the one that surprises people is a windmill that charges £2.50.
In and around Beverley
Beverley Minster
The reason people come to Beverley, and it costs nothing. Entry is free, with a donation invited by cash or card, and the Minster is open every day 10am to 4pm except 26 December. Before noon on Sundays visitors are kept to the west end until services finish.
The two paid tours are the thing to book. The Roof Tour is £12 on the door or £12.75 booked online, runs 90 minutes for 13 people at a time, is over-8s only and involves 113 steps up a medieval spiral staircase to the rafters, the wheel windows and the treadwheel, where the central boss is lifted to show the floor below. The gentler ‘Exploring Beverley Minster’ tour is £8, takes an hour, is fully accessible and covers St John of Beverley, the Saxon fridstool and the right of sanctuary. (Beverley Minster)
The Treasure House and Beverley Art Gallery
Free admission, on Champney Road, HU17 8HE. Galleries over two floors with changing temporary exhibitions, plus the permanent local history displays. The standout object is the South Cave Weapons Cache, an Iron Age find uncovered in 2002. There is dressing-up and Iron Age activity for children. (East Riding Museums)
Beverley Guildhall
Also free, in Register Square, HU17 9XX, and easy to walk past. It is Grade I listed, and the courtroom’s Rococo stuccowork ceiling is the reason to go in. It holds paintings by Fred Elwell RA and Mary Dawson Elwell, the town’s own artists, the civic silver and ceremonial chains going back to 1423, and a community museum with an archive of nearly 3,000 photographs of Beverley. Children can dress up as a judge in the courtroom. (East Riding Museums)
Beverley Racecourse
Flat racing on the Westwood, the common pasture above the town. The 2026 season has six meetings left: Ladies Day on 12 August, afternoon racing on 13 August, a Summer Saturday with Craig Charles DJing on 29 August, the William Hill Beverley Bullet on 30 August, afternoon racing on 16 September and the season finale on 22 September.
The tip for families: the Picnic Enclosure is in the middle of the course, you drive your car up close to the track, and it is the only enclosure where you can bring your own food and drink. Car parking into it is £7, or £10 for Ladies Day booked in advance. (Beverley Racecourse)
Skidby Mill
Five miles south of Beverley, and the cheapest ticket in this list at £2.50 an adult, £1.50 concessions, £1.25 for children over 5 and free under 5. The outbuildings hold the Museum of East Riding Rural Life, with the Alex West and Norman Creaser collections of market gardening tools and models, a Village Life gallery, and a display on the mill’s 2008 to 2010 restoration.
Go in knowing one thing: the mill no longer works. Milling is suspended, the stone-ground flour is not available and the museum says the mill will not return to active milling, so the sails stay still. The mill tower and flour-bagging floor are not accessible to wheelchairs or prams. (East Riding Museums)
The coast
Sewerby Hall and Gardens, Bridlington
The district’s flagship attraction and the most expensive ticket here. The day pass covers the house, the gardens and the zoo together, and events are included unless stated. Peak prices, running 18 July to 6 September and again 24 October to 1 November, are £13.75 an adult, £9.75 a child aged 3 to 15 and £43.50 for a family of two adults and two children, with extra children £5.25. From 7 to 27 September it drops to £12.75, £8.75 and £39.50.
Buy eTickets online before 9am on the day of your visit for a discount. Carers go free with a paying guest, groups of 20 or more get 25% off if pre-booked, Historic Houses members get in free and National Art Pass holders get 50% off. The zoo runs to penguins, capuchins, sika deer, llamas, coatis and raccoon dogs, and the Grade I listed house, built 1714 to 1720, is presented as an Edwardian country house of around 1910. (Sewerby Hall and Gardens)
Bridlington Spa
The seafront venue on South Marine Drive, YO15 3JH, and the biggest room for live music and theatre on this coast. Programming runs year round, pantomime included, with a membership scheme at £19.99 for the first year and a café on site. (Bridlington Spa)
Getting there in season, the Bridlington Park and Ride at South Cliff is £6.50 per vehicle including the bus for up to five people. Details are on our roadworks and travel page.
Withernsea Lighthouse Museum
A lighthouse in the middle of a residential street, which is the point. 144 steps to the top and the view over Holderness. Adults £5.50, children £4.50, senior citizens £5.00, a family of two adults and two children £16.00, and under-5s free.
Inside, alongside the RNLI and coastguard history and the town’s wartime displays, is the museum’s tribute to Kay Kendall, the film star born a stone’s throw away. There is a garden café for afterwards.
The season runs from 28 March, weekends only through to the end of October, but it opens seven days a week from 15 June to 11 September, weekdays 11am to 5pm and weekends noon to 4pm. (Withernsea Lighthouse)
Hornsea Museum
At Burns Farm, 11 to 17 Newbegin, and it is the North Holderness village-life collection. Open for the 2026 season from 28 March to 1 November, Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday 1pm to 4pm, with last entry an hour before closing. Adults £7, children under 16 £4, a family ticket £20 for two adults and up to three children, and under-5s and carers free. (Hornsea Museum)
Spurn National Nature Reserve
The three-mile sand spit at the mouth of the Humber, run by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and open at all times unless the weather makes it unsafe. You drive in on the A1033 and park at the Discovery Centre. Parking is free for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust members.
The thing to plan around is the washover: a one-kilometre stretch that is sometimes covered at high tide and cuts the end of the peninsula off from the mainland. Check the tide times before you go, and do not assume you can walk back. Without a car, the number 72 Spurn Explorer bus runs from Hull Interchange at weekends and on bank holidays. (Yorkshire Wildlife Trust)
The RSPB’s reserve at Bempton Cliffs, north of Bridlington, is the other big wildlife day out on this coast. We could not reach the RSPB’s site to confirm this year’s opening times and charges, so check the reserve’s own page before setting off.
The wolds and Holderness
Burnby Hall Gardens, Pocklington
Nine acres of gardens around two lakes holding a national collection of hardy water lilies, with a museum, café and shop. Open seven days a week, 10am to 5.30pm, last entry 4.30pm.
On price, note the temporary rate. Between 25 June and 1 September the gardens are passing on the Government’s cut of VAT to 5% on attraction tickets, so day tickets bought at the visitor centre are £8.30 an adult, £6.10 a child and £26.25 for a family of two adults and two children. The usual prices are £9.50, £7.00 and £30, and they return from 2 September. (Burnby Hall Gardens)
Burton Constable Hall, Skirlaugh
Home to the Constable family for over 700 years, with more than 30 rooms of fine art and furniture and over 300 acres of Capability Brown parkland. The hall opens for the 2026 season from 28 March to 1 November, Tuesday to Sunday and bank holiday Mondays, 11am to 4pm with last admission at 3pm. The parkland and the Stables Kitchen are open daily, 10am to 5pm, all year, which makes it a free-ish walk out of season.
Two exhibitions run through the season: The Curiosity Garden, on William Constable’s eighteenth-century herbarium, and the East Riding Yeomanry exhibition, built on the largest private archive of the regiment’s artefacts. Admission is booked through the hall’s own ticketing site. (Burton Constable Hall, HU11 4LN)
Planning a day out
- A free Beverley day. Minster, Treasure House and Guildhall are all free and within ten minutes’ walk of each other. Add the Saturday market and you have a full day for the price of parking.
- A cheap day with children. Skidby Mill at £2.50 an adult, then the Westwood. Or Withernsea Lighthouse at £16 for a family of four.
- The one big day. Sewerby Hall, where the £43.50 family ticket covers house, gardens and zoo, and where the peak price drops by a pound an adult from 7 September.
- Check before you drive. Several of these are seasonal and volunteer-run, and the coast road fills up on summer weekends. See the roads and roadworks page before a long trip.
Sources
Each venue’s own website, checked in August 2026: Beverley Minster, East Riding Museums, Beverley Racecourse, Sewerby Hall and Gardens, Bridlington Spa, Withernsea Lighthouse, Hornsea Museum, Burnby Hall Gardens, Burton Constable Hall, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at Spurn, East Riding of Yorkshire Council on Bridlington park and ride.
Opening times and prices change, particularly at the volunteer-run museums. Confirm with the venue before travelling.
More local information: East Riding house prices, Beverley trains to London, and roadworks and travel.
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