Nottingham

Home of the Robin Hood legend, with sandstone caves beneath its castle and Sherwood Forest, Wollaton Hall and Byron’s Newstead Abbey close at hand.

Nottingham, in England’s East Midlands, is the home of the Robin Hood legend and about 1 hr 40 min from London by train. The centre is small enough to cover the main sights on foot: Nottingham Castle and the Robin Hood statue on Castle Rock; Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, the cave-built pub at the foot of the rock that claims to be “England’s oldest inn”; the City of Caves in the sandstone beneath the city; the immersive National Justice Museum; the Lace Market, legacy of the Victorian lace industry; and Hockley, full of independent shops. 5 km west of the city, Wollaton Hall served as Wayne Manor in Batman, and its deer park lets you see deer up close. To the north lies the Sherwood Forest area: Byron’s ancestral home Newstead Abbey, Sherwood Forest with its ancient Major Oak, Rufford Abbey, Clumber Park and the Ice Age rock art of Creswell Crags are all within an hour’s drive; to the northeast are Southwell Minster, The Workhouse and Newark Castle, and to the southeast Belvoir Castle. The best time to visit is Apr–Sep, when the forest and country house gardens look their finest, and the Robin Hood Festival takes place in Aug; in winter the Old Market Square hosts a Christmas market. Plan to stay 2–3 days: 1 day in the city and 1–2 days for Sherwood Forest and nearby estates. Trams and buses cover the city well; driving is easiest for out-of-town sights. Derbyshire attractions such as Chatsworth House and Hardwick Hall are covered under “Peak District”.

Top sights

• Nottingham Castle – A ducal mansion museum standing on castle rock, with a Robin Hood interactive gallery, a city art museum, and guided tours into the cave sy…
• City of Caves – A network of underground caves carved into the sandstone beneath the city, once used as tanneries, cellars, and WWII air-raid shelters. Gui…
• Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem – Calling itself 'England's oldest pub,' it is built against the castle rock, with bar rooms carved into sandstone caves. Legend says Crusade…
• Wollaton Hall – An ornate Elizabethan mansion and the Wayne Manor of The Dark Knight Rises. It houses a natural history museum, and its deer park is home t…
• Sherwood Forest & Major Oak – The birthplace of the Robin Hood legend. In this ancient oak forest, the most famous tree, the Major Oak, is about a thousand years old and…
• Newstead Abbey – The ancestral home of poet Lord Byron, where Gothic abbey ruins join a manor house, set among lakes, a Japanese garden and peacocks.
• Southwell Minster – A Norman twin-towered cathedral whose 13th-century stone foliage in the Chapter House is hailed as the peak of English Gothic carving.
• Old Market Square & Council House – One of Britain's largest city squares, with the New Baroque Council House under its dome as the civic heart, lively with a Christmas market…
• Lace Market & Hockley – A Victorian lace-industry warehouse district where red-brick mills have become bars and restaurants, with Hockley next door as a hub for in…
• St Mary's Church – A 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic church in the Lace Market, the city's oldest religious building, with huge windows and a soaring centra…
• National Justice Museum – An immersive museum housed in the old county court and prison, where visitors can stand trial in a Victorian courtroom and walk through the…
• Green's Windmill – A 19th-century mill in Sneinton, east of the city, where mathematician George Green worked; the restored windmill grinds flour on site.
• Nottingham Contemporary – A contemporary art gallery with lace patterns pressed into its exterior, offering free rotating exhibitions and a café, a modern landmark o…
• Rufford Abbey Country Park – A Cistercian abbey ruin and country park in Sherwood Forest, with lakes, woodland trails and a sculpture garden, ideal for a family half-da…
• Clumber Park – A large National Trust estate park with Europe's longest double avenue of lime trees, a lake, a Gothic Revival chapel and a walled kitchen…
• Creswell Crags – An Ice Age cave site in a limestone gorge, home to Britain's only known Palaeolithic cave art and many 'witch marks' carved on its walls.
• Attenborough Nature Reserve – A wetland reserve on the River Trent, converted from old gravel pits, with a lakeside path and birdwatching hides, opened by David Attenbor…
• Trent Bridge – A historic cricket ground opened in 1838, one of England's Test match venues, where you can take a tour or watch live matches.
• The Workhouse, Southwell – A 1824 workhouse restored by the National Trust, considered the most complete surviving example in England, recreating Victorian poor-law l…
• D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum – The miner's terraced house where the author of Lady Chatterley's Lover was born, furnished as it would have been in the 1880s, exploring th…
• Belvoir Castle – A Romantic castle that has been home to the Dukes of Rutland for generations, perched on a hilltop overlooking the Vale of Belvoir and a po…
• Newark Castle & National Civil War Centre – A 12th-century castle ruin on the River Trent where King John died in 1216; the town's National Civil War Centre tells the story of the Eng…
• Sherwood Pines Forest Park – The largest public forest in the East Midlands, with forest cycling trails, a Go Ape high-ropes adventure and walking paths, ideal for outd…
• Museum of Making – An industrial museum in the former 1721 Derby Silk Mill, at the southern end of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, showing Derby…
• Kedleston Hall – A neoclassical mansion designed by Robert Adam with an imposing marble hall, also home to Lord Curzon's Indian collection, and a National T…

Where to eat

• Restaurant Sat Bains – Nottingham's only two-Michelin-star restaurant, offering creative farm-to-table tasting menus that are a landmark of th…
• Ibérico World Tapas – A Michelin Bib Gourmand tapas spot in the vaulted cellars of the old Shire Hall prison, blending flavours from around t…
• Alchemilla – A Michelin-starred restaurant where former Sat Bains chef Alex Bond serves vegetable-led tasting menus in a Victorian c…
• The Cods & Scallops (Bramcote) – A widely acknowledged upmarket fish and chip shop in Nottingham, with chips fried in beef dripping and a fresh fish cou…
• Kottaram Kerala Restaurant – The highest-rated Kerala restaurant on Maid Marian Way, Nottingham's curry street, known for its dosas and coconut curr…