Howden

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Auckley · 18 miles

A wildlife-focused zoo set on the former Brockholes Farm near Branton and Auckley, south-east of Doncaster, offers a mix of animal conservation, rehabilitation and visitor attractions across roughly 100 acres. The park opened to the public in April 2009 after the site was bought in 2008 and redeveloped; the ceremony was performed by television presenter Justin Fletcher, MBE. It is recognised as a member of both the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, and now houses around 500 animals representing about 100 species. Key areas include the Atlantic Forest, a South-American-themed zone opened in 2021 that displays bush dogs, maned wolves and lowland tapirs, and Lion Country, a ten-acre enclosure created in 2010 for rescued African lions. Visitors can walk through Lemur Woods to watch crowned, ring-tailed and red-bellied lemurs, or view Amur tigers from a 150-metre raised walkway in Land of the Tigers. The leopard enclosure, launched in 2012, features an eight-metre viewing tower and a long glass wall and is described as the world’s largest for the species. Project Polar, opened in 2014, provides a ten-acre habitat for six male polar bears, including deep pools. Facilities have been expanded with the Yorkshire Hive entrance, a larger car park, retail outlets, coffee shops, a restaurant added in 2022 and an on-site hotel serving guests and nearby airport travellers. Admission is charged and opening times are listed on the park’s official listing.

Pontefract Museum

Pontefract · 19 miles

A former Carnegie library now serves as Pontefract Museum, occupying an Art Nouveau building in the centre of Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Designed by George Pennington and opened as a library in 1904, the structure was repurposed for museum use in 1975 after a new library was erected elsewhere. The conversion retained the tiled entrance hall and original furnishings, and the building was entered on the Grade II listed register at the time of its reopening in March 1975. The museum is managed by Wakefield Museums & Castles, offers free admission and provides step-free access throughout, with toilets available on the premises. The displays focus on the town’s archaeological, artistic and social heritage. Exhibits include material from Pontefract Castle and the nearby St John’s Priory, notably the Ackworth Hoard of almost six hundred Civil War-era coins. The collection also illustrates the local liquorice trade, featuring packaging from the famous Pontefract Cakes factories and the sealed ballot box from the country’s first secret ballot in 1872. Additional highlights trace the town’s mining past, decorative and applied arts, fine art, photographs and printed ephemera. Three permanent exhibition spaces house these items, while a separate area accommodates temporary shows, and a reference room preserves archival documents relating to Pontefract’s history.

Drax Priory

Long Drax · 5 miles

"In 1868 it was reported that traces of the priory could still be found[2] but field work in the 1980s and 1990s has failed to find any physical remains of it" (source: wikipedia)

The Whipping Stone

North Newbald · 12 miles

base of stone cross

Groupes Lourds

Elvington · 13 miles

Commemorating the French heavy bombers at Elvington (allegedly the genesis of the French air force)

Central Park

Lincolnshire House · 14 miles

Park and Garden