Museums · York · United Kingdom
4 best museums in York
The collections worth your time, how long each takes and how to fit them together.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
Photo: Seasider53, CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answer
Start with JORVIK Viking Centre, National Railway Museum and York Castle Museum. Together the 4 picks below take roughly 7–8 hours across 4 areas; 1 is free.
Key facts
- Places in this guide
- 4
- Free entry
- 1
- Time to see them all
- 7–8 hours
- Areas
- Coppergate, Leeman Road and Castle Area
Museums in York
Museum · Coppergate
1.JORVIK Viking Centre
Built on the site of excavations that uncovered Viking-age houses and workshops at Coppergate in the 1970s and 80s, JORVIK takes visitors on a ride through a reconstruction of the 10th-century street, complete with sounds and smells, followed by galleries of the finds.
- Time needed
- 1.5 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- History
- Rainy day
- Iconic
Museum · Leeman Road
2.National Railway Museum
Behind York station, the free national museum fills vast halls with locomotives and carriages, including Mallard, the fastest steam locomotive in the world, royal carriages used by Queen Victoria, and a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train.
- Time needed
- 2–3 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Kids
- Rainy day
- History
- Iconic
Museum · Castle Area
3.York Castle Museum
Housed in former 18th-century prisons, the museum is known for Kirkgate, a recreated Victorian street with shops you can walk into, as well as period rooms, toys and the cells of the old debtors' prison where Dick Turpin was held before his execution.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- History
- Rainy day
Gallery · Exhibition Square
4.York Art Gallery
On Exhibition Square below Bootham Bar, the gallery holds paintings from the 14th century to the present and the Centre of Ceramic Art, one of Britain's largest collections of studio pottery.
- Time needed
- 1.5 hours
- Cost
- Low cost
- Art
- Rainy day
Grouped by area
| Area | Places | Time needed |
|---|---|---|
| Coppergate | JORVIK Viking Centre | 1.5 hours |
| Leeman Road | National Railway Museum | 2–3 hours |
| Castle Area | York Castle Museum | 2 hours |
| Exhibition Square | York Art Gallery | 1.5 hours |
Booking and timing
Of these 4, 1 free, 1 low cost, 2 mid-priced. Book ahead for JORVIK Viking Centre. The longest visit is National Railway Museum; group the rest by area to save travel time.
- JORVIK Viking Centre: Timed-entry tickets bought online help avoid long queues in summer and at half-term.
How to fit them into 2 half-days
Grouped by area and kept to about four hours each, so you walk more than you ride.
- Half-day 1 (Coppergate and Leeman Road): JORVIK Viking Centre → National Railway Museum, at least 4 hours.
- Half-day 2 (Castle Area and Exhibition Square): York Castle Museum → York Art Gallery, at least 4 hours.
The quietest months for queues
- January: highs of 7°C (45°F), about 11 rainy days, very quiet crowds. Cold and frosty some mornings, but quiet; the Minster and museums are uncrowded and hotels at their lowest prices.
- March: highs of 10°C (50°F), about 9 rainy days, quiet crowds. Daffodils cover the grass banks below the city walls; mild days and few visitors.
- February: highs of 8°C (46°F), about 9 rainy days, moderate crowds. Chilly, but the JORVIK Viking Festival brings battle re-enactments and markets during the school half-term.
The neighbourhoods they are in
- Bootham and Clifton — Victorian terraces and guesthouses just outside the walls near the Minster
More of York
Questions travellers ask
+Where should I start in York?
JORVIK Viking Centre. Built on the site of excavations that uncovered Viking-age houses and workshops at Coppergate in the 1970s and 80s, JORVIK takes visitors on a ride through a reconstruction of the 10th-century street, complete with sounds and smells, followed by galleries of the finds.
+Which of these are free in York?
National Railway Museum.