Find the carved leaves in the chapter house and name the trees

Walk the Norman nave and see the pyramid-capped west towers

Walk the minster close and the Archbishop's Palace ruins

The Norman rebuilding of Southwell began in 1108, and in 1288 the chapter house was added — its capitals carved with foliage of exceptional quality, oak, maple, hawthorn, hop and ivy cut so precisely that the species can be identified. They are known as the Leaves of Southwell, and the minster's twin western towers carry pyramid caps, rebuilt in 1880 on the Norman pattern.

Southwell Minster: The Leaves of Southwell

Walk the castle walls above the Trent where King John died

Walk the market square and the Georgian streets

Find the Queen's Sconce, the Civil War fort south-west of the town

King John died of dysentery in Newark Castle in 1216, and four centuries later the town held out for the king through three Civil War sieges until Charles I ordered it to surrender in 1646; the Queen's Sconce, one of the forts the defenders built, still stands on the edge of the town. The National Civil War Centre in the town tells the whole war, and the market place is lined with historic buildings.

Newark: The Castle Where King John Died

Walk to the Major Oak near Edwinstowe, the ancient tree of Robin Hood folklore, which died in 2026 and has been left standing

Visit the Sherwood Forest visitor centre and walk among the forest's ancient oaks

Walk the veteran oaks of the Birklands beyond the Major Oak

Sherwood Forest is what is left of the royal hunting forest, and at its heart stands the Major Oak, 800 to 1,200 years old and long said in local folklore to have sheltered Robin Hood's men. Its branches were chained from 1908 and propped from the 1970s, and in June 2026 the RSPB, which manages the forest, announced that it had died after failing to come into leaf; it will be left standing. The visitor centre tells the story and the surrounding wood holds hundreds of ancient oaks.

Sherwood Forest Robin Hood Trail

Take the cave tour beneath Nottingham Castle, which goes into Mortimer's Hole, where Edward III's men seized Roger Mortimer in 1330, or King David's Dungeon, depending on the day

Explore the National Justice Museum in the Shire Hall and its caves in the Lace Market

Walk the Lace Market, the district of the 19th-century lace warehouses

Under Nottingham Castle, Mortimer's Hole is the tunnel through which Edward III's men came to seize Roger Mortimer in 1330. The National Justice Museum is in the old Shire Hall, with its caves, and around it the Lace Market is the district of 19th-century lace warehouses.

Nottingham: Mortimer's Hole and the Lace Market

Tour Belvoir Castle, the Duke of Rutland's Gothic Revival castle above the vale, rebuilt in 1801–1832 to designs by James Wyatt

See the state rooms, among them the Elizabeth Saloon, the Regent's Gallery and the State Dining Room

Browse the shops and cafés of the Engine Yard retail village on the estate

Belvoir Castle, the Duke of Rutland's seat above the vale, was rebuilt in 1801–32 in the Gothic Revival style to designs by James Wyatt. Its state rooms include the Elizabeth Saloon, the Regent's Gallery and the Roman-inspired State Dining Room, and the Engine Yard on the estate is now a village of shops and cafés.

Belvoir Castle

Visit Lincoln Cathedral, begun in 1072 and, with its central spire until 1548, the tallest building in the world for over two centuries, and find the Lincoln Imp

Tour Lincoln Castle, walk its wall and see the Lincoln copy of Magna Carta of 1215

Walk up Steep Hill from The Strait in the lower town to the cathedral and Bailgate

See the Newport Arch, the Roman gateway in the north of the old city

Visit the International Bomber Command Centre on Canwick Hill, opened in 2018, with its spire and the Walls of Names

Lincoln Cathedral was begun in 1072, and with its central spire, until it fell in 1548, it was the tallest building in the world for more than two centuries; the Lincoln Imp is carved inside. Lincoln Castle, reached up Steep Hill, keeps one of the copies of Magna Carta of 1215, and the Newport Arch is a Roman gateway still in use. On Canwick Hill above the city, the International Bomber Command Centre opened in 2018 with its spire and the Walls of Names for the aircrew who died.

Lincoln: The Cathedral, the Castle and Magna Carta

Buy a hand-raised pork pie where they still make them

Taste Stilton from one of the six licensed dairies

See the medieval church of St Mary above the Eye

Melton Mowbray calls itself the rural capital of food, and it has the two things to back it: the Melton Mowbray pork pie, raised by hand around a wooden dolly with uncured meat that greys as it cooks, and Stilton, still made in the town at one of only six dairies licensed to make it anywhere.

Melton Mowbray: Pork Pies and Stilton

See the mosaics and hypocaust in Verulamium Park

Visit the shrine of St Alban in the cathedral

Verulamium grew into a major Roman town of some 125 acres, sacked by Boudica and rebuilt; Watling Street ran through it, and it had a forum, a basilica and a theatre whose remains are still visible, with mosaics from its houses in the museum. Above it, the abbey church was raised near the traditional site of the martyrdom of Alban, the first British martyr, with Roman bricks from the ruined town built into its tower.