Days Out

Although this will never be an all-encompassing comprehensive guide to places to visit, it hopefully will give an idea of what can acheived. As more places are added, the scope will expand, but initially you will find a bias towards Yorkshire, where we live.


Yorkshire

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey with Studley Royal Water Garden, four miles west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, is of outstanding historic and aesthetic importance.
Attracting approximately 300,000 visitors a year, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal is the National Trust's most visited pay-for-entry property. Acquired by the Trust from North Yorkshire County Council in 1983, it was declared a World Heritage site in 1987.
The 822 acre (333ha) estate is open daily all year round.


We last visited Fountains Abbey in December 2006. The visitor centre is adjacent to the main car park and also has a shop and restaurant. A mini-bus with wheelchair clamps is available to take visitors to the abbey and gardens. There is a smaller car park by the Abbey entrance, however this can fill up quickly at busy periods.
NOTE: the slope between visitor centre and Abbey is 16% (1 in 6) in places and is NOT recommended for wheelchair users to attempt!

The Abbey itself is accessible across the lawns, however you may need to walk around the side to gain access to parts. Most of the interior is accessible, although some parts are up or down steps.

There is a small museum which is accessible from the path before you reach the Abbey.
There is also a working water mill which is now fully accessible with a lift to the upper stories.
The gardens are in the main accessible, although there a few short hills. It is possible to get into the lakeside tea-rooms, however at busy periods it is often crowded.

Toilets: There are disabled toilets by the visitor centre, by the Tea-rooms, and up a short slope next to the Hall, near the Abbey entrance gates.

Yorkshire Lavender

A drive that includes B-roads into the heart of North Yorkshire not far from Scarborough.


The car park is fairly extensive though there are no designated places for disabled people to park and the area itself is rough gravel so it can be a bit bumpy in a manual wheelchair and an electric may get stuck on the larger stones. You will need a helper if you are using a manual unless you are strong armed.

Inside the buildings:-
The buildings are fairly new and they have a wide door to the entrance also the owner of the farm has a wheelchair you can borrow (I would assume its manual). The shop area is easy to get around though a lot of the items are quite high up and you would need help to access them, the management seem friendly and offered to keep some of my purchases behind the counter till we were ready to pay.

The toilets are a reasonable size though it is a bit of a squeeze to get both the wheelchair user and the helper into the same room. The fittings are easily accessed. The room itself is not so easy to get too as the access is down a narrow corridor which also leads to the kitchen and the door opens outwards into the area where people need to pass with food and hot drinks. Care is needed when leaving the toilets otherwise staff may get the door knocked into them because you cant see them.
The teashop has adequate room round the outer tables for wheelchairs to be placed though it can make it a tight squeeze at busy times for access to the rest of the facilities for other wheelchair users.

Outside the buildings:-
In front of the car park there are lavender fields that look fairly level and have gravel paths round them the management say they are wheelchair accessible I did not try to us them. At the back of the buildings there are more fields but they looked like they were rather steep for wheelchairs and disabled people in general.