York History School Trips & Tours

Situated on the route of York’s famous walls walk, Micklegate Bar has stood sentinel to the city for over 800 years. Visit the ancient gateway to explore the pageantry and barbaric history that has unfolded between these walls through the centuries.
Find out about Henry VII’s early life as an exile Lancastrian heir to the throne, see the impact on the city of York as it continued to prosper throughout his reign and enjoy interactive experiences exploring life and death in Tudor times.

The Jorvik Viking Centre holds the preserved remains of houses, workshops and backyards of the Vikings from 1,000 years ago. Now reconstructed, this centre enables your pupils to experience life in Viking-Age York. Your pupils will encounter the old Norse speaking citizens, see inside their houses and back yards, experience a blast of smoke from blacksmith’s furnace and enjoy the smell of home-cooked stews.

Available workshops include Anglo-Saxon & Viking Costume, Anglo-Saxon & Viking Medicine, Viking Battle Tactics and Viking Saga.

Visit the National Coal Mining Museum and explore the 45-acre site to discover the hidden world of mining through the centuries. The galleries show how miners lived, worked and relaxed, from the Victorian age through to modern day. A visit underground will let your pupils see how coal was extracted and moved to the surface.

Experience the sights, sounds and smells of those dangerous years of WWII. Covering Britain since 1930, Eden Camp transports pupils back to wartime Britain via a series of wartime huts housing insightful displays.

The National Railway Museum in York is home to over 300 years of history and over a million wonderful objects. Your pupils can marvel at iconic locomotives, watch engineering work in progress in the Workshop, browse object-filled Warehouse, and let off steam in the outdoor play area.

Wonderlab: The Bramall Gallery is an unmissable new interactive experience for schools—where nothing is off limits. Recommended for KS2 and KS3 (ages 7-14).
Pupils will play their way through 18 interactive exhibits and fuel their curiosity with amazing live experiments. Test their engineering skills as they step into the human wind tunnel, launch a rocket and build big.

Based around a fictional Roman frontier fort and its neighbouring Celtic village at Murton Park, the on-site Roman courses offer your pupils the chance to join the Roman Army. Arriving as new recruits drawn from a local Celtic tribe, your pupils will be taken to a turf and timber fort, issued with their uniforms and military equipment, and will experience first-hand the daily life of a Roman soldier.

An ideal and popular destination for group visits, where pupils can enjoy searching the rocky shore for current and Jurassic habitats. There is a wide range of wildlife on show, an exciting exhibition and education centre and pupils can even find and classify a fossil.

Scarborough Castle has a 2,500 year history, stunning location and panoramic views over the dramatic Yorkshire coastline. It started life as an Iron Age Fort, was occupied by the Romans, became a Viking settlement and reached its heyday under Henry II. This royal stronghold, built by successive medieval kings over two centuries, has seen more than its fair share of conflict and sieges. Learn how it was fought over in the English Civil War and came under bombardment during WWI.

Discover how over 1,500 years of history make this abbey one of England’s most important archaeological sites. You’ll find out what life was like through different ages, explore the modern day issues of restoring a ruined property and learn about the troubled history of the Abbey.

Cruise on the picturesque River Ouse through the walled City of York. See for yourself where Saxons fought Vikings in 1066, where monks entertained their guests and where witches were ducked in the Middle Ages.

Take your class on a fascinating, fully-guided tour and discover how chocolate made history in York. Explore the origins of cocoa, find out how to taste chocolate like an expert, have a go at our hands-on chocolate making station and enjoy live Chocolatier demonstrations. Pupils can also uncover a host of surprising secrets and fascinating facts behind York’s greatest chocolate products, from the Chocolate Orange to the world-famous KitKat.

Curriculum linked workshops are also available - call us for more information! 

Home to the world-famous recreated Victorian street, Kirkgate, and the York Castle Prison Experience, here your pupils will learn how people have lived over the past 300 years. The Education Department also offers a variety of workshops for KS2 / P4-7 including ‘The Victorian Classroom’, ‘York Prison’ and ‘Castle Life’.

The Yorkshire Museum has an excellent collection, reflecting York’s important Roman and medieval history, as well as a first-class natural history collection. The Education Department also offer workshops designed for KS2 / P4-7, based around Romans, Vikings, Tudors, Science and Art.

This York ghost walk will take your pupils on an exciting tour of all the famous and infamous haunted sites throughout the ancient City. Your specialist guide will help you discover the secrets of York’s dark cobbled streets.