Great days out

Beamish is no ordinary museum. It’s a living, working town, colliery village, farm and manor recreating life in the early 18th and 19th centuries. All of the buildings are original, and the result is an award-winning day out.

Come into NewcastleGateshead’s Discovery Museum and you’ll find Turbinia, once the world’s fastest ship, moored in the hall. And visit Newcastle’s newest museum – the Great North Museum with 11 family-friendly galleries packed with national-important collections of glass, pottery, art and fossils. 

Transport museums

Our maritime heritage is brought vividly to life at Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience, where an 18th-century seaport is recreated right down to the cannon blasts.

Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon, celebrates the region’s status as the birthplace of the railway.

Delve into history

Want to see history unearthed before your eyes? Visit Vindolanda Roman fort and settlement by Hadrian’s Wall, where you can watch the archaeological dig in progress during late spring and summer.