England
Nottingham
A honeycomb of caves, a Victorian gaol with its gallows intact, and Byron’s ruined abbey up the road.
Nottingham sits on soft sandstone, and for a thousand years its people dug into it: hundreds of man-made caves honeycomb the rock under the shops, from a medieval tannery to wartime air-raid shelters, and a Victorian cemetery was cut with catacombs and cave-graves straight into the cliff.
Above ground it is a city of a grim Victorian gaol you can tour, gallows and all, the oldest pubs in England burrowed into the castle rock, a genuine goth bar or two, and, twenty minutes north, the ruined gothic priory Lord Byron called home. Robin Hood is the least interesting thing here.
Go when Autumn, when the Park Tunnel drips and the Rock Cemetery fills with leaves. Any time for the caves, they sit at a steady cave-cold all year.
Haunt
What to See
Ossuaries, oddity museums, cemeteries, and the odd corners most guides skip.
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City of Caves
A guided walk through part of the man-made cave network under the city, hundreds of chambers cut into the soft sandstone over a thousand years: a medieval tannery, pub cellars, sandstone dwellings and a wartime air-raid shelter, all reached now through a shopping centre. Odd, cold and genuinely old.
- Solo-friendly
- Touristy
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The National Justice Museum
A Victorian courthouse and county gaol kept as they were left: the courtroom, the cells below, the exercise yard and the gallows where public hangings drew crowds until 1861. Costumed guides lay the grim history on thick, but the building itself, worn stone and heavy doors, needs no help.
- Adults only
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Nottingham Rock Cemetery
A Victorian cemetery cut straight into a sandstone cliff, with a dramatic sunken hollow known as the Catacombs, cave-graves and tunnels in the rock, and headstones tilting above. Free, strange and often empty. Head for the sunken area at the St Ann’s Well Road end.
Best shot The sunken sandstone hollow and cave-graves, with low light raking across the rock.
- Quiet
- Solo-friendly
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The Park Tunnel
A tall, elegant tunnel hand-cut through the sandstone in the 1850s to link a genteel private estate to the town, lit by a shaft of daylight falling from an opening in the roof. Easy to miss and quietly beautiful.
Best shot The daylight shaft falling into the sandstone tunnel, best around midday.
- Solo-friendly
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Wollaton Hall
A show-off Elizabethan mansion bristling with turrets and pinnacles on a hill in a deer park, which you will recognise as Wayne Manor from the Batman films. Inside is a natural history museum of stuffed everything. Free to walk the grounds among the deer.
Best shot The floodlit turreted facade at dusk, or its silhouette across the deer park.
- Kid-heavy
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Newstead Abbey
Lord Byron’s ancestral home, a medieval priory half-ruined into a gothic house, the shattered west front of the abbey church still standing beside it over dark lakes and gardens. Byron kept a pet bear and a wolf here and gave his dog a grander monument than most people get. Properly romantic and properly bleak.
Best shot The ruined abbey west front reflected in the lake at dusk.
- Quiet
- Solo-friendly
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St Mary's Church, Lace Market
The grand medieval church at the heart of the old Lace Market, big as a small cathedral and usually empty, dim and echoing. A good cool, dark pause between caves.
- Quiet
Rest
Where to Stay
B&Bs, haunted old hotels, Victorian piles. No hostels, ever.
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Colwick Hall Hotel
$$The Byron family’s Georgian ancestral hall on the edge of the city, columns and a grand staircase and a resident White Lady said to drift the corridors. Faded, characterful and a taxi from the centre. Sleep in Byron’s family home for the price of a chain hotel.
- Adults only
- Quiet
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Lace Market Hotel
$$A boutique hotel in a tall Georgian townhouse in the Lace Market, dark and central, steps from the Justice Museum and the old caves. Handsome and handy.
- Quiet
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Hart's Hotel
$$$A calm modern hotel built on the ramparts of the old castle, with a walled garden and long views over the city. Less gothic than the rest of this list, but quiet, grown-up and very comfortable.
- Quiet
- Adults only
Feast
Where to Eat & Drink
Candlelit cellars, dark bars, rooms with history in the walls.
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Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem
$$A contender for the oldest inn in England, dating itself to 1189 and burrowed into the caves at the foot of the castle rock, with cave rooms upstairs and a cursed model galleon nobody will dust. Deeply touristy and completely worth it. Get a pint and go up into the rock.
- Touristy
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The Pit and Pendulum
$$A gothic-horror themed bar behind a bookcase door, all candlelight, gargoyles, iron and cobweb, with cocktails served in skulls and test tubes. Yes it is a theme bar. On a dark night it is also exactly the theme. Lean in.
- Adults only
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The Bell Inn
$$Another of the city’s ancient inns, timber-framed with medieval caves in the cellar, quieter and less of a scene than the Trip. Good ale, old bones.
- Solo-friendly
Loot
Where to Shop
Vintage, avant-garde black, and oddities to take home. No fast fashion.
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Void Clothing
An independent alternative and gothic clothing shop, racks of black, boots, corsetry and band shirts, the sort of place Nottingham’s goths have kitted themselves out for years. If your wardrobe already runs dark, this is your stop.
- Solo-friendly
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Wild Clothing
A long-running vintage shop up Mansfield Road, decades of coats, dresses, denim and militaria packed tight. Dig for the good black.
- Solo-friendly
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