Where to Stay in Doncaster, England

What is Doncaster known for?

The market town of South Yorkshire kept its old churches and halls through the industrial age, and the tall tower of St George's Minster still marks the skyline. Cusworth Hall watches over the town from its park. The Don runs through it all.

What are the main landmarks in Doncaster?

St George's Minster towers over Doncaster. Its great Victorian tower stands where a medieval church once did, the mark of the old town, with the Church of All Saints and the Church of St Mary nearby. Grand halls ring the edges.

Cusworth Hall and Warmsworth Hall keep the country-house past, and the Danum Gallery, Library and Museum gathers the town's long story.

What is the history of Doncaster?

Doncaster began as Danum, a Roman fort on the road north. The legions built it to guard the crossing of the Don, and a town grew up around the walls and never left. Markets made it through the Middle Ages.

St George's Minster rose over the old heart of the town, its great tower a landmark for miles across the flat country, and the old churches of All Saints and St Mary served the growing parishes. The modern age came on iron rails and coal. Doncaster became a railway town, its works turning out engines while the pits worked the coalfield around it, and the wealth built halls and parks like Cusworth Hall on the edge of the town.

Warmsworth Hall and the older houses survive from the years before the pits. Museums keep the many pasts. The Danum Gallery, Library and Museum holds the town's story, and the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum and the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Museum tell of flight and war.

Roman road and railway line still cross in Doncaster.

Where is Doncaster?

The River Don runs through Doncaster. The town spreads across the flat Vale of York in the east of South Yorkshire, where the river winds through low country toward the marshes and the Humber beyond. Coalfields once lay all around.

The river and the plain shaped the town's growth.

What is the climate of Doncaster?

Doncaster shares the mild, damp weather of northern England. Cool, grey winters give way to changeable summers, and rain falls fairly evenly through the year over the Vale of York. Snow is light and brief on the low ground.

The seasons pass without extremes.

How do you get to Doncaster?

Doncaster sits on the east-coast main line. Fast trains stop in the town between London and the north, and the motorways cross nearby, making it one of the busier junctions of the region, while an airport lies a short way out. Buses reach the pit villages around.

Most arrive by rail, into the heart of South Yorkshire.