Plan your visit
Horses & Heritage
For those who love horses, heritage, art and historic buildings this tour provide a chance to get up close with the equine stars and a chance to explore some of Cambridgeshire’s most impressive historic buildings and artwork. Please check the attraction website for opening times.
Tour 1
Discover Newmarket and Audley End House and Gardens
Morning
You will need a car for this tour and we suggest starting in Newmarket – The Home of Horseracing at 09.00am. Start the morning with a visit to Newmarket Gallops – your Discover Newmarket Tour Guide can arrange to meet you at the Heritage Centre, you will see some of the 3000 horses in training in Newmarket being put through their paces on Warren Hill. Your guide will also be able to point out different Trainer’s ‘strings’ and points of interest along the way.
Next back to the newly opened National Heritage Centre for Horseracing & Sporting Art. Situated in Charles II’s sporting palace and stables and spans five acres in the heart of Newmarket. It comprises of three complementary attractions; a new National Horseracing Museum, a National Art Gallery of British Sporting Art, and a chance to meet former racehorses and learn what they do after racing, in the flagship home of Retraining of Racehorses (RoR). RoR demonstrations take place daily in the arena at 11.00 and 14.30.
Take some time to enjoy lunch in the Heritage Centres on-site restaurant, The Tack Room which boasts the best in British classic dishes. Retraining of Racehorses demonstrations take place daily in the arena at 11.00 and 14.30 daily.
Afternoon
Audley End House and Gardens is about 30 minutes from Newmarket and is a decadent Jacobean mansion house, looked after by English Heritage. More than 30 lavishly decorated rooms are open to the public, displaying in their historic context the accumulated Howard Neville and Cornwallis collections. These include Robert Adam furniture, a late 18th-century state bed and important natural history and silver collections. Paintings include works by Holbein and Canaletto, and an outstanding series of 16th-19th-century British portraits. Check website for prices.
Audley End House and Gardens has a lot more to offer, including impressive gardens, so if there’s time you may like to finish your visit with a late afternoon stroll.
Tour 2
Discover Newmarket & Ely
Morning
You will need a car for this tour and we suggest starting at http://www.elycathedral.org/ at 11.00. Widely acknowledged as one of the wonders of the medieval world and often described as ’The Ship of the Fens’ Ely Cathedral attracts visitors from all over the world, to discover its architecture, rich history & magnificence.
Afternoon
Just 20 minutes’ drive to Newmarket – The Home of Horseracing. Visit the 500 acre National Stud which is home to some of the leading stallions of the racing world and is the only stud to open its doors to the general public. Get a full insight into the workings of a thoroughbred farm while meeting stallions, mares and foals along the way. Tours of The National Stud last approximately 90 minutes and are taken by coach and on foot. Tours run February – October, please check Discover Newmarket’s website for tour times.
Both Ely & Newmarket have a selection of lovely restaurants and cafés where your guests can enjoy buffet lunches, cream teas or light meals.
