Leeds has a rough sort of beauty to it. Located on the banks of the River Aire in northern England, red brick warehouses and crumbling Victorian factories still dot the Yorkshire city’s skyline. Leeds is a fascinating destination with an independent streak that runs to its core. At the Corn Exchange, you can shop for vintage clothes and hand-roasted coffee, while the Leeds Grand Theatre, Tropical World, and Roundhay Park are timeless sights to visit. 

The city’s industrial heritage is starkly juxtaposed against the surrounding nature, making Leeds the perfect base for outdoor activities. You can cruise along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, tackle the Yorkshire Three Peaks in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, or sit back in comfort and enjoy blissful scenes as you ride the scenic Settle & Carlisle train over the Ribblehead Viaduct. 

With so many things to see and do, you might not know where to begin. That’s why we’ve compiled our list of the absolute best things to do in Leeds for you. Try these fun and unique Leeds bucket list recommendations, and there’s no doubt you’ll have an incredible time exploring this gorgeous English city! 

15 Fun and Unique Things to do in Leeds, England

1. See Medieval Jousting at the Royal Armouries Museum

One of the best places to visit in Leeds is the Royal Armouries Museum. This fascinating museum overlooks Leeds Docks and is part of the wider Royal Armouries institution that can claim to be the oldest museum in the United Kingdom.

Indeed, before the Royal Armouries turned their hand to preserving history, they were concerned with keeping the armies of the Kings of England equipped with the best weaponry. The institution evolved in the medieval era and was originally headquartered in the Tower of London, where the first weapons were put on display in a type of early museum in the 15th century. 

The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds is more modern than this, having only opened in 1996. Step through the doors, though, and you’ll be transported through the ages as you delve across millennia of history. From the earliest hunter-gatherers to modern military equipment, you’ll learn all about the long history of human warfare, weapons, and armor. 

There are some 4,500 exhibits spread across multiple floors, some of which have some seriously impressive claims to fame. You’ll find the largest animal armor in the world, built for an Indian war elephant in the 16th century, alongside Henry VIII’s elaborate personal armor and even the sci-fi weapons used in the “Alien” movies. 

Best of all, the Royal Armouries has its own jousting arena alongside the dock, where they regularly host exciting Medieval reenactments!

2. Hang Out in Millennium Square 

Millennium Square is the most popular urban space in Leeds, and it’s a conveniently central place to start any sightseeing tour of the city. Found between Calverley Street and Great George Street, Millennium Square is home to architectural delights like the Leeds Civic Hall, a grand, neoclassical building built almost a century ago. 

The square itself was massively upgraded in the year 2000 to mark the millennium, and the space now regularly hosts public events, including markets, fairs, and televised sporting events (including important tennis, football, and rugby matches). 

There are bars and pubs on one side of Millennium Square, Mandela Gardens on another, and the Leeds City Museum (dating back to 1819 and home to everything from taxidermied tigers to Anglo-Saxon gold) on yet another side. From Millennium Square, you’re perfectly placed to easily stroll through the rest of Leeds city center!

3. See the Leeds Tiger at the Leeds City Museum 

First-time visitors to Leeds are generally struck by the mass of Victorian red brick buildings, warehouses, and old factories that speak of the city’s industrial past. Indeed, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Leeds’ history only extends to the 19th century, when it grew into the expansive urban area you see today during the boom days of the Industrial Revolution.

Visit the Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square, though, and you’ll soon discover that the local history stretches back far further than you’d imagine. You’ll start in the natural history gallery, where the Life on Earth exhibition transports you to a time when animals roamed the Yorkshire Dales. 

You’ll see the taxidermied remains of local animals, as well as the curious remains of more exotic animals, including the Leeds Tiger, which was captured in India and brought back to England by a Victorian collector. The Collectors Cabinet holds more of these unusual Victorian collections from around the world, offering a unique insight into the eccentricity of 19th-century Leeds.

The Leeds Story exhibition explores the history of the city, from its ancient roots through to the modern era, while the World View gallery explores Asian history and culture, a continent away from Yorkshire. Finally, the Ancient Worlds gallery is home to a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy named Nesyamun, whose voice box scientists famously recreated in an effort to hear the mummy speak!

4. Visit the Crumbling Ruins of Kirkstall Abbey

A 15-minute drive or a leisurely one-hour walk from the city center brings you to Kirkstall Abbey, one of the best sights in Leeds. 

Overlooking the banks of the River Aire, this once grand abbey was built by Cistercian monks in the 12th century. One of the wealthiest religious orders of their day, the Cistercians constructed one of the finest abbeys in England. 

But Kirkstall Abbey met its demise some three centuries later when a certain King Henry VIII needed a divorce. The infamous king took the drastic measure of separating England from the religious laws of Rome, and in the process of adopting Protestantism, dissolved the Catholic monasteries. 

The Cistercian monks were kicked out, and the abbey was left to fall to ruin as its wealth and land were redistributed to Henry VIII’s pals in Yorkshire. Over the next centuries, Kirkstall Abbey became a wild place, overgrown and crumbling but romantic in its own way, and by the 19th century, it had found a new lease of life as painters like J.M.W. Turner were drawn in by its unusual beauty. 

Today, you can explore Kirkstall Abbey yourself. There’s a small visitor’s center at the entrance, where you can learn about monastic life and the dissolution of the monasteries before walking through the ruins and the surrounding gardens. 

5. Shop at the Corn Exchange 

Leeds has a fantastic independent spirit, and nowhere epitomizes this more than the Corn Exchange. 

Completed in 1863, step through into the grand interior of the Corn Exchange, and you’ll love the sweeping view of the shops below from the balcony. The building was completed at the height of Britain’s agricultural revolution, and the grandest columns, materials, and designs were utilized by the best Leeds architects of the day.

Originally, the Corn Exchange was just that, a marketplace where corn, and other agricultural produce, could be sold and deals brokered en masse by farmers and landowners. Today, the Corn Exchange has been taken over by family-run businesses and independent shops, where you can shop for vintage clothes, peruse small art galleries, get tattooed, and fuel up on great coffee. 

6. See a Show at the Leeds Grand Theatre 

A night at the theater is one of the top things to do in Leeds. The city’s most iconic venue is the Leeds Grand Theatre, which has been entertaining the crowds since it first opened to grand applause in 1878. 

The Grade II-listed building was designed in the red brick style of the Victorian era, while the Gothic interior has changed little over the years. There’s only seating for 1,500 people, but you can often get last-minute deals on weekdays or matinee tickets if you haven’t booked in advance. 

The Leeds Grand Theatre is one of the most popular venues for touring comedians, while the big West End shows often visit from London, as do the Broadway shows on occasion. 

7. Escape the City at Roundhay Park

Covering an impressive expanse of land numbering some 700 acres, Roundhay Park is not just the largest green space in Leeds but one of the largest city parks in Europe.

Located on the northeastern edge of the city, if you need a breath of fresh air, there’s no better place to be. The land was originally gifted by William the Conqueror in the 11th century to the de Lacy family for their part in the invasion of England, and it was used as a private hunting ground and estate for hundreds of years. 

In the late 19th century, the area was finally acquired by the city, which made the park public after a massive landscaping project. Today, you can explore Roundhay Park at your leisure, including the flower gardens, the lakes, Hill 60 (named for a hill in France that was a battlefield during the First World War), the Mansion House, and the old Folly (a replica medieval castle built in the 1800s).

8. Venture into the Rainforests of Tropical World

Roundhay Park is also home to Tropical World, which is easily one of our favorite things to do in Leeds. Tropical World is home to one of the largest collections of tropical plants in the United Kingdom. The only place with more is Kew Gardens in London, from which Tropical World has taken much inspiration.

Now a sprawling complex of gardens and greenhouses, Tropical World started life back in 1911 as just a solitary glass conservatory. The small collection of exotic plants steadily increased, and in the late 20th century, a huge expansion project transformed the greenhouses into Tropical World, which has since become one of the most popular Leeds sightseeing attractions.

You’ll start your journey into the tropics in the butterfly house, where colorful species of butterflies fill the greenhouse. Reptiles, including small crocodiles and terrapins, fill the waterways as you move from greenhouse to greenhouse, exploring the different tropical zones that have been created here. 

Move into the carefully controlled rainforest zone, and you’ll have been transported across continents, as parrots and parquets fill the treetop canopies above you. The level of detail is impressive, and as you admire tumbling waterfalls and watch out for ants and other insects, you’ll soon forget about the post-industrial landscapes of Leeds waiting outside. 

9. Explore the Thackray Museum of Medicine

Housed in a magnificent red brick building that was originally built as a poorhouse by the Victorians, the Thackray Museum of Medicine is the sort of hard-hitting attraction that will make you thankful for living in the 21st century! 

The museum itself is named for Charles Thackray, a Leeds chemist who started collecting medical items of historic importance in the early 20th century. The red brick building was turned into a hospital during the First World War, and many years later, Thackray’s son expanded on his father’s collection, and the Thackray Museum of Medicine was born in 1997 after the hospital was closed down.

The museum’s humble private origins are hard to imagine now, given there are some 47,000 medical exhibits held within the collection. This includes everything from Roman scalpels to modern first aid kits, alongside curious finds like Adolf Hitler’s blood transfusion equipment. 

True to the building’s poorhouse origins, the museum focuses heavily on telling the often-horrifying story of Leeds’ slums in the Victorian era. The city grew rapidly, during the Industrial Revolution leaving many tens of thousands of unfortunate families living in squalor. 

You’ll walk through a recreation of the slums themselves, learning how a lack of medical care and sanitation led to regular outbreaks of diseases like cholera. As we said, you’ll be thankful for the advances that medicine has made, even within the last century! 

10. Visit a Grand Country Estate at Harewood House 

On the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, but only a 20-minute drive north of the city center, you can visit one of the grandest country estates in Leeds.

Harewood House was built for the rich Lascelles family in the 18th century. One of the largest stately homes of the era, the house was designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam in the Palladian style of the day. The exquisite gardens, which are still immaculately kept today, were landscaped by Capability Brown, who was the most sought-after gardener of his time. 

Start your visit in those same gardens as you stroll past carefully placed lakes and water features into the unique Bird Garden (the surprising home of penguins and flamingos) and past old follies and vegetable farms.

You can walk through Harewood House itself, admiring the stately rooms and lavish furnishings found across the maze of floors and corridors. Take a tour, and you’ll also learn about the history of the house itself, including the darker past of the Lascelles family. They built the house on the profits of the slave trade, using wealth made on West Indian plantations to cement their place in the aristocracy of England. 

11. Rock Out at the Leeds Festival

Every year since 1999 (with a brief break during COVID-19), the Leeds Festival has been held over the August bank holiday weekend. 

For three days in a row, some of the best and biggest acts in the world descend on a field outside Leeds for a long weekend of loud music and debauchery. Past headliners have included everyone from Foo Fighters to Rage Against the Machine, and it’s always a sell-out event. You’ll camp out in a field, probably enduring the rain, as you party in a muddy field in Yorkshire – what more could you want?

The Leeds Festival is one of the UK’s biggest festivals, and it’s the partner of the Reading Festival, which takes place on the same bank holiday weekend in the south of England. The same bands play both festivals, just on alternating days, with northerners, of course, arguing that the sets at the Leeds Festival are always better than the Reading Festival!

12. Watch Leeds United at Elland Road

If you’re big into sports, then you’re in luck because Leeds is home to one of England’s most historic football (soccer) clubs, even if they aren’t winning much right now!

For sports lovers, watching a game at Elland Road, the home ground of Leeds United, is one of the most fun things to do in Leeds. The club traces its lineage back to 1904, when it was founded as Leeds City, and since then, they’ve had periods of ups and downs. 

The highs include winning multiple League Championships, the FA Cup, and League Cup, while throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Leeds United were a staple of the Premier League, England’s top division.

But the fall from grace was hard, and Leeds United have since found themselves bouncing between the Premier League and the Championship, as they suffer relegation and win promotion. This is real English football, and the fans who turn up every weekend to watch their team play are some of the most passionate in the world! 

13. Explore the Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal stretches for 127 miles across the mountainous terrain of the Pennines. Connecting Leeds and Liverpool, the canal was an epic work of engineering that took 46 years to complete, with work starting in 1770 and only finishing in 1816. 

The canal is a serious piece of history, being the longest canal in the country to connect two individual cities. Although its commercial use has long since been negated by modern forms of transport, the canal remains in perfect working order, with as many as 91 different locks to traverse along the route.

Given the hilly terrain, some of the locks – like the Bingley Five Rise Locks – are absolutely spectacular. In Leeds, you can hire a canal boat and cruise along the waterways – you could even make it all the way to Liverpool – or if you don’t fancy captaining a boat yourself, you can join two-hour guided cruises along the canal.

Alternatively, you can take a stroll down the towpaths alongside the canal, with some excellent walking routes leading from the Leeds Docks. 

14. Hike in Yorkshire Dales National Park

Leeds is perfectly situated within easy reach of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, a spectacular area of wild beauty to the north of the city. The Yorkshire Dales is an area of seriously upland scenery that is part of the Pennines, a long ridge of rock, hills, and mountains that stretches across northern England.

That means it’s perfect for hillwalking, fell running, hiking, mountain biking, and all other manner of outdoor pursuits you love. Great long-distance walks include the Dales Way and the Trans Pennine Way, while the Pennine Bridleway offers excellent terrain for off-road biking. The ultimate challenge is the Yorkshire Three Peaks, where you tackle the three highest peaks in the national park in as short a time as possible. 

The Yorkshire Dales is packed with quaint villages, natural sights, and tourist attractions, including Malham, Pateley Bridge, the Wensleydale Creamery, and countless waterfalls. You can reach many destinations by hiring a car or by joining a day tour from Leeds. 

15. Ride the Settle & Carlisle Line

If it’s a rainy day on the Yorkshire Dales, you might prefer a scenic railway ride to a day of hiking, in which case you’ll love the Settle & Carlisle Line. Boldly claiming to be the most scenic railway in England, sit back and enjoy the views as the Yorkshire Dales whiz past on your way from Leeds north to Carlisle. 

From Leeds, the train line takes you north through classic Yorkshire towns like Shipley, Skipton, and Keighley before joining the Settle & Carlisle Line at Settle Junction, a charming station that’s straight out of the Railway Children.

The journey continues to Ribblehead Station, where you can see the extraordinary engineering work of the Ribblehead Viaduct, before arriving at Dent Station in the Yorkshire Dales, the highest railway station in England. The line ends in Carlisle, a scenic three hours after you start in Leeds. 

There you have it! The 15 best things to do in Leeds. What’s your favorite thing to do in Leeds?

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