Top Hidden Gems Day Trips from Nottingham
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The top Hidden Gems Day Trips from Nottingham include The Park Tunnel, Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror, Bromley House Library, Ye Olde Salutation Inn, Stonebridge City Farm, Green's Windmill, Papplewick Pumping Station and Robin Hoods Hill.
Nottingham packs a surprising amount of character into a small area, and most of these gems sit within a gentle walk of the Old Market Square, with a couple more a short drive out. In the centre you can slip through the sandstone Park Tunnel, catch the sky reflected in Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror by the Playhouse, browse the galleried Bromley House Library and descend into the caves beneath Ye Olde Salutation Inn.
A little to the east, meet the animals at Stonebridge City Farm in St Ann's, then watch the sails turn at Green's Windmill in Sneinton. When you fancy a proper day out, head north to the gleaming beam engines of Papplewick Pumping Station near Ravenshead, or push northeast into old Sherwood country to the earthworks of Robin Hood's Hill above Oxton.
Between tunnels, art, libraries, farms and windmills, there is plenty here to fill a day. Here are eight hidden gems for a day trip from Nottingham.
The Park Tunnel
Photo: Stephen Craven via Geograph.org.uk
Walk through the Park Tunnel Cut straight through the sandstone cliff, the Park Tunnel links the Derby Road area down into The Park, a private Victorian residential estate right beside the city centre. Around 125 metres long and mostly unlined, it has an open shaft in the middle that drops daylight onto the roadway and a stone spiral staircase at one end.
It was built between 1844 and 1855 for the Duke of Newcastle, to a design by the architect Thomas Chambers Hine, though it proved too steep for carriages and now serves as a footpath. This listed structure is an atmospheric shortcut that many Nottingham locals barely know.
Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror
Photo: Andrew Abbott via Geograph.org.uk
See Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror Outside the Nottingham Playhouse at Wellington Circus stands Sky Mirror, a striking sculpture by Anish Kapoor. It takes the form of a concave dish of polished stainless steel about six metres across and weighing some ten tonnes, tilted upward toward the sky.
Being curved and mirror-bright, it throws back the sky, the theatre and passing people in an upside-down image that shifts with the weather and the changing light through the day. Unveiled in 2001, it is free to see at any hour, and it makes a quietly hypnotic stop in the heart of the city.
Bromley House Library
Photo: David Hallam-Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Tour Bromley House Library Just off the Old Market Square on Angel Row, Bromley House Library is an independent subscription library set in a Georgian townhouse of about 1752. Founded in 1816, it keeps the air of a private library, with a spiral staircase climbing to a galleried reading room, a walled garden tucked away at the back and a meridian line laid in the floor in 1836 to mark the moment of solar noon.
Full use is reserved for members, but the library runs regular guided tours open to anyone who wants a look. It is a listed building, and a real hidden corner of Nottingham.
Ye Olde Salutation Inn
Photo: John Sutton via Geograph.org.uk
Ye Olde Salutation Inn Two levels of caves cut into the sandstone lie beneath this Nottingham pub, complete with rock benches and a deep well once used to keep stores cool. Above ground it stands on the corner of Hounds Gate and Maid Marian Way, its oldest wing a timber-framed medieval range with 18th-century brick and 1930s additions layered on.
A building has occupied the spot since at least the 15th century, and drinks have flowed here since about the 1720s, though the painted date of 1240 and the claim to be the city's oldest inn do not hold up. These days it trades as a rock and biker pub with live music.
Stonebridge City Farm
Photo: DS Pugh via Geograph.org.uk
Meet the animals at Stonebridge City Farm In the St Ann's area, a short way from the centre, Stonebridge City Farm is a community farm of about three acres, free to visit and run largely by volunteers. It keeps pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, poultry and smaller animals in pens and paddocks, alongside vegetable plots, an orchard and a greenhouse, with a cafe and a shop selling produce.
As well as offering the chance to meet farm animals in the middle of the city, it runs volunteering, education and wellbeing programmes for the local community. The farm was set up in the late 1970s and remains a friendly, welcoming spot.
Green's Windmill
Photo: David Lally via Geograph.org.uk
Green's Windmill Flour ground on site and sold at the door still comes from this brick tower windmill in Sneinton, on the eastern edge of Nottingham, its sails and cap turning whenever the wind obliges. The mill was home and workplace to George Green, the mathematician who ran it after his father and carried out groundbreaking research in mathematical physics here before 1841.
Alongside stands a free science centre, its hands-on exhibits laying out that work. Derelict and fire-damaged in later years, the building was rebuilt and reopened in 1986.
An unusual place where milling and mathematics share the same walls.
Papplewick Pumping Station
Photo: Chris Allen via Geograph.org.uk
Explore Papplewick Pumping Station About eight miles north of Nottingham, in the countryside near Ravenshead, the ornate Victorian waterworks at Papplewick Pumping Station is well worth the drive. Its engine house holds two large rotative beam engines made by James Watt and Company in 1884, richly dressed with painted ironwork, cast-iron columns and stained glass, with a boiler house and an ornamental cooling pond alongside.
The station pumped drinking water until 1969 and reopened as a museum in 2005. On steaming days the boilers are lit and the engines run under steam, while other days offer static tours around the beautifully decorated buildings.
Robin Hoods Hill
Photo: Alan Murray-Rust via Geograph.org.uk
Climb Robin Hood's Hill Northeast of Nottingham, on high ground above the village of Oxton, Robin Hood's Hill is an ancient earthwork set in quiet farmland. Its hilltop carries the banks and ditches of an Iron Age hillfort, known locally as Oldox Camp, along with a rounded mound that may be a Bronze Age burial barrow, both softened by the centuries.
This is a remote, unmarked place rather than a laid-out attraction, reached on foot across the fields and rewarded with wide views over the surrounding country. The Robin Hood name is just one of many scattered across this old stretch of Sherwood country.
FAQs
Where is the Park Tunnel in Nottingham?
The Park Tunnel runs through the sandstone cliff off Derby Road, linking down into The Park estate beside Nottingham city centre. It is now a footpath open to all.
Is Papplewick Pumping Station worth visiting from Nottingham?
Yes. Papplewick Pumping Station lies about eight miles north of Nottingham near Ravenshead, and on steaming days its ornate 1884 beam engines run under steam.
Which of these gems can I reach on foot?
Several sit within a short walk of Nottingham's Old Market Square, including the Park Tunnel, Sky Mirror, Bromley House Library and Ye Olde Salutation Inn.
Conclusion
For a compact city, Nottingham hides a considerable spread of surprises. A day spent here could begin with the daylight shaft of the Park Tunnel and the mirrored dish of Sky Mirror, take in the quiet shelves of Bromley House Library, and drop into the sandstone caves under Ye Olde Salutation Inn.
Head a little further and you can pet the animals at Stonebridge City Farm or watch the sails of Green's Windmill turn in Sneinton. When time allows, the polished beam engines of Papplewick and the lonely earthworks of Robin Hood's Hill make fine drives into the countryside north of town.
From caves to windmills to ancient hillforts, these are the hidden gems for a day trip from Nottingham.
