Best Hidden Gems in Nottinghamshire
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The best hidden gems in Nottinghamshire are Papplewick Pumping Station, Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror, Bromley House Library, Ye Olde Salutation Inn, Robin Hood's Hill, Green's Windmill, The Park Tunnel and Stonebridge City Farm.
Nottinghamshire's hidden gems cluster in and around the city, with a couple out in the old Sherwood country. In Nottingham itself are an ornate Victorian pumping station of painted ironwork, a mirror sculpture by Anish Kapoor tilted at the sky, a Georgian subscription library with a spiral stair and a meridian line, an ancient inn built over sandstone caves, a working windmill that was once a mathematician's home, a road tunnel cut through the rock, and a community farm in the inner city.
Beyond the streets stands an Iron Age hillfort on high farmland above Oxton. Some are free and open; others keep steaming days, tours or set hours, so a quick check helps before you go.
Between the city's curiosities and the old Sherwood fields beyond the streets, there is plenty to seek out here. Here are eight hidden gems to seek out across Nottinghamshire.
Papplewick Pumping Station
Photo: Chris Allen via Geograph.org.uk
Papplewick Pumping Station is an ornate Victorian waterworks in the countryside near Ravenshead, about eight miles north of Nottingham, now a museum. Its engine house holds two large rotative beam engines made by James Watt and Company in 1884, richly decorated 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 opened as a museum in 2005. On steaming days the boilers are lit and the engines run under steam; other days are static tours.
Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror
Photo: Andrew Abbott via Geograph.org.uk
Sky Mirror is a large sculpture by Anish Kapoor standing outside the Nottingham Playhouse at Wellington Circus. It is a concave dish of polished stainless steel about six metres across, weighing around ten tonnes, tilted up toward the sky.
Being curved and mirror-bright, it reflects the sky, the theatre and passers-by in an upside-down image that shifts with the weather and the light. It was unveiled in 2001 and is free to see at any time, an arresting piece of public art in the heart of the city.
Bromley House Library
Photo: David Hallam-Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Bromley House Library is an independent subscription library in a Georgian townhouse of about 1752 on Angel Row, by the Old Market Square in Nottingham. Founded in 1816, it keeps the feel of a private library, with a spiral staircase up to a galleried reading room, a walled garden at the back and a meridian line set in the floor in 1836 to mark the moment of solar noon.
Full use of the library is for members, but it runs regular guided tours open to anyone. It is a listed building.
Ye Olde Salutation Inn
Photo: John Sutton via Geograph.org.uk
Ye Olde Salutation Inn is an old pub on the corner of Hounds Gate and Maid Marian Way in Nottingham, its oldest wing a timber-framed medieval building with 18th-century brick and 1930s additions. Beneath it are two levels of caves cut into the sandstone, with rock benches and a deep well, once used for cool storage.
The building has stood on this corner since at least the 15th century, though the painted date of 1240 and claims to be the city's oldest inn are not borne out; it has been a pub since around the 1720s. Today it is a rock and biker pub with live music.
Robin Hood's Hill
Photo: Alan Murray-Rust via Geograph.org.uk
Robin Hood's Hill is an ancient earthwork on high ground above the village of Oxton, in quiet farmland north-east of Nottingham. On the hilltop are the banks and ditches of an Iron Age hillfort, known locally as Oldox Camp, and a rounded mound that may be a Bronze Age burial barrow, both worn down by the centuries.
It is a remote, unmarked spot rather than a laid-out attraction, reached on foot across the fields, with wide views over the surrounding country. The Robin Hood name is one of many attached to places across this old Sherwood country.
Green's Windmill
Photo: David Lally via Geograph.org.uk
Green's Windmill is a working brick tower windmill in Sneinton, on the eastern side of Nottingham, that grinds wheat into flour sold on site. It was the home and workplace of the mathematician George Green, who ran the mill his father built and did his pioneering work in mathematical physics here before 1841.
Alongside the mill is a free science centre with hands-on exhibits about his work. The mill fell derelict and was damaged by fire, and it was rebuilt and reopened in 1986, its sails and cap turning again when the wind allows.
The Park Tunnel
Photo: Stephen Craven via Geograph.org.uk
The Park Tunnel is a road tunnel cut through the sandstone cliff in Nottingham, linking the Derby Road area down into the private Victorian residential estate known as The Park. About 125 metres long and mostly unlined, it has an open shaft in the middle that lets in daylight and a stone spiral staircase at one end.
It was built between 1844 and 1855 for the Duke of Newcastle, designed by the architect Thomas Chambers Hine, but it proved too steep for carriages and is now a quiet footpath. It is a listed structure.
Stonebridge City Farm
Photo: DS Pugh via Geograph.org.uk
Stonebridge City Farm is a community farm of about three acres in the St Ann's area, close to the centre of Nottingham, 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 being somewhere to see farm animals in the city, it runs volunteering, education and wellbeing programmes. It was set up in the late 1970s.
FAQs
When do the beam engines run at Papplewick Pumping Station?
The beam engines at Papplewick Pumping Station run under steam on steaming days, when the boilers are lit. On other open days the visit is a static tour of the engine house, boiler house and grounds, so check which kind of day you are visiting.
Why is Green's Windmill in Nottingham linked to a mathematician?
Green's Windmill in Sneinton was the home and workplace of the mathematician George Green, who ran the mill and did pioneering work in mathematical physics here before 1841. A free science centre beside the working mill explains his work.
Can anyone visit Bromley House Library in Nottingham?
Full use of Bromley House Library, a Georgian subscription library with its spiral staircase and 1836 meridian line, is for members, but it runs regular guided tours that are open to anyone. These give a look at the reading rooms and walled garden.
Which hidden gems in Nottinghamshire are free to visit?
Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror, the Park Tunnel and Stonebridge City Farm are all free in Nottinghamshire, as is the science centre at Green's Windmill. Robin Hood's Hill is open farmland reached on foot.
Conclusion
Nottinghamshire's hidden gems are mostly the city's own curiosities, with a little of old Sherwood beyond. In Nottingham are the painted engines of Papplewick, the sky-tilted mirror of Anish Kapoor, the galleried Bromley House Library with its meridian line, the cave-cellared Salutation Inn, the mathematician's working windmill at Sneinton, the sandstone Park Tunnel, and a community farm in St Ann's.
Out in the fields above Oxton lies the worn Iron Age hillfort of Robin Hood's Hill. Several are free and open; others run steaming days, tours or keep set hours, so a check helps.
Between the city and the Sherwood country, they make a varied day out. These are the places to seek out across Nottinghamshire.
