Celebrating the passage of time and transition from one year to another, the turn of the New Year is one of the most anticipated dates in the calendar, with the UK hosting a plethora of events to mark the occasion in style. Everywhere from the smallest villages to the largest cities beams with cheer and elation for the year ahead.
Whether your idea of New Year’s heaven is to celebrate with all your friends or indulge in a peaceful getaway, there is somewhere memorable for you to start your next chapter.. Helping you to find the perfect place this year, we’ve collated some of the best New Year’s celebrations in the UK to welcome 2025, from coastal corners to glittering cities.
Follow Chatsworth’s Illuminated Trails in Bakewell
The beautiful Chatsworth House is a historic home surrounded by a hundred-acre garden and thousand-acre estate in Bakewell, Derbyshire. Home to the same family for nearly five centuries, it is beloved for its regal architecture and Capability Brown designed landscape gardens that have seen it used as the backdrop for many television series and films over the years. For an unforgettable New Year in the Peak District, head over to Chatsworth and follow the estate’s interactive light and sound trail around the gardens. Winding past famous landmarks, such as the historic Cascade, Rock Garden and Maze, this family-friendly celebration promises to transform the familiar sights of the estate with illuminated wonder and offers something to see at every turn. Remember to book in advance to secure your ticket and entrance.
Savour a Michelin Star Meal at Your Retreat with L’Enclume
To welcome 2025 in style, enjoy luxury dining with the cosiest twist this year. An unmissable experience, this opportunity affords an incredible way to enjoy Michelin star dining at your luxury retreat courtesy of Simon Rogan and the three Michelin star and Michelin green star L’Enclume. Part of an exclusive New Year’s Eve offer, the restaurant’s award-winning chefs have created delectable menus of the tastiest fare for you to savour from the comforts of your abode. Simply choose from their five-course standard and vegetarian menus and look forward to the highest quality Christmas meals prepared for you and delivered to your door. Nationwide delivery is available, or you can collect from their Lakeland shop in Cartmel. To revel in the finest tastes, all you need to do is heat, plate and indulge…
Go for a New Years Swim at Lyme Regis
One of the most invigorating ways to welcome in the New Year is with a sea swim. An ever-popular pastime, New Year’s Day swims are hosted from coves and coastlines all around the UK each year and unite all generations of swimmers. A particularly wonderful place for a New Year’s dip is the coastal idyll of Lyme Regis. Known as the Pearl of Dorset, this beautiful town sits nose-to-nose with the sea at the heart of the UNESCO Jurassic Coast and beckons for magical moments oceanside. Venture to the seafront of Lyme Regis’ sandy beach on 1st January 2025 and take part in the annual Lyme Lunge for a fully immersive experience. As part of the tradition, fancy dress is thoroughly encouraged amongst the hardy souls braving the waters, and donations are welcomed for the event’s charities of choice.
Take a Cruise on Ullswater
If you are looking for an atmospheric way to welcome in the New Year, then why not whisk yourself away to one of the most spellbinding regions of the UK? Set within the heart of the enchanting Lake District National Park, the wild beauty of Ullswater entices for hours of adventure within a peaceful bubble of solitude. Encouraging moments rooted in the present and affording some of the most glorious views imaginable, the lake itself is perfect for dreamy cruises. Take your own boat down to the water’s shores or enjoy a chartered cruise with operators such as Ullswater Steamers and lap up the sights of the lake for the sweetest start to the New Year. Weather permitting, the experience of cutting through its silky surface and gazing at the mountainous landscapes around is sure to captivate the mind and capture the heart.
Watch Fireworks by the Sea in St Ives
One of the best places to go for New Year’s celebrations in the UK, St Ives in Cornwall is full of magic. A charming seaside town, it is known far and wide for its ethereal atmosphere and showstopping aesthetics which set the perfect scene for festivities. This year, the town’s annual celebrations promise to inspire mirth in all generations once again, with fancy dress and themed costumes adding to the frivolities. If you would like to relish a New Year by the sea, make way to this salty-aired haven and step out onto its cobbled streets to soak up the ambience. Whether you would like to treat yourself to a meal in one of the county’s Michelin star restaurants in Cornwall or tread footsteps along one of St Ives’ beaches before the evening draws in, there’s a lot to look forward to. Watch fireworks burst above the harbour, pay a visit to one of the many waterside pubs, sing shanties long into the night and get ready for the annual countdown to the New Year.
Attend Hogmanay in Edinburgh
One of the largest events in Scotland’s cultural calendar, Hogmanay is a widely anticipated event for many to celebrate the start of the New Year. Held all over the country, the biggest celebrations take place in Edinburgh and feature a huge array of things to see and do for all ages. Perfect for those who want to launch 2025 with a bang, this world-famous event lights up the city with live music concerts (held everywhere from pubs to Princes Street Gardens to St Giles’ Cathedral), magnificent fireworks displays, torchlit processions, street parties, traditional ceilidh dances, family-friendly attractions and more. A real highlight, the amazing view of Edinburgh Castle illuminated by giant spotlights and the kaleidoscopic cascade of fireworks is a real sight to behold as the clock strikes midnight. Book tickets to your favourite events or simply immerse yourself in the activity of the streets for a New Year to remember.
Ice Skate in Bath
For the chance to slide, glide and pirouette your way into 2025, take to the ice on Bath’s ice rink this year. Open from November 2024 to January 2025, Bath on Ice coincides with the city’s seasonal festivities and forms part of one of the best Christmas markets in Somerset. Featuring an open-air rink topped with real ice, it resides within the city centre in easy reach of many of Bath’s top attractions and restaurants, and is paired with an alpine bar and Glow Golf course for added fun. Enjoy magical moments exploring the city before heading over to the rink, illuminated by pretty, multi-coloured lights and overlooked by trees and handsome buildings. Whether you have perfected your butterfly jumps or are donning your skates for the first time, you can anticipate the exhilaration of ice skating with your favourite people and the wonder of this nostalgic pastime.
Star Gaze in the Yorkshire Dales
Sometimes the beauty of celebrating the New Year and new beginnings can be experienced in the most peaceful moments. For a truly bewitching way to welcome 2025 away from traditional festivities, why not head to one of the UK’s Dark Sky Reserves and fall under the spell of the night sky? Offering a dreamy way to watch the sky merge with the boundaries of time as stars twinkle in one year and the next, this spellbinding activity has a special kind of appeal – particularly when enjoyed in the Yorkshire Dales. An International Dark Sky Reserve, the Yorkshire Dales National Park is full of incredible places to visit and is topped with some of the darkest skies in the UK. Make way to one of the recommended stargazing spots adorned in plenty of warm layers and with a bottle of something special, and watch the skies work their magic. On a clear night, you can see as many as two thousand stars above, as well as planets, meteors, the Milky Way and even, if your stars align, the Northern Lights.
Watch the Guisers at Allendale Tar Bar’l
For a truly memorable New Year’s celebration in the UK, head over to the rural village of Allendale in Northumberland. Surrounded by the grassy slopes of three valleys and nestled within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, this stunning location makes for a picturesque destination for sojourns. That said, it’s the town’s annual Tar Bar’l festival that makes it even more appealing for New Year’s escapes. Each year on New Year's Eve, the village’s streets are soundtracked by live bands and illuminated by dozens of local men (known as guisers) carrying flaming barrels towards a ceremonial bonfire. A family-friendly traditional celebration that has taken place for over 160 years (and possibly as far back as the Middle Ages), it commences at 11pm on New Year’s Eve 2024, with the main procession taking place at the turn of midnight.
Celebrate in the Capital
For a captivating New Year’s celebration in the UK, make way to England’s capital city of London and partake in one of the many superb events set to herald the start of 2025. Trace footsteps around the city’s parks, galleries and attractions, before treating yourself to a Michelin star repast ahead of the night’s celebrations. For a night with an unforgettable twist, discover the array of London institutions hosting glamorous parties this year, ready to dance and celebrate the night away in one of the city’s most iconic buildings in a flurry of sequins and Champagne.
Stroll the Pembrokeshire Coast Path
If you can’t wait to step off the beaten track and cherish a coastal hideaway this New Year, then turn your attention to the otherworldly beauty of Pembrokeshire. Fringed by the sea, this stunning county in West Wales is etched with one of the most spectacular stretches of coast path in the UK and is perfect for those looking for a peaceful step into 2025. Ease yourself away from your luxury retreat and follow the undulating flow of the coast path as it shoulders the sea and makes its way from tiny coves to lofty cliffs. Whether you have a specific walk in mind or are embracing the simple pleasure of placing one foot in front of the other for a while, the Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail promises red carpet appeal for salt-kissed escapes this year.
Looking forward to celebrating in style? Find your dream New Year’s escape in the UK.
