Beautiful historic building with lots of information about the archaeological process. The restoration work was fabulous. Fantastic place to spend time alone, with friends or family. My favourite part was the costumes worn by actors in Shakespeare performances and learning about the excavation. The staff were all excellent and knowledgeable about the building.

This house is hidden away down a very narrow lane (which bisects the the great hall of the house!) with some not very obvious signage at each end of the lane. The receptionist was friendly, informative and helpful and the introductory video was excellent, not too long and giving a wealth of infomation! The house has been beautifully restored and being in the run up to Christmas, the great hall had been decorated with appropriate greenery. There are several flights of stairs to take you over the public lane to the buttery and pantry that would have served the great hall. There is information on all the rooms although sometimes, a bit better lighting would be useful! There is a gift shop on the first floor and you exit down the outside staircase. Well worth a visit to experience Medieval life.

Located down an alleyway that actually runs through part of the building this is one of the most picturesque looking buildings in a city filled with beautiful architecture. The tour starts with a very interesting short video that gives an overview of how this building was saved and restored. Then a self guided tour around this fascinating site. You can tell a lot of time and effort has gone into the reconstruction and also they have made a real effort to make this appeal to a variety of age groups. Overall it’s a very pleasant way to spend an hour or so in York.

Very interesting and unique to visit. Information boards and Shakespeare plays are projected on the walls. Costumes on display too. Hidden away down one of the many snickets but noticeably on view in the great hall through the glass wall. Well worth a visit.

It’s more of a Shakespearean museum than anything else but I’m not complaining about that! It is rather small and only takes around 30 minutes to walk around, even reading the information boards. There’s lots of interesting interactive things for young children to get involved with though, such as shadow puppets which my children loved. The staff are friendly and it was an enjoyable experience overall. Worth a visit if you’re in the area.

I was very excited to see a refurbished Medieval Hall; however most of the displays were about Shakespeare and a lot were kid-oriented. The guide (which I purchased) is interesting but more of a book than something you can use while there, and I do feel I missed some details I would have liked to have noticed. The rooms were somewhat furnished but not all. Plus: they have made wonderful reproductions of the windows, wall hangings, tile floors etc and that was neat. Minus: difficult for me to picture how it was lived in, expensive, and not many displays about the house itself.

This was the third stop on our ‘Pastport’ tour of four locations managed by the York Archeological Trust. They ‘found’ this 14th and 15th century building when planning a modern development; what had once been a grand home was now being used as a variety of commercial spaces, and the original design was essentially forgotten. The Trust had to recreate the various living spaces by paring back the centuries old modifications. It is well set up for children with fun activities in most rooms.

Had a fabulous time at Barley Hall. Lots of information as you wonder round, my 10 yr old loved the "fun facts" at the bottom of lots of the information boards. Also had lots of fun playing the games that were in some rooms. Think we spent most of our time in the room with clothes for the children to dress up in. Informative for adults but they have done a great job of adding stuff for the children to do while the grown ups read the information.