The stately exterior of Hexham Abbey (daily: May-Sept 9am-7pm; Oct-April 9am-5pm; free) still dominates the west side of the Market Place. Entry is through the south transept, where there's an impressive first-century tombstone honouring Flavinus, a standard-bearer in the Roman cavalry, who's shown riding down his bearded enemy. The memorial lies at the foot of the broad, well-worn steps of the canons' night stair , one of the few such staircases - providing access from the monastery to the church - to have survived the Dissolution. Beyond, most of the high-arched nave dates from an Edwardian restoration and it's here that you gain access to the crypt , a Saxon structure made out of old Roman stones, where pilgrims once viewed the abbey's reliquaries. At the end of the nave is the sixteenth-century rood screen , whose complex tracery envelops the portraits of local bishops. Behind the screen, the chancel displays the inconsequential-looking frith stool , an eighth-century stone chair that was once believed to have been used by St Wilfrid. Nearby, close to the high altar, there are four panels from a fifteenth-century Dance of Death , a grim, darkly varnished painting.

The rest of Hexham's large and irregularly shaped Market Place (main market day is Tuesday) is peppered with remains of its medieval past. The massive walls of the fourteenth-century Moot Hall were built to serve as the gatehouse to "The Hall", a well-protected enclosure that was garrisoned against the Scots. Nearby, the archbishops also built their own prison, a formidable fortified tower dating from 1330 and constructed using stones plundered from the Roman ruins at Corbridge. Now, as the Old Gaol , this accommodates the Border History Museum (April-Oct daily 10am-4.30pm; Feb, March & Nov Mon, Tues & Sat 10am-4.30pm; ?2), which provides information and displays concerning the border-raiding Reivers.

Hexham's train station sits on the northeastern edge of the town centre, a ten-minute walk from the abbey; the new tourist office is halfway between the two, in the main town car park behind the Safeway superstore (Easter to mid-May & Oct Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-5pm; mid-May to Sept Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 10am-5pm; Nov to Easter Mon-Sat 9am-5pm; tel 01434/652220, hexham.tic@tynedale.gov.uk ). The bus station can be found off Priestpopple, a few minutes' stroll east of the abbey.

Good accommodation options include the welcoming Edwardian retreat that is the Kitty Frisk House , a few minutes from the centre on Corbridge Road (tel 01434/601533; no credit cards; ?40-50); the quiet and secluded West Close House , on Hextol Terrace off the B6305 Allendale Road (tel 01434/603307; no credit cards; ?40-50), which is very friendly, has a delightful garden and offers wholefood continental breakfasts alongside the usual fry-ups; and the bright and breezy Topsy Turvy , 9 Leazes Lane (tel 01434/603152; no credit cards; under ?40). The Best Western Beaumont Hotel , Beaumont Street (tel 01434/602331, ; ?70-90, excludes breakfast), has spacious doubles overlooking the abbey and weekend dinner, bed and breakfast deals; alternatively, try the sympathetically renovated Royal Hotel on Priestpopple (tel 01434/602270, ; ?60-70), topped by a gleaming gold dome, which offers a dozen en-suite rooms, a cosy, oak-panelled bar and good discounts for stays of two nights or more. The youth hostel (tel 01434/602864, ) occupies converted stable buildings in the village of Acomb , two miles from Hexham - take bus #880, #881 or #882, which all pass the train station. The campsite here, at Fallowfield Dene Caravan Park (tel 01434/603553; closed Nov-March), is a tranquil place with proper laundry facilities.

Mrs Miggins , on St Mary's Wynd, just off Beaumont Street, is a good-value daytime coffee shop , and the Hexham Tans , off the Market Place at 11 St Mary's Chare, is a homely vegetarian cafe (closed Sun). Options for evening meals in Hexham are limited. Your best bets are Valley Connection 301 on the Market Place (tel 01434/601234; closed Mon), part of a chain of inventive Indian restaurants that stretches to Corbridge and Newcastle, or Danielle's , an unpretentious bistro at 12 Eastgate (tel 01434/601122; closed Sun). Out of town on Dipton Mill Road, two miles south of the centre, Dipton Mill Inn is a good all-rounder, with wholesome bar meals (until 8.30pm), own-brewed beer, streamside beer garden and a pleasant setting. It's a 45-minute walk from Hexham on lovely hilly footpaths; the tourist office will point you in the right direction. The main focus of entertainment in town is the Queen's Hall Arts Centre on Beaumont Street (tel 01434/652477), which puts on a year-round programme of theatre, dance, music and art exhibitions.