BEAMISH Open Air Museum has been voted one of the country's top attractions.

The museum fought off competition from the some of the most well-known tourist attractions in the country to be crowned Living Museum of the Year.

Beamish was given the accolade in the new edition of The Good Britain Guide which details the top attractions throughout the UK.

It was given the accolade by the book's publishers, Ebury Press, and readers of previous editions.

Beamish was the only North-East attraction to win one of the national awards. Other more well-known national award winners included the Tower of London for Castle of the Year and The Eden Project in Cornwall for Green Attraction of the Year.

The judges were so impressed with Beamish they suggested it could vie for the title of best museum in the whole of the UK.

A spokesman for the book said: "This is an enthralling time-travel experience, taking you right into a living, breathing working North country community a century ago.

"For many people this is the most rewarding paid attraction in Britain, an amazingly ambitious 300-acre museum exhaustively re-creating life in the North of England at the turn of the century."

The Good Britain Guide contains chapters on the North-East and North Yorkshire and indicates various places to stay, eat and visit on a day out.

Hotels including the Durham Marriot Royal County in Durham City and Greenwell Farm in Wolsingham are mentioned as places to stay in the North-East while Betty's in Harrogate and the Grange Hotel in York are mentioned for North Yorkshire.

Bowes museum in Barnard Castle and the castles at both Bishop Auckland and Durham are suggested as good places to visit in the North-East as are Nature's World in Acklam near Middlesbrough and the Cleveland Way.

The guide is compiled from the editors' experiences and readers' reports. Anyone who sends in a report of an attraction is offered a discount off the next edition of the annual book.

Suggestions for places to visit, eat and stay can be sent to The Good Britain Guide, FREEPOST TN1569, Wadhurst, East Sussex TN5 7BR or log on to www.goodguides.co.uk