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What can be said of Boscobel other than you will be stunned by the site, awed by the collections and entranced by the gardens. Built as the country home of States Morris Dyckman in 1804, the home is now recognized as one of the most important Federal Style residences in the country. Saved from destruction and moved to its current site overlooking the Constitution Marsh in the 20th century, the house museum has now become the most important and renowned collection of Federal Style interiors and furnishings in the world.

Perched high atop a bluff overlooking the mighty Hudson River, and commanding one of the most spectacular views of the river in the entire Valley, Boscobel is surrounded by formal gardens, great lawns, allies of trees and orchards of apples. You actually experience Boscobel as a visit to a living estate, an important visitor invited for a brief time into another era. Experienced and knowledgeable guides walk you slowly through the house, pointing out small things, explaining the style of the times and proudly urging you into a discovery and exploration of an earlier and more formal time. If you are a lover of the Federal Period of America, you will be bowled over by what you are seeing and the extraordinary furnishings and artifacts you are being invited to view. The magnificent collection has been arranged as a tranquil domestic setting, a family, albeit a very wealthy family of the time, has just left for a short while allowing you a quick peek into their home before they return and invite you to stay for refreshments.

Take your time, ask questions and learn about everything Boscobel has to offer. Stand in the rooms and look around at every object filling the space. There are special little objects hiding on shelves and atop cupboards. Peeking from next to the drapery are chairs, chests and other domestic furnishings. The house seems complete, it is alive with the detail of life, the small as well as the majestic. As you wander the parlors and bedrooms you'll be seeing quite literally some of the most important pieces of cabinetry and furniture from this period still in existence. Great artists like Duncan Phyfe, Michael Allison and Charles Honore Lannuier are represented in the furniture collections. The walls are hung with paintings by such famous artists as Benjamin West and John Watson and outstanding examples of period silver, china and crystal grace the house. Boscobel provides the visitor with a rare opportunity to see the furnishings and decorative arts of the Federal Period displayed and used properly and within the correct settings.

After your tour of the house, take your time to walk the grounds and gardens of Boscobel. Tarry out on the great lawn overlooking the Hudson and marvel at the view, one of the most spectacular in the entire Hudson Valley. Wander through the Rose Garden and absorb the heady aroma of the hundreds of carefully cultivated rose bushes. Wander into the herb garden and savor the scents as the waft up and then sit beneath the grape arbor and relax as the industrious insects buzz about collecting nectar and pollen.

Your visit to Boscobel will definitely be one of the great highlights of your experience in the Hudson Valley. The architecture of the house itself, the depth and magnificence of the collections, the friendly and inviting staff, the beauty of the gardens and the site itself all combine into a visit of uniqueness and memory. You will love Boscobel, and Boscobel is waiting for you to arrive.

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Cold Spring is one of those really special little villages just waiting for you to turn off the road and stop in for a visit. If your visit is a quick one or if you stay for a while, you won't be disappointed by what you will find and enjoy in Cold Spring.

As one of the major stops on the Metro-North trains, Cold Spring is also one of the few of these special places that is also extremely easy to get to. The tracks quite literally divide the little village into two distinct sections. As you descend onto the platform, you are a very short walk from just about everything and everywhere in Cold Spring. This convenience of arrival makes Cold Spring an ideal place for a quick weekend getaway from the hectic urban city. Sweet little B&Bs and exceptional Country Inns await you and invite you for a luxurious experience. Renowned restaurants and small cafes beckon you to sit and enjoy a leisurely meal or languish over a glass of wine and collection of tasty little treats.

Out on Main Street, the shops and stores of Cold Spring are famous for their contents. Long a primary location for antiques in the Northeast, the shops of Cold Spring have broadened their offerings to include imported goods, artisan crafts and gifts of every description and source. Many great antique stores and consignment shops still abound providing endless hours of browsing and shopping fun. Pick up a birthday card for your mother, a birdhouse for your Uncle Ted and a 19th century armoire for your apartment all within steps of each other.

Should you weary of shopping, just up the hill and down the street is the Foundry School Museum, an absolutely charming museum as well as fascinating collection of artifacts of the history of the area and the local 18th century foundry industry of Cold Spring. The foundries at Cold Spring crafted the "Great Chains" strung across the mighty Hudson River by General Washington during the American Revolution to prevent British War Ships from ascending the river and dividing the colonies. The museum is small, extremely well designed and presented and easily appreciated, in our opinion one of the best small museums in the entire Hudson Valley.

In the late afternoon, make sure to wander down Main Street to the river front and sit yourself down for a relaxing sunset. Cold Spring is one of the very few rare places in the Valley where you can actually go down to the river and take it's majesty in. As Cold Spring is located deep in the heart of the Hudson Highlands, the scenic view from the river front is marvelous. If you're lucky, you'll be there during one of the many concerts held in the bandstand on the river front Cold Spring has preserved its river front and created an inviting park filled with benches and railings where you can sit in the cool breezes coming off the river and enjoy the mountains with the river carving its path between. To your left behind the ridge across the Hudson is West Point, to your right the mountains of the North Gate of the Hudson Highlands dominate the river with Newburgh and Beacon just beyond.

Cold Spring is a special place, totally unique in the Hudson Valley. It's not only exceptionally easy to get to, it's not only exceptionally inviting and welcoming to guests and visitors, it's also one of the few remaining riverside hamlets that has escaped commercial development and been able to maintain and enrich its unique and distinctive flavor. Drop in for a couple of hours or for an weekend, you'll be very glad you did.

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Located just outside the North Gate of the Hudson Highlands at the entrance to the Newburgh Bays and technically in Dutchess County, Bannerman's Castle is a colorful reminder of both the unique history as well as the personalities that made the Hudson Valley famous. Now a ruin, Bannerman's Castle sits atop a small island, Pollepel Island, mid-river, an island of mystery and myth whose legends stretch back into the mists of time.

Pollepel Island, commonly known as Bannerman Island, is a tiny jewel in the setting of the Hudson Highlands State Park. Once an uninhabited place it was considered haunted by Native Americans becoming a refuge for those trying to escape hostile tribes. These superstitions and others promoted by later Dutch sailors made for many fanciful tales, even the name Pollepel originated with a legend about a young girl named Polly, (Polle), who was romantically rescued from the breaking river ice and subsequently married on the island's shore. During the American Revolution, the famous "chevaux de frise," an underwater blockade, spanned the Hudson River from Pollepel Island to Plum Point.

After the Spanish-American War, the Bannerman family, long dealers in surplus government goods and munitions, purchased so much surplus equipment and ammunition from the US government they were forced to seek out storage somewhere other than the former Bannerman store in downtown Brooklyn. While canoeing on the Hudson River, David Bannerman chanced upon Pollepel Island. The Bannermans purchased the island to construct a safe storage site for their military goods. Mr. Bannerman designed and began constructing a warehouse in the style of a Scottish castle in 1901. Equipment of every description as well as ammunition were shipped to the island for storage till sold.

This most fanciful castle now lies in ruins, looming high above the river spreading age old myths and legends about the ghosts and spirits of the island and creating new ones as fresh generations discover this unique and haunting structure. Special boat tours to the island depart from Newburgh in season taking you out and around the island, retelling the tales and giving you the history and lore of both the island and the castle.

From shore, the best vantage point is from the Bannerman Island Scenic Overlook, located on Route 9 north of Cold Spring. Watch for a tiny seldom used rail platform for Metro-North called "Breakneck Ridge." From here you will have your best land view of both the island and castle. In addition, the view includes the great North Gate of the Hudson Highlands and a sweeping panorama across and north up to Newburgh and beyond. A breathtaking view and scenic backdrop for one of the most curious and interesting places in the Hudson Valley.

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How did they qualify to be included?

HV/Net has attempted to assemble for you the best, most important and most interesting sites to visit in the Hudson Valley. In other words, this is the "Must See" or "A List" of sites and attractions in the Valley. We have endeavored to go to every site, visit every historic museum, play at every attraction and delve into every hidden corner of the Valley to find and filter for you the best the Valley has to offer. We've walked, toured, pondered over, poked at, schlepped through, listened to and been interpreted at, we've slogged, enjoyed, been disappointed, trekked over, and sneezed at the dust of just about every place in the Hudson Valley there is.

From all of that, we have assembled the best of the best. Inclusion in this list was ultimately based upon a few basic criteria:

1. The site must be of major historical or cultural importance, or ;
2. The site must be a unique representation of its historic or cultural type, and therefore be of importance, or ;
3. The amusement or entertainment must be fun and exciting and ;
4. The location must be accessible, easy to find and worth the effort, and ;
5. The location must meet expectations of what should be found, and ;
6. The location must be clean, family friendly and safe, and ;
7. The staff must be friendly, helpful and willing to put in the effort to enhance your experience.

Exclusion from our list of the Must See Locations of the Hudson Valley doesn't mean a site or attraction isn't good or worth the time and effort to go. It does, however, indicate that the site or attraction is probably specialized in nature & not of broad general interest, may be difficult to find or get to and so given a limited amount of time..., or in a very few and thankfully extremely rare instances, may be dirty, perceptively unsafe or staffed by rude and unfriendly people.

HV/Net invites you and encourages you to explore the hundreds of sites and attractions in the Hudson Valley not on our Must See List. We provide you all the information we can on everything there is, just search through your listings.

But, armed with our Must See List and your knowledge of the amount of time you have and what your interests are, we think this is a start in your enjoyment of this most marvelous and historic of river valleys.

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