Hotels for Grand National 2027

The Grand National is the most famous steeplechase in the world — a gruelling, thrilling test over Aintree's unique fences that captures the whole nation every April, run near Liverpool on 10 April 2027. Forty runners, four and a quarter miles and thirty fences make it racing's greatest lottery, watched by millions and roared on by huge crowds.

Liverpool — a great music-and-football city with a UNESCO waterfront — throws a proper party for National weekend, and rooms fill fast. Stay in the city centre and you're close to the trains out to Aintree, the Albert Dock, the Beatles trail and Liverpool's legendary nightlife, for a racing weekend with real character.

The Grand National traces its official history to 1839, when a committee reorganised what had been a rougher local steeplechase into a bigger, better-publicised race at Aintree, near Liverpool. That first officially recognised running gave the course one of its most famous fences its name: Captain Martin Becher fell from his horse Conrad at the brook on the far side of the course and took shelter in the water while the rest of the field jumped past him, and Becher's Brook has carried his name ever since.

Other fences on the course have their own stories — some named simply for their place on the track, others, like Foinavon, for horses that ran there — but it's the size of the field, the length of the race and fences like Becher's that have made it, for well over a century, the ultimate test of horse and rider.