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Things to Do in Pikeville, Kentucky

Pikeville is the Appalachian town that moved a river and a highway through solid rock — plus Hatfield-McCoy history, mountain trails and a compact downtown.

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Last updated: September 2026

Pikeville, Kentucky — photograph from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Nyttend / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Pikeville sits in the eastern Kentucky coalfields along the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, hemmed in by ridgelines steep enough that the town eventually ran out of flat ground to build on. The answer, carried out between 1973 and 1987, was to cut a notch through Peach Orchard Mountain and move the river, the railroad and four highways out of the valley floor. Locals still call the place "the city that moves mountains," and the Cut-Through remains the first thing most visitors go look at.

It is the seat of Pike County and the practical center of a wide rural area reaching into southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia, so the downtown is busier than a population of about 7,750 would suggest. The University of Pikeville and Pikeville Medical Center keep students and shift workers on Main and Division Streets, the Appalachian Wireless Arena pulls in national touring acts, and the Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum holds the region's largest collection of Hatfield-McCoy feud material.

The feud is the other reason people come. Randolph McCoy spent his last years in Pikeville and is buried here at Dils Cemetery, and a signed driving tour connects sites on both sides of the Kentucky-West Virginia line. Pair that with a half day at Breaks Interstate Park and you have a full weekend without repeating yourself.

Quick facts

Population
7,754 (2020 census)
County
Pike County (county seat)
State
Kentucky
Country
United States
Founded
Laid out 1824, incorporated 1848
Elevation
791 feet
Nickname
The City That Moves Mountains
Setting
Mountain valley on the Levisa Fork, Appalachian coalfields
Nearby cities
Prestonsburg, Hazard, Whitesburg
Best known for
The Pikeville Cut-Through and Hatfield-McCoy feud history

Things to Do

  • Pikeville Cut-Through Overlook

    The overlook off Bob Amos Drive looks straight down the notch blasted through Peach Orchard Mountain, with the relocated river, rail line and highway stacked below. Interpretive signs explain the scale of the project, which ran from 1973 to 1987.

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  • Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum

    At 172 Division Street in the courthouse annex, this is the serious version of the feud story — the region's largest artifact collection, including extensive Hatfield-McCoy and Perry Cline material. Check current hours before you drive in; it is not open every day.

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  • Hatfield-McCoy Feud Historic Driving Tour

    A self-guided route linking feud sites across Pike County and into West Virginia, coordinated by Pike County Tourism. Budget half a day and expect narrow roads between stops.

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  • Appalachian Wireless Arena

    The downtown arena books national country, rock and Christian touring acts year-round, which is why a town this size has a concert calendar at all. Worth checking before you set your dates.

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  • Bob Amos Park

    A city park on Bob Amos Drive with ball fields, a walking track, tennis courts and playgrounds, sharing the ridge with the Cut-Through overlook. It is where Pikeville actually spends its weekends.

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  • University of Pikeville

    The hillside campus, home of the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine, keeps downtown younger and busier than most eastern Kentucky county seats.

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  • Hillbilly Days

    Held downtown each April since 1977 as a Shriners Children's Hospital fundraiser, with a parade along Hambley Boulevard, a carnival and multiple music stages. It is the biggest weekend of the year here — plan around it either way.

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Eat Local

  • Happy Days Diner

    A long-running local breakfast counter known for scratch biscuits and gravy and plain country cooking. Hours are limited and listings disagree on the address, so call ahead.

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  • Broken Throne Brewing — The Great Hall

    Pikeville's own brewery opened its taproom in 2019 and in 2021 expanded into the historic Main Street building that once held The Blue Raven, adding pizza, pool and live music. Locally owned and the most reliable evening spot downtown.

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  • Chirico's Ristorante

    An independent Italian restaurant that has been a standing local recommendation for special occasions rather than a quick stop.

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  • Dueling Barrells Brewery & Distillery

    A Second Street brewery and distillery trading, inevitably, on the feud. Tours and tastings when open; it doubles as a downtown gathering spot.

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  • Mona's Creative Catering and Fine Foods

    A small locally owned kitchen doing catering alongside a restaurant menu — the kind of place that runs on regulars rather than highway traffic.

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Shopping & Markets

  • Pikeville Farmers Market

    At the Green Roof Pavilion on Adams Lane, Saturdays 9am-1pm and Tuesdays late afternoon, roughly May through November. Kentucky Proud produce, baked goods, crafts and often live music.

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  • The Antique Market

    A multi-vendor antique and vintage market on Hambley Boulevard, opened in 2025 in the 1948 Martha Klein building. Strictly antique and vintage stock, with a lot of coal-mining and Pike County material.

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  • Kaleidoscope Books & Sundries

    An independent bookstore on Hambley Avenue opened in 2026 by two local owners who set it up deliberately as a place to sit and stay a while, part of a small wave of new indie bookstores across eastern Kentucky.

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  • Mountain Music Exchange

    A local instrument shop — a useful stop if you want to know what people around here actually play.

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Hidden Gems

  • Dils Cemetery

    Off Chloe Road near the bypass, founded in 1871 by Col. John Dils Jr. and listed on the National Register as part of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud Historic District. Randolph McCoy, his wife Sarah and daughter Roseanna are buried here. It is also recorded as the first known racially integrated cemetery in eastern Kentucky, with roughly 120 of its 500 graves belonging to Black residents — a fact almost no visitor arrives knowing.

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  • The Second Street murals

    The Second Street Arts Project turned an underused alley across from the Appalachian Center for the Arts into public space, anchored by Pikeville native Austin Casebolt's 2020 "Woman with a Cardinal," known locally as the Mountain Mona Lisa.

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  • The flood-recovery student mural

    At Second and Division, a mural assembled from Pikeville Elementary students' drawings spells out the town's name. It went up in 2026 after the February 2025 flood and is the most direct record downtown of what the town has just been through.

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  • East Kentucky Science Center & Varia Planetarium

    A 40-foot dome planetarium on the community college campus in Prestonsburg, about 25 miles away — outside Pikeville, genuinely under-visited, and a good rainy-afternoon fallback.

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Nature & Outdoors

  • Hatfield-McCoy River Trails

    Next to Bob Amos Park and the Cut-Through, with canoe, tube and paddle-boat rentals on warm-season weekends right in town.

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  • Breaks Interstate Park

    About 30 miles southeast on the Kentucky-Virginia line, roughly a 35-minute drive. The canyon runs five miles and about 1,600 feet deep, with 13-plus miles of trails, Laurel Lake, a rim zipline and seasonal whitewater on the Russell Fork. Clearly outside town, and worth a half day of its own.

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  • Fishtrap Lake

    A Corps of Engineers reservoir southeast of Pikeville, used mostly for fishing and boating rather than swimming crowds.

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  • Pike County Horse Trail System

    An equestrian trail network on Lick Creek Road outside town with trailer parking, open year-round except during hunting seasons.

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  • Jenny Wiley State Resort Park

    Near Prestonsburg, about 30 minutes north, with a lake, lodge, golf and hiking. Outside Pike County but an easy add-on.

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A little history

Pike County was formed in 1821 and the town of Pike was laid out in 1824, incorporating as Pikeville in 1848. For most of the nineteenth century it was a river town on the Levisa Fork, reachable mainly by water, with the county courthouse as its reason to exist.

The Hatfield-McCoy feud of the 1880s played out across the Tug Fork valley on the Kentucky-West Virginia border, and Pikeville was where much of it was finally settled — in the courthouse, through Pike County attorney Perry Cline, and in the cemetery where Randolph McCoy, his wife Sarah and their daughter Roseanna are buried. Coal arrived soon after and reshaped everything: rail spurs, company towns in the hollows, and a river town turned regional trade center.

By the 1970s the mountains had boxed the city in completely, and the Cut-Through project moved the river, a rail line and US 23, 460, 119 and KY 80, freeing roughly 400 acres for the modern downtown. As coal employment fell away, Pikeville leaned harder on healthcare, the university and retail. A serious flood hit the area in February 2025, and some of the recent downtown murals came out of that recovery.

If you only have a day in Pikeville

  1. Morning

    Pikeville Cut-Through Overlook and Bob Amos Park

    Start at the overlook while the light is still coming over the ridges, then walk the park track below it.

  2. Late morning

    Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum

    Ten minutes back downtown, and the right place to get the feud story before visiting the graves.

  3. Lunch

    Broken Throne — The Great Hall

    Main Street, in the old Blue Raven building, and walkable from the museum.

  4. Afternoon

    Dils Cemetery, then the Second Street murals

    A short drive out to the McCoy graves, then back downtown on foot for the alley art.

  5. Evening

    Dueling Barrells or the Appalachian Wireless Arena

    Check the arena calendar first — on a show night it sets the whole evening.

Good to know

  • The Main and Division Street core is easily walkable, but the Cut-Through overlook, Bob Amos Park, Dils Cemetery and the farmers market are all spread out enough that you will want a car.
  • The farmers market runs roughly May through November, Saturdays and Tuesday afternoons — outside that window the pavilion is empty.
  • Hillbilly Days takes over downtown in mid-April. Streets are barricaded and traffic is heavy; come for it deliberately or route around downtown that weekend.
  • Breaks Interstate Park sits on the Virginia line, so the drive out of town crosses a state border. West Virginia feud sites on the driving tour do too.
  • Small downtown businesses here keep short hours and some close early or skip Mondays. Call before making a long drive for one specific place.
  • The Blue Raven, once the best-known restaurant downtown, closed in 2020. Its old website is still online, so ignore it — the building is now Broken Throne's Great Hall.

Explore more of Pikeville

This guide highlights some of the places that help define Pikeville. There is plenty more around it — restaurants, hidden gems, history, events, shopping and outdoor places — waiting in the live explorer, sorted by distance from wherever you are.

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