Last week we spent a lovely few hours mooching round York. York is a beautiful city, full of history, I never tire of wandering round it’s streets.
As it was a nice afternoon weather wise, we decided to walk some of the city walls. York has more miles of intact city walls than any other city in Britain. They date back to Roman times, some of original Roman walls remain but most of what we see today is 12th to 14th century. The walkway is about 6′ wide and about 13′ high. Some of the walls have railings down the exposed side…
…other stretches of the wall don’t, which is somewhat unerving for people like me with no balance, so we walked along the base of some stretches.
We walked by Cliffords Mount, or York Castle. This was built in the 11th century, the darkest part of it’s history is that in 1190 150 local jews were killed there, they were surrounded by a mob and killed each other or committed suicide to avoid being killed by the mob.
York minster dominates the city, it is an awe-inspiring cathedral to visit, it’s one of those huge and beautiful places that makes you feel very small! The craftmanship is amazing, when you consider every stone and every piece of wood would have been carved by hand.
York is full of snickets and alleyways, cobbled street and medieval buildings. Stonegate and the Shambles are probably the most well known. The Shambles was the street where all the butchers were, it’s a narrow street anyway, but many of the buildings are of the style where each floor is bigger than the one below. There is one spot where from the top floors two people can shake hands across the street…
If ever you’re in the area York is a wonderful place to visit, just to mooch round the streets and soak up the history. We had a lovely time and the sun shone too, always a bonus on a bank holiday!
thecraftycreek 
I love going on these historical walks with you, Margaret! You show me things I would otherwise never see, and I always learn something new from you! 🙂
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Fantastic walk! Love old places.
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What a great post, I love those historic places. It is awesome to touch something that has been there for hundreds of years.
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I miss York so much! The Minster is one of my favourite buildings and I miss the beautiful city centre – particularly Monk Bar chocolatiers in the Shambles!
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Hello Margaret, thank you for this lovely post, so interesting to visit places I long to see. Although I live in England, I don’t have the opportunity to travel around. York sounds lovely, it’s a shame the quilt museum had to close. Regards Mandy xx
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I regret never having had the chance to explore York before I left the UK. I love places where the past is so thoroughly integrated into the present… Beautiful photos, too!
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Wow! That is some serious history you get to stroll about! I hope to see York some day! Your photos were wonderful!
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Thanks for the great tour, Margaret! Those buildings and walls are amazing.
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It is a beautiful city. When I was doing my degree with the O.U. we had a summer school there and spent any spare time looking around.
We did a similar Roman walls walk in Girona a couple of years ago. A really nice way to see a city.
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