York City Walls

York has the longest and most well preserved medieval walls in England stretching 2 miles around the city. On my trip to York I only did a partial walk around on two separate days, one from Bootham Bar past York Minster and the other over the west corner, passing the railway station to Micklegate Bar.

Though the walls are over 700 years old the top of the walls were partially rebuilt 150 years ago to make them safer to walk along.

The “bars” are fortified gateways which would have restricted medieval traffic and were used to exact tolls as well as providing defence during wars. Bootham Bar, where I started, was largely constructed in the 14th and 19th centuries but it also has some of the oldest surviving stonework dating from the 11th century.

The walls give a great view of York Minster on this route.

and at one section marked by this plaque you are walking along the line of the walls of the Roman legionary fort of Eboracum.

I decided to carry along the walk at Monk Bar, the entry to which was up some scaffolding steps when I visited and where you can see the remains of the eastern corner tower of Eboracum.

and I also walked through Jewbury, marked on the wall as below, which was the area where medieval Jews buried their dead.

On a separate day I walked up the steps to the wall walk by the Railway Station. It was surprisingly busy given that I went quite early in the morning, killing some time before the museum I wanted to visit was open – you can go on arranged tours of the walls if you wish and that was clearly what a lot of people were doing that day.

From here you get views of the Railway Station as well as, again, York Minster.

The walls are a must visit on any trip to York. They’re free to walk around and open daily from 8am till dusk, except at times when snow or ice would make it too dangerous. You can find more photos here.