How cool is it that this 14th century medieval street is still in existence and in such great…read morecondition? Dating back to 1086, it was a meat market area. In fact, a lot of the buildings still have original hanging hooks. The area has evolved quite a bit since its inception. Now a quaint cobblestone street lined with shops and restaurants in buildings boasting original architecture and architectural elements. Tudor structures once part of the meat packing district are quaint and welcoming. As you can imagine, it's bustling, most especially during the height of tourist season.

This was the shopping cobblestone street in York. I just love local artisans selling their wares…read more All the merchants were so friendly and kind. We actually were here on the first day and made sure we would come back the next day too! York was a really cool place to visit. I had wished we had one more day. We did alot of walking around town and just admired the beautiful architecture here. I got so many cute things here at the Shambles

- [x] Walmgate Bar (cat trail)     - [x] Fishergate Bar…read more    - [x] Fishergate Postern Tower     - [x] Clifford tower - [x] Skeldergate bridge - [x] Baile Hill     - [x] Victoria Bar     - [x] Micklegate Bar (Tansy beetle mural nearby) - [x] Lendal bridge, Lendal tower, Barker Tower (judi dench walk nearby)   - [x] Multangular Tower in museum gardens where you'll find st Mary's abbey and the hospitium) - [x] Bootham bar - [x] Robin Hood tower - [x] Monk bar (5 mins to minster) - [x] Layerthorpe bridge (15 mins to minster) - [x] The red tower

Walk a portion or all 2.6 miles of the medieval walls that encircle the City of York. We walked the…read morenorth corner in clockwise direction and had neat aerial sights of York Minster. The walkway is relatively flat with a couple of dedicated viewpoints and benches. Entry is free from stairs at various points that are typically open from 8 AM until dusk.

The bar was damaged during the siege of York in 1644. Like Micklegate Bar, it was sometimes used…read moreto display the heads of traitors. Bootham Bar was the last of the gates to lose its barbican, demolished in 1835. A portcullis which although no longer working is still housed in the tower which you can access and see. Bootham bar is topped by three statues; a stone mason holding a model of the bar, 14th Century Mayor Nicholas Langton and a Knight carrying a sword and shield. Monk bar and multangular tower can be reached from Bootham Bar

My wife and I visited Barley Hall in September 2024. It was an afterthought, having bought tickets…read moreto the Jorvik Viking museum, this was a small additional fee. But it was worth it. Not a long visit, probably an hour or so. There are several rooms to explore, each with laminated info cards to pick up and read the history and purpose. Interactive games for kids learning too. Along with the Jorvik museum, this gave us a really good insight to medieval life in York. It makes sense to get the package, even though we did not have time to visit the other 2 attractions in the package. Finding the Hall was an adventure in itself, tucked away down a narrow lane, under an archway into a courtyard. We were there on a weekday, at the end of the day, and it was not busy. We were able to take our time and enjoy the exhibit.

Coffee Yard is a snickelway that runs between Stonegate -- a very fashionable address in the later…read moremiddle ages a site tucked away in one of its back alleys--Barley Hall, a fifteenth-century townhouse in Coffee Yard. A house occupied by one of Richard III's urban supporters. One of the emerging middle class that gave such strong allegiance to the Yorkists. Barley Hall is a stunning medieval townhouse, once home to the Priors of Nostell and the Mayor of York. Until the 1980s the house was hidden under the relatively modern façade of a derelict office block. Only when the building was going to be destroyed was the amazing medieval building discovered and its history uncovered. Barley Hall's medieval origins had been long forgotten by 1980, when it appeared to be a jumble of brick structures. Ironically, millions of tourists had literally walked right through what was originally an internal corridor of the L-shaped house as they used the Coffee Yard snickelway (an alley-like passageway from one street to another) to travel from busy Stonegate to Swinegate and Grape Lane. I am not sure but I think I stood in a coutyard, that I ten realised wasn't, that may have been a part of this. It was a roofless room and I was looking at interior walls. The building has now been lovingly restored to its original splendour with stunning high ceilings, beautiful exposed timber frames, and possibly the only horn window in England. It has been decorated to replicate what it would have looked like as the Snawsell home around 1483 and boasts a magnificent Great Hall. It is a hands-on living museum, letting visitors experience life in a 15th century house in the centre of York. This is one historic attraction where you are encouraged to touch and pick up exhibits. Sit on the chairs, open chests, and generally explore the house as you choose,and experience what it would have been like to live in Medieval England.. They also have many events. In July and August medieval summer schools for children and coming up: Thu 27 - Sun 30 Nov 2008 St Nicholas Fayre Medieval Market Wed 3 - Sat 6 Dec 2008 Deck the Hall A Medieval Christmas Thu 4 Dec 2008 Barley Hall by Candlelight Sat 6, Sun 7 Dec 2008 Barley Hall Christmas Fayre Wed 10 - Sat 13 Dec 2008 Deck the Hall A Medieval Christmas Thu 11 Dec 2008 Barley Hall by Candlelight Sat 13, Sun 14 Dec 2008 Barley Hall Christmas Fayre Wed 17 - Sat 20 Dec 2008 Deck the Hall A Medieval Christmas You can follow costumed guides as they escort groups through the hall, or hire an audio tape tour. On summer weekends there are special period events, such as mystery plays and medieval markets. Great place to visit.

Micklegate Bar is known as traitors gate and once displayed the heads of Richard Duke of York, and…read moreEdmund, Earl of Rutland on spikes. The Micklegate bar is where you will find the Henry VII museum and often used as the main gateway into York by the Queen as well as Henry VII in 1486. The Micklegate bar has great features including the the royal coat of arms as well as the city coat of arms, a carving of a knights helmet and a lions head. From Micklegate bar you will then lead onto Victoria bar one way or Lendal bridge the other way, also look out for the Tansy beetle mural and not far from here is the railway station.

Micklegate Bar is one of the best preserved of York's mediaeval gateways…read more The original 12th century gatehouse was replaced in the 14th century with a heavy portcullis and a fortified barbican, with upper floors containing living quarters, which today contain a museum describing the history of the gate and also the history of the City. It's mildly diverting, but to be honest I'd stick to a walk around the walls, and clamber down for a better look at the gate itself. By tradition, it was the gate through which monarchs and other worthies entered the city, which led to it being used to display the decapitated heads of executed traitors

Because no one really wants to pay £10 to go up to the top, it was nice and empty. If I was a local…read moreI'd be a member to just go up there and read a book. If you're into history, the history is very interesting but GRIM. I accidentally agreed to buying the book guide and read the massacres that took place in there. They weren't mentioned in any placard I saw. From the top, there's info detailing different locations around the city and their importance. Like places where people were hanged and former sites like the female prison.

My wife and I stopped by and used our London Pass to enter (if you haven't read my other posts,…read moremost of the things we did in London were included so get one and save yourself a few bones). My wife loved the views from the top of the tower as it overlooks the surrounding city and the signs inside that were very informative. You will have to walk up a few flights of stairs to get up to the tower then more stairs to get to the top but the views are worth the trek.

Beautiful garden with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the view. Perfect for photo ops due to the…read morestone columns and the roman remnants. Good for a pleasant stroll or a relaxing picnic and fantastic for feeding the very, very friendly squirrels! They come right up to you and take peanuts (I just happened to have some on me) out of your fingers! I know they're vermin, but they are cute and it made some passing kids giggle with delight!

The perfect place for a quiet lunch or relaxing afternoon during summer, Museum Gardens offers a…read moredelightfully tranquil space to wander in peace or simply cut through to the other side for your car. It can become a bit of a children's playground during the holidays when the weather is nice though. There are also ruins of an abbey which is very photogenic and fun for children to play around. The museum itself is free to York residents who hold a York Card (which you can get from Central Library next door). The lower end floods when the Ouse is high and breaks its banks.

We visited this small shrine in the Shambles devoted to St Margaret Clitherow an English saint and…read moremartyr of the Roman Catholic Church, known as "the Pearl of York". It was quiet within. We were the only people there as the outside street which I'm told was claimed (and refuted) as the inspiration for Diagon Alley was crammed with visitors. If you are close by indulging in the fantasy world of this street with potion shops and wizards take 5 minutes here for reality to sink in. State killings were breathtakingly savage back then, on the orders of kings and courts, often in the name of religion (mind you some states in the USA inappropriately use lethal chemicals by injecting them into prisoners to kill them cruelly today). St Margaret was one of five children of Thomas and Jane Middleton. Her father was a businessman, a wax-chandler and Sheriff of York in 1564, who died when Margaret was fourteen. In 1571, she married John Clitherow, a wealthy butcher and a chamberlain of the city, and bore him three children; the family lived at today's 10-11 The Shambles. She was pregnant with her fourth child when murdered. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1574. Although her husband, John Clitherow, belonged to the Established Church, he was supportive as his brother William was a Roman Catholic priest. He paid her fines for not attending church services. She was first imprisoned in 1577 for failing to attend church, and two more incarcerations at York Castle followed. Her third child, William, was born in prison. Margaret risked her life by harbouring and maintaining priests, which was made a capital offence by the Jesuits, etc. Act 1584. She provided two chambers, one adjoining her house and, with her house under surveillance, she rented a house some distance away, where she kept priests hidden and Mass was celebrated through the thick of the persecution. Her home became one of the most important hiding places for fugitive priests in the north of England. Local tradition holds that she also housed her clerical guests in The Black Swan at Peasholme Green, where the Queen's agents were lodged. Margaret was arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Catholic priests. She refused to plead, thereby preventing a trial that would entail her three children being made to testify, and being subjected to torture. She was sentenced to death and executed on Lady Day, 1586, (which also happened to be Good Friday that year) in the Toll Booth at Ouse Bridge, by being crushed to death by her own door, the standard inducement to force a plea. The two sergeants who should have carried out the execution hired four desperate beggars to do it instead. She was stripped and had a handkerchief tied across her face then laid across a sharp rock the size of a man's fist, the door from her own house was put on top of her and loaded with an immense weight of rocks and stones so that the sharp rock would break her back. Her death occurred within fifteen minutes, but her body was left for six hours before the weight was removed. She was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

Known as the pearl of York Margaret Clitherow was an English saint and martyr. She was crushed to…read moredeath by her own door in 1586 for refusing to admit to harbouring catholic priests. Beggars were hired by sergeants to have Margaret laid naked on a rock, with her own door on top of her and loaded with the weight of rocks which eventually killed her. At the time of her execution she was pregnant with her 4th child. This plaque can be found at the Shambles where Margaret lived.

St Martin's clock is situated on Coney Street, it features a figure of a naval officer which was…read moreadded in 1779. The church in which the clock was situated was badly damaged by bombing in World War II and the clock was last restored when the church reopened in the 1960s and the restored clock will now strike the hours and chime every quarter for the first time since 1942.

St Martin's is one of York's most notable landmarks, best-known for its impressive clock which…read morehangs over Coney Street. But it has also had a tumultuous history, and contains one of York's most impressive mediaeval stained glass windows. The church was one of one of York's largest and finest, prior to a fateful night in 1942 when an air raid reduced the church to a smouldering ruin. Before then, it boasted a large nave and chancel with full length aisles and chapels. The fabric dated from the 11th to the 15th centuries. The well-known and large double-sided clock on Coney Street was fitted in 1668, and was topped by the statue of the 'Little Admiral' in the 18th century. The clock and statue survived the bombing, but little else did. The church was eventually rebuilt between 1961 and 1968, with the 15th century tower and south aisle becoming the church, and the remainder (most of the former nave and north aisle) becoming an enclosed garden of remembrance. Substantial parts of the north walls survive, however, including elements from the 11th century. Although much smaller, the restored church is an attractive space, combining modern works with a 17th century memorial to Sir William Sheffield (d. 1633) and - above all - its mediaeval stained glass. This had fortunately been removed for safe keeping in 1940, and includes one gem: the window depicting the life and works of St Martin of Tours, dating from around 1440. Formerly the west window, this is now in the new north wall and faces visitors as they enter. It is huge for a parish church (and is the largest in the city outside the Minster): 9m high and 4m wide, it is one of the best preserved of its type and contains no Victorian additions or repairs. The church is normally open during weekdays for private prayer and visitors.