York City Highlights Small-Group Walking Tour

Museum Gardens and the Roman Fortress of Eboracum

York began in AD 71 as Eboracum, a Roman legionary fortress for some five thousand soldiers on the banks of the Ouse. Behind the Central Library, the Museum Gardens hold its best-preserved fragment: the Multangular Tower, the many-sided western corner tower of the fortress, where the lower courses of Roman stone are topped by medieval masonry. Nearby stands the small Anglian Tower, a rare survivor from the centuries between the Romans and the Vikings, built into the old defences.

The gardens themselves were laid out in the 1830s as a botanic garden by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and today they are free to enter and open daily from early morning until early evening. Squirrels, lawns and specimen trees make this one of the most peaceful corners of central York. Your guide spends about 20 minutes here, setting out the timeline of Roman, Saxon, Viking and Norman York that the rest of the walk brings to life.

St Mary's Abbey Ruins

Rising from the lawns of the Museum Gardens are the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, founded in 1088 and rebuilt on a grand scale in the 13th century. It became the wealthiest Benedictine monastery in the north of England, with its own walls, gatehouse and riverside landing, until it was closed in 1539 when the monasteries were dissolved. Much of its stone was carted away for new buildings, leaving the tall arched wall of the church nave that still stands today.

The guide explains how the abbey's riches drew envy from the city, and how a dispute among its monks led to the founding of another famous Yorkshire monastery. In summer the ruins sometimes host open-air performances of York's medieval mystery plays. Next to them is the Yorkshire Museum, whose Roman, Viking and medieval collections are well worth a visit after the tour if you have time. Expect about ten minutes at the abbey.

York Minster

A short walk through the old Roman gate area brings you to York Minster, the largest medieval Gothic cathedral in the country, built over about 250 years between 1220 and 1472. It stands on the site of the headquarters of the Roman fortress, and its Great East Window, completed in 1408, holds the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in a single window in Britain. The central tower can be climbed for one of the best views over York and the surrounding Vale.

On this tour you see the Minster from outside while your guide gives the full background: its rebuilding, the fires it survived and the craftsmen who still work in its stone yard. Entry is not included, so many guests return afterwards. York Minster opening hours are usually from morning to late afternoon from Monday to Saturday, with shorter hours on Sundays, and York Minster tickets are bought at the door or online. Allow at least 90 minutes for a visit inside.

The Snickelways and Stonegate

Snickelway is a local word coined in the 1980s from snicket, ginnel and alleyway, and it describes the narrow passages that thread between York's streets. Around the Minster they follow lines laid out by Viking settlers, who called the city Jorvik. On this stretch of the walk you squeeze through courtyards and covered lanes most visitors never find, past an unhappy carved mermaid and the little red devil at the corner of Stonegate, the old sign of a printer's workshop.

Stonegate itself follows the main street of the Roman fortress and later became the street of goldsmiths, glass painters and printers. Along the way you catch a glimpse of a 15th-century banqueting hall, a timber-framed townhouse that lay hidden behind later frontages for generations before being restored. The guide also shows you a spot where Roman, medieval, Georgian and modern York can be seen just by turning on the spot. This part takes about 25 minutes.

The Shambles

The walk ends on the Shambles, York's best-known street and a rare survivor of a medieval trading lane. Its name comes from the shamels, the benches on which butchers laid out their meat, and in the 1870s it still had more than twenty butchers' shops. The timber-framed houses lean towards each other overhead, and the deep window ledges and iron meat hooks on some fronts remind you of how the street once worked. Behind it, the open-air Shambles Market sells local produce and street food every day.

Your guide finishes with tips on where to go next: the Yorkshire Museum, a climb up the Minster tower, a walk along the city walls or a riverside stroll. Is York worth visiting on a day trip? With trains from London taking about two hours, many travellers fit this tour into a single day, and the Shambles is only a few minutes from the bus stops into the station.