York City Walls

Once stretching 2.5 miles around the ancient city, today the well-preserved ruins of the York City Walls trace the periphery of the modern city center, encompassing many of York’s top attractions. Originally erected in Roman times, the remaining walls today date back to the 13th and 14th centuries and include four ‘bars’ (gatehouses), where tollbooths once taxed entrants to the city.

The Shambles, York

Renowned as one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval shopping streets and awarded the title of ‘Britain’s most picturesque street’ by Google. A stroll down The Shambles is one of York’s top attractions. Mentioned in the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror in 1086, The Shambles dates back over 900 years and takes its name from the Saxon ‘Fleshammels’ or ‘street of the butchers’.

York

Nestling in the embrace of York’s miraculously preserved wall is one of the great medieval town centers of Europe. You can walk the wall itself and then descend to the winding streets including the narrow Snickelways and the Shambles, now considerably cleaned up since the days when its rivers of blood and offal made it a synonym for chaotic mess.