Top 10 Things to do in York, England
Located two hours north of London, lies the city of York. York, like the rest of Britain is seeped in more history than you can poke a stick at! So of course, there are plenty of things to do and see in this city!
Also known as the capital of the north, the name is originally derived from the viking word Jorvik and the first documented settlement was the mesolithic people.
Since then, the city has continuously grown and been occupied by many groups and cultures through the ages to the York we know today. York is a very easy city to walk and is actually currently partitioning to become a UNESCO world heritage site.
It is currently part of the UNESCO creative cities network. If you love history, and English history especially-this city should most definitely be on your bucket list!
Here is 10 things to do in York
1. White Rose city Tours
This free walking tour is a great way to see the city- and help you wrap you head around some of the history of the city and know what your looking at and what era it comes from.
York is a city with thousands of years layered upon the next, from the Saxons, Vikings, to Romans, war of Roses battles, Tudors, the English civil war and beyond, York has seen it, and survived it all.
This tour is such a great introduction to all of this. I can not emphasis how great this tour is, it is honestly one of the best free walking tours I have ever been on anywhere in the world to date!
The guides really love their city and the history and speak about it with such passion and enthusiasm. Even if history isn’t really your thing, they have so many interesting and funny stories and facts to keep you entertained!
This tour runs daily at 11am all year and 3pm April to October. Reminder that although it is free, it is run based on tips. The tour meets outside the front of York Minster. Check out the website Here
2. Walk the city Walls
The city walls encircle the old town of York and date back to the Roman times. The walls are still almost complete and some of the most complete city walls in England. It takes approximately one hour to walk the whole wall and gives some great view over York.
3. The Shambles
The Shambles is probably one of the more famous parts of York. Well known as the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films, it is more traditionally the old butchers street during Medieval times.
The overhanging and closely built buildings in the street were purposely built to block light down into the street below to keep the meat sheltered from the sun. It is one of the best preserved medieval streets in England and is also mentioned in the doomsday book from 1086!
Today the street is lined with food shops, chocolatier’s, souvenir’s shops and of course Harry Potter shops, including the potions cauldron at number 9 3/4, where you can buy some Basilisk blood, unicorn essence or Butter beer.
Don’t forget to look out for number 10 shambles, just outside the door, owned by the shambles smallest resident!
4. Betty’s cafe and tearooms
If the history and sightseeing is getting a bit much, step into Bettys Cafe!
Betty’s cafe is a famous York Tea room that is on the locals must do when in York list.
Established in 1919, it is the oldest Tearoom in York, and well known in the area for afternoon tea, they also do great meals too. I went for Breakfast on my last morning in York and it was delicious!
They also have their own blends of Tea and Coffee, however the Latte latino which is a Mocha blended with cinnamon was a 10/10 for me- and I am not a Mocha person!
5. York Minster
With well over 1,000 years of history, York minster is the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. The first recorded church in York was a wooden building built in 627 AD. Since then it has changed many times to become the building we see today.
The current building took almost 250 years to complete (242 years to be exact) in 1472, and famous for its beautiful large amount of 15th century stained glass.
The name York minster comes from the Angelo Saxons where the word Minster is what they named their most important churches, compared to the Romans who called them Cathedrals. York minster has kept this name as a honorary title. The minster is open 7 days with times varying each day and prices starting from £16 for a adult.
6. A day trip to Harrogate
A famous Victorian Spa town in the north, Once frequented by the royals of Europe and Queen Victoria to enjoy the natural thermal spring waters of Harrogate and a mere 45 minute train ride from York.
This town is beautiful, due to the large amount of elite clientele in the 1800’s that came for relaxation and holidays for the Spa, the city in return has beautiful gardens and victorian architecture all around the city centre. In a beautiful old victorian building are the traditional Victorian Turkish baths and one of the only places that has remained a bath since Victorian times.
The experience last for 2 hours and can add on treatments to this as well. There are multiple rooms with different intensities of heat, a steam room and a large plunge pool to cool off.
After you can enjoy a walk around the valley gardens just down the road and the Victorian pavilions that contain history of the town during Victorian times. On the way back there is a tiny museum called the royal pump room museum that covers the history of harrogate become a Spa town.
7. Cliffords Tower
The keep of the original York castle, now known as Cliffords tower, was built by William the conquer, when he first headed to northern England. Eventually built into stone (the OG was wooden) by King Henry III in 1244, it was used as a base of operations for the English during the wars with Scotland between 1298 and 1338.
York remained a important part of the defence of northern England over many centuries after this. It was also used as a garrison for the royalists during the civil war and besieged in 1644 by the Parliamentarians. Cliffords tower was also a site of a massacre of Jews in 1190 due to rising antisemitism and the ongoing crusades at the time.
It has also been a royal mint, and a gaol, on and off from the 13th century, all the way up to 1929.
8. St Mary’s Abbey and York Museum Gardens
St Mary’s abbey was first founded in 1088, with land given to the church by the King for a monastery. It was first used by the church by monks, but following a dispute, left in 1132.
Shortly after in 1137, the abbey was badly damaged by a fire and the rebuild was officially finalised in 1294. The ruins that you can see today are from that rebuild. The abbey was then destroyed in 1539 by Henry VIII when he broke England away from the Catholic Church, so he could divorce and marry his second wife Anne Boleyn.
Under the dissolution of the monasteries policy, from 1536-1541, many monasteries, convents, abbeys and others were closed and destroyed during this time. Later in the early 1800’s the Yorkshire Museum was built on part of the site and some of the abbeys remains excavated while building the museum foundations.
The main sections of the abbey that remain are parts of the west, east and south cloister walls. The ruins are now part of the museum, along with the museum gardens.
The museum gardens have a beautiful view over the river and looking over the city. The gardens also contain ruins from the the hospital, kitchen and the city wall runs through them. Near the entrance to the gardens amongst the flower beds, you can also find Roman coffins! These don’t come up as a landmark on google so you will have to search for them!
9. The chocolate museum
York is famous as a Chocolate and Sweets (Lollies/Candy) city! With York being the city who created the Kit Kat and home of many famous confectionary brands such as Rowntree and Terry families- now Nestle and Kraft, there is over 250 years of chocolate history in York.
10. The Railway museum
The national railway museum show the history of Britain’s and the worlds railways and is the largest in Britain with over 6000 objects, and gives a great over view of them from steam engines to Japanese bullet trains. If you want to see a Harry Potter train this is the place! On another Harry Potter and trains note- in the first film where Harry is with Hagrid at Kings Cross station on the overpass. This was actually filmed at York train station!
Fun facts about York!
As I mentioned at the beginning, York is so full of history- and with history there are always weird and wonderful facts and stories which is one of the reasons I love it. Here are 5 that I learned about during my time in York.
▪️The roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, was proclaimed the Emperor of Rome in 306 AD in York. There is a statue of him outside York Minster!
▪️ York is know to be the most haunted city in Europe! Go check out a ghost tour to learn all about them!
▪️ York has over 365 Pubs, along with one of the longest serving Pubs Ye Olde Starre Inn, built in 1644. It is a grade II listed Heritage building.
▪️ The Jorvik viking museum contains the largest sample of fossilised human Poop discovered in 1972. It is know as The Lloyds bank coprolite s it was found on the site where Lloyds banks was opening a new branch.
▪️ Guy Fawkes, who is famous in Britain for trying to blow up the Parliament building in London (he failed and got caught) was born in York. The English celebrate this every November with Bonfire night or also known as Guy Fawkes night. There is a pub called Guy Fawkes Inn, which is where he was born.
Steph xx