York - The Walled City

We left Edinburgh and made our way to York which was about 4 hours away. As we drove into the city wall, around it actually, it was amazing to see the evidence of the wall and the gate into the inner city. This wall has been up for thousands of years and it was fantastic to actually see it. We arrived and left the car at the hotel and walked into the city centre. A short walk down the street, over the bridge and we were there. It was great that we were so close as it meant we didn’t have to waste time getting anywhere.

We had lunch at a restaurant chain called The Slug and Lettuce which we have seen in a couple of other places during our travels and it was very nice and well priced also.  After lunch we found the tourist information office which was where we had to get our York Pass from, which is a card that we had paid for the two days we were in York and it gives you entry into a lot of attractions for free once you have paid for the pass. We then did our usual thing of walking around to get our bearings. There was a place called The Shambles which Peter was keen to find so with map in hand we set off. It wasn’t far as York itself is only a small place as it is a walled city from Roman times.

 

The Shambles is a street in York with some buildings which dated back to the 14th century. They were originally butcher shops and the term “Shambles” is an obsolete one for an open air slaughterhouse and meat market. As you walk down the street they almost lean into each other and touch. You can still see some of the hooks where the meat used to hang. It is now filled with shops selling all manner of things, there is even a cufflink shop where you can have cufflinks made to order. The cufflink shop is a shrine to Saint Margaret Clitherow who was known to harbour Catholic priests and allow them to escape  if there was a raid, during the time when King Henry VIII had split from the Roman Catholic church. She was arrested and executed by being placed on a sharp rock which would have broken her back and then her own door was placed on top of her and then loaded with heavy rocks. Once dead her body was left for six hours and after death her hand was removed and is now housed in the chapel of the Bar Convent in York. A gruesome story.

It was very hard to photograph as there were lots of people in it. The buildings were all made of wood with the wooden beams exposed as you expect from buildings of that time. A very interesting little street.

We wandered a bit more familiarising ourselves with the town and finding out where the attractions that our York pass gave us entry into. We came to an imposing looking tower which we thought might give us a good view of the town and the city walls. It was the Clifford’s Tower built by William the Conqueror and is all that remains of the original York Castle. It is the one thing in York that is distinctly Norman as the rest of York is Roman and Viking.

Clifford's Tower

Looking down into the courtyard of Clifford's Tower

View from the top of Clifford's Tower

Entry to Clifford's Tower

We climbed up the steps to the entry way and then climbed the tower to see the view. While it was a grey day the view was still impressive. We looked at going to the Castle Museum but decided we didn’t have enough time to do it justice so  we wandered a bit more and then went back to hotel to actually check in and get settled before dinner at the hotel restaurant. We had decided that because the hotel had a restaurant we would eat there bearing in mind the difficulties we have had sometimes on the first night in a town to find somewhere to eat. But as we walked around today we found that York had heaps of places but never mind. I also didn’t want to venture far as tonight was the first episode of Series 5 of Downton Abbey and I wanted to watch it while we were here. It was fabulous but not to Peter’s liking.  

Tomorrow a walking tour and whatever else takes our fancy.