York City Walls: Travel Guide (4.7★)

A walkway at rooftop height

The walkway runs level with York’s chimney pots. Below you, traffic threads through stone gateways that carts once squeezed through. On one side you look over back gardens and terraced roofs. On the other, the grass bank drops away, and in spring it is covered in daffodils.

The stone is pale magnesian limestone, most of it medieval, laid over lines first set down when the Romans founded their fortress here in 71 CE. The parapet is lower than you expect. On many stretches the inner side has no barrier at all, so you walk with the city falling open beside you.

Reading the walls from gate to gate

York calls its gateways “bars”, and they are how you find your way around. Each one gives you steps up to the walkway and a landmark to aim for.

• Bootham Bar: the northwest gate, a few minutes from York Minster. This is where the busiest stretch begins.
• Monk Bar: the tallest of the gates, still fitted with a working portcullis.
• Walmgate Bar: the only gate that still has its barbican, the walled outer passage built in front of it.
• Micklegate Bar: the traditional royal entrance from the south. Traitors’ heads were once displayed on it.

The full circuit is about two miles long. It isn’t continuous: there are breaks near the River Foss and at the river crossings, and signed street routes link the sections. Allow about two hours to go all the way round at an easy pace, including stops. A single stretch can take as little as 20 minutes.

The stretch worth your time

If you only have an hour, walk from Bootham Bar to Monk Bar. For most of the way the Minster’s towers sit just over the rooftops, framed by the gardens of the old Deanery. It is the view on most York postcards. It is also why this section is the most crowded.

The southwest section, around Micklegate, is quieter and broader. It passes above York railway station and gives long views back across the Ouse. Near the Museum Gardens you can see the Multangular Tower, part of the Roman fortress defences, still standing beside later medieval stonework.

Timing your walk

The walls are open daily from 8am to 8pm. Our foot-traffic data shows weekdays staying quiet right through those hours, so any weekday slot works. Weekends are different. Try not to go up between 11am and 6pm on a Saturday or Sunday, when the single-file sections turn into slow queues.

An 8am weekend start gives you the Minster stretch almost to yourself. Winter light fades well before 8pm, and the walkway has no lighting, so plan to be down by dusk. The council closes the walls in icy or snowy weather, when the worn steps become slippery.

Sharing a narrow walkway

The walls are well known, and on busy days walking them means sharing a very narrow path. A few habits make it easier for everyone.

• Pull in at the bars and towers. The walkway widens there, so that’s the place to stop for photos rather than in the middle of a single-file stretch.
• Keep children on the inside. Toddlers should walk on the wall side, away from the unguarded drop.
• Pick your climb. The steps at each bar are steep and uneven, and there is no step-free access to most of the circuit. If stairs are hard for you, the Minster views are still good from the grass below Bootham Bar.
• Go down to eat. There are no toilets and no food stalls on the walls. The gates come out right onto city streets, so stepping off at Monk Bar or Micklegate for a café break takes seconds.

There’s nothing to pay and no ticket to show. You just climb the steps at any bar and start walking.

Fitting it into a day in York

The walls make a good link between York’s main sights. Bootham Bar is a short walk from York Minster. From Monk Bar, the Shambles and its timber-framed lanes are just a few streets inside the walls. Clifford’s Tower is not on the circuit, but you can see its mound from the southern sections.

Arriving by train, you meet the walls almost at once: York station sits just outside the southwest stretch, and there’s a way up close to Station Road. Start there, walk anticlockwise to Bootham Bar, and come down beside the Minster.