Cheap Hotels in York

A Guide to York

Why visit York? Well, why not? Four million visitors a year can’t be wrong!

Without doubt a York is one of Britain’s greatest historical cities and being such a compact city it’s almost impossible not to come in contact with many historical sites as you amble around this fine city. York is fortunate enough that most of the medieval city is intact and many buildings are streets have been preserved.

York’s history first starts when the Romans built a fortress and a city they named Eboracum. Britain was invaded by several conquerors over the next few hundred years and York was given different names by its conquerors, the Vikings renamed the city Jorvik, but it was the Normans who named the city York. By the Middle Ages York had become the most powerful and prosperous town in the north of England.

York also has a fine mixture of Georgian buildings dating back to the 18th century when York was famous for being the elegant social capital of the north.

Add to this a wide range of quality shops and fine places to eat and a warm and genuine welcome from the Yorkshire people and you can see why over four million visitors make the journey to York each year.

There’s so much for visitors to see and do while staying in York it’s been said even if you stayed a month you would still have to comeback again.

York Minster is probably top of everybody’s list when visiting York. For nearly 1,000 years the Gothic cathedral has dominated the city skyline and is the second largest of its kind in Northern Europe. It is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second highest office in the Church of England.

York has a long history of creating beautiful stained glass windows and nowhere is this more evident than the huge windows in the Minster. The Great East window was created by John Thornton in the 15th century and at 76 feet (26m) tall, remains the largest example of medieval stained glass in the world.

The Minster has lived through many challenges including an arson attack in 1829 by the religious fanatic Jonathan ‘Mad’ Martin which caused heavy damage on the east arm of the building. A fire started by a bolt of lighting in 1984 the ensuing blaze doing serve damage to the south transept. Four years of restoration work cost around £2.5 million and included new roof bosses from a competition held on BBC’s Blue Peter.

The Minster is open daily to the public from 0900 - 1645.

The Vikings play a huge part in the history of York so a visit to the Jorvik centre is a must where you can find Ivor the Boneless and Eric Bloodaxe and his pals who for a century made the city of York there home.

In the 1970s after extensive excavations in the Coppergate shopping centre, York Archaeological Trust unearthed well preserved remains of some timber buildings from a Jorvik settlement. The find also included workshops, animal pens, privies and wells together with other materials and artefacts such as pottery, metalwork, textiles, wood, bones and even and animal remains. Over 40,000 objects were recovered in total.

The Jorvik Centre recreated the excavated part of the site where you can witness the sights, smells and sounds of life in a Viking village. The centre is open daily from 0900 – 1730.

Whether you’re a train enthusiast or not a visit to the National Railway Museum is a must. Voted best European museum in the 2001, the NRM has a fantastic display for everyone to enjoy.

The great hall houses some of Britain’s greatest steam trains including the Mallard and the Flying Scotsman, also on display is Queen Victoria’s royal carriage and a Japanese Bullet Train. This museum has become one of the UK major attractions and deservedly so the museum is open daily from 1000-1800 and entry is free. There is a road train that links the museum with the city centre.

Castle Museum offers the finest popular history of social life in modern England this museum owes its beginning to a man called John Kirk, a county doctor based in the town of Pickering located just north of York and on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. Kirk was distressed to see reminders of Victorian life being consigned to rubbish heaps everywhere so he decided to buy or save as much of the property as he could and opened the museum in 1938.

The museum houses thousands of items that were part of our social past. You can wander through the Victorian and Edwardian streets and peer into life in the past. Castle museum is open daily from 0930-1700.

If Museums are not your thing and you simply enjoy walking or ambling at your own leisure then take a walk along the historical city walls. The Romans were the first to build fortifications around the city but the wall you can walk around today dates back only till the 13th century.

The City walls offer visitors some of the best views of York as well as enabling you to get your bearings and the layout of the city. Along the wall there are four main gatehouses, or ‘bars’, Bootham Bar, Walmgate Bar, Monk Bar and Micklegate Bar. These bars were used to extract tolls for people entering the city as well as being defence positions during wars. Now, the walls are a grade 1 listed building and are open to the public everyday from dawn to dusk.   

Also close to the city walls and alongside the river you can find the Museum Gardens this little park seems to get overlooked by most visitors but is really a little gem. Within the gardens are the Multangular Tower which is the only remaining part of the original roman wall and also contains the remains of the St Mary’s Abbey which include the Hospitium - the guest house for the abbey all set amongst splendid gardens. The museum gardens are open in the summer from 08.00-20.00 daily and during the winter are open from 0800-17.30 entry into the gardens are free and well worth a visit.

For a different night out how about a ghost walk? York is officially the most haunted city in Europe, which accounts for the number of ghost walk tours you will see when walking around York these walks combine scary tales and humour. Most walks start in the Minster area or ask the tourist office on arrival these walks operate all year and normally start around 19.30 –20.00.