Something we hadn't done for a while was to walk the city walls, so that's what we decided to do. It took about two and a half hours to get all the way round but we did venture into the centre at one point to have a quick look in the shops for something for lunch.
From the Rowntree Park car park on Terry Avenue (or the CC site), we walked by the river, along Terry Avenue towards and then under Skeldergate Bridge.
We got up onto the wall at the Victorian turret, at Baile Hill, this is just to the west of Skeldergate Bridge and the old Bonding Warehouse.
We are walking in a clockwise direction towards Birchdaughter Tower (built in 1645) passed Baile Hill, once the site of York's second castle, sadly now no more.
At Birchdaughter Tower, the wall does a 90° right hand turn and has it's longest straight section, where it passes over Victoria Bar and on towards Micklegate Bar.
The views along that stretch are, to the left of the old chocolate factory and York race course, to the right row after row of residential property (houses) and in the distance, as always the Minster.
You come down from the wall at Micklegate Bar and then back up the other side, before you get to Tofts Tower, where it again turns 90° right again. From this part of the wall you look over the railway station outside the walls and the modern council buildings on the inside.
Along this section we also pass over the Railway Arches, obviously not an original feature, this part of the wall was demolished around 1839 to allow the railway into the city and two arches built over it.
This is all rather sad, as the new station was opened outside the walls in 1877 and these arches now seem to be of no practical use at all, a main road also passes under two arches along this section.
But the best view on this part of the walk is the Minster in the distance (although you can see the Minster for most of the walk), as you walk towards it all along this way.
This section of the wall ends at North Street Postern and Barker Tower, it ends here as the river Ouse is in the way, Lendal Tower can be seen on the other side of the Ouse. The wall walk restarts over the river which we cross via Lendal bridge.
After we cross over Lendal bridge to Lendal Tower, we follow Museum street passed some more of the wall, to Museum gardens on the left. In the gardens is the Multangular Tower, built on the remains of the west corner of the Roman fort of Eboracum.
You can look around the back and inside the remains of the Multangular Tower and also the site of where the Anglian Tower stood. Then at the end of this short section in the gardens, you walk passed the front York City Art Gallery and over the A19, to rejoin the wall at Bootham Bar.
At Bootham Bar we get back onto the wall, from here it runs alongside the Minster on one side and behind a row of shops on the other.
This straight section ends at Robin Hood Tower where the wall takes another 90° right hand turn. Robin Hood Tower was rebuilt in 1888 by the Victorians who thought this was what a medieval tower should look like.
There were quite a few people doing the wall walk, the sun had made it a popular pastime today, there were even people having picnics along the way but not us. If we had brought one we could have had it in the sun, on a seat on Robin Hood Tower, but for once we hadn't bothered.
So we walked on to Monk Bar where we came down from the wall for quick lunch.
We got back on the wall at Monk Bar and continued on to Lathorpe Tower, where the wall ends for a about 450 yards.
The river Foss now flows through the part of the walk and you have to cross over the river via the road bridge.
This section where the river Foss flows and where there is no wall at all, I had always assumed it had been demolished or fallen down but apparently, there was an impenetrable marsh here (The King's Fishpool), so there was no need for a wall.
It was a glorious day and I took lots of photos as we walked by the Foss, I wanted to explore the course of the Foss through York centre but today we were doing the wall, so that could wait for another day.
As this was an old swamp all of the building here are new and on your left, is a new large Morison's supermarket, where you can use the toilet, get a drink or even a meal if you wanted. One of the older buildings on the right is an old garage that is now a wine warehouse, well worth a look, they also have beers.
We rejoin the wall at Red Tower, which looks like a more modern building but it isn't, it is built in brick instead of stone like the rest of the wall and had been there since 1490.
There are no sharp turns on this section, it gently curves round to Walmgate Bar, the most complete of the four main medieval gateways to the city. We have to come down form the wall here to cross the road. On the inside is a timber building that again looks like a newer addition but is from the 1580's. On the outside is the barbican, Walmgate Bar, is the only bar to retain its barbican, portcullis and inner doors.
Then it back up on the wall and on to Fishergate Bar where we crossed straight across the top.
just after Fishergate Bar there is a very sharp turn at a tower there, then its straight on to Fishergate Postern and the end of the wall walk.
So we had finished the wall, what could we do next, we could just cross over Skeldergate Bridge and back along the river to the car park and finish the walk or, I know, have a beer, and where, where else, the Kings Arms and a nice pint (or two) of Sam Smith's bitter. So we made a detour to the famous pub on the riverside before crossing over the bridge.
It was even a nice walk back to the car park, the sun was still shining, the trees were glowing in their autumn colours and it was all reflected in the mirror smooth river Ouse, life doesn't get much better.
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