York: A Walk Inside the Walls

York begins here: the original walls were built around 71 AD, when the Romans erected a fort. The Multangular Tower in the Museum Gardens is the most intact structure left from those walls. It has ten sides and stands almost 30 feet tall, and it is probably a later addition of Constantine the Great around 310–320 AD. Look at the top of the tower: the masonry there is 13th century, and its arrowslits can still be seen.

Visitor guidance: The tower stands in the Museum Gardens.

The first recorded church here was a wooden structure built hurriedly in 627 to baptise Edwin, King of Northumbria. It stood probably in or beside the old Roman headquarters. The Gothic building began in 1220 under Archbishop Walter de Gray, who wanted a structure to rival Canterbury, and the cathedral was consecrated in 1472. Beneath the south transept, the north corner of the Roman headquarters of Eboracum was found, and that area reopened to the public in spring 2013.

Visitor guidance: Roman remains under the south transept are open to the public.

In 1190, York Castle was the location of one of the worst pogroms in England during the medieval period. Josce of York led the local Jewish families into the wooden keep for refuge, and the siege continued until 16 March. Around 150 people died. Today's stone keep, built between 1245 and 1272 for Henry III, has a quatrefoil plan with four circular lobes. The first memorial tablet to the victims was laid at its base in 1978.

Visitor guidance: Managed by English Heritage and open to the public; a roof deck gives views over the city.

The name comes from the Old Norse 'mykla gata', or 'great road'. This was the traditional ceremonial gate for monarchs entering the city, and since Richard II in 1389 they touch the state sword on entering. Its symbolic value also had a grim side: traitors' severed heads were displayed on the defences, among them Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, in 1461. Part of the gatehouse is now a museum known as the City Walls Experience at Micklegate Bar.

Visitor guidance: Part of the gatehouse is the City Walls Experience museum.

The street takes its name from butchers' stalls, a link that has remained since the 14th century. The rears of the shops were slaughterhouses, and the buildings shade the narrow street from direct sunlight, so the meat on display could stay fresh for longer. Many of the timber-framed jettied houses date from circa 1350–1475. A shrine honours Saint Margaret Clitherow, who was married to a butcher who owned and lived in a shop on the street.

Visitor guidance: A public street.

Walmgate Bar has the only barbican surviving on a town gate in England. In 1489 it was burnt by rebels who were rioting over tax rises. It was bombarded by cannon fire in the 1644 Siege of York in the English Civil War. A house built over the gateway was occupied until 1957. The gate still has its portcullis and reproduction 15th-century oak doors.