Walk the entirety of the York City Walls – that was my aim for the day.  Almost 50 years ago, last time I was in York, I walked a small portion of them.  Ever since then, a return to York and completion of the Wall Walk have been on my bucket list, but for one reason or another, we’ve never visited (or revisited) York – until today. The weather forecast was for heavy rain and possible thunderstorms, so I packed my Hurtigruten rain jacket, vowing to finish the Wall Walk as priority; after that I would see what happened.  Ian, meanwhile, was at the Yorkshire Aviation Museum, and he will blog about that separately. He dropped me off at the Designer Outlet Park and Ride. I skipped the high end shops, hopped on Bus 7, and alighted outside York Railway Station.  I was right next to the Walls – time to get started.

However it’s not as simple as it sounds.  To get onto the Walls, you need to find some stairs.  These are usually, but not always, at Bars, or city gates.  I found a flight near the war memorial, and made my way up, for the first of many times.  My circuit was clockwise, and signs said it was a 3.1 km loop that should take about 2 hours. Given that my Garmin says I walked 10 km today, I suspect the 3 km is closer to 5 km. The Brits don’t seem to have metric conversion sorted yet, and underquoting distance is common here (ask Ian …)

Once atop the walls, I asked myself – not for the first time – how hard can it be?  Just follow the parapet and keep it on my left.  After crossing the river, the Wall dropped to ground level, and petered out. Never mind – the Museum Gardens were right there, so I detoured inside.  These lovely gardens feature beds of white and red roses (for York and Lancaster), some beautiful Abbey ruins, and a delightful Tudor house.

Back to the Walls … I exited onto the street, walked east, consulted the map on a board, looked for the little golden plaque set into the footpath – all to no avail. I followed my nose around to the back of the library, where I found the Wall, but no way to get onto it.  After traipsing down three dead ends, I sought the help of some fellow Wall Walkers (we were easy to spot).  We consulted and conferred, and finally agreed to duck under the arch, turn hard right, ignore the path leading upwards (another dead end), take the other path that seemed to lead into someone’s yard, and emerge at the next set of stairs. 

It was clear I was going to need to employ my orienteering skills, if I was to complete this task successfully.  The problems were multiple – Google was confused.  Other online maps were sketchy.  The maps on boards on the street were useless.  The little gold trail markers didn’t actually point in any particular direction – so if you were at a four way road junction, you had no idea which way to go. Small groups of confused Walkers were forming – safety in numbers.

The next stretch was lovely, with tantalising views of The Minster, towering above ornamental lawns and wild gardens. I ambled along here, thoroughly enjoying myself. After about half an hour, I came to the next lot of stairs to nowhere. Down I went, to find myself confronted with a large and busy road junction, two river crossings, and no indication of which way to walk next.  I could see my walking companions milling around, tentatively crossing roads then crossing back again.  How hard could it be???

After several false starts, I worked out that I had to follow the Foss River south, and look for The Red Tower. This was all taking on a Game of Thrones vibe.  Ironically I was on Navigation Road.  It wasn’t really helping.

Finally spotting The Red Tower, and imagining Joffrey doing unspeakable things to anyone unfortunate enough to be in his way, I returned to the Walls.  But now I had another problem.  Up till this point, I’d had a large stone parapet on my left, and a reassuring railing on my right, and I hadn’t given any consideration to fear of falling.  But from here on, the railing disappeared and there was nothing to stop me dropping straight off the edge. OK, any falls were not going to be fatal, or probably even serious. But my wonky vestibular system was Not Happy with this new arrangement.

Regardless, I pressed on, rounding the south east corner, and turning hard left. There was no sign yet of the promised rain, but you could smell it coming. Delaying lunch, I pressed on, determined to finish the full circuit and minimise the drenching.

There were two more non-Wall sections, but I knew the ropes now, and navigated cleanly and confidently through the final few legs.  I took another detour to see Cliffords Tower, part of the original York Castle.  Just as I returned to the Wall for the home stretch, drops of rain started to fall.  Ten minutes, I thought, then I’m in the finish chute.  How hard could it be?  Ten soaking minutes later, I had finished, and was taking refuge at a bus stop while York was chucking it down.  Not unlike being in the finish tent with dozens of other dripping people.

At this point it seemed wise to abandon remaining plans to amble through the Shambles, so I sent Ian a drowned rat selfie and asked him to pick me up early.  And I have now officially Walked the Walls of York.