Our York Pub Tour is basically a lap of York from the Railway Station visiting some of our favourite pubs in the City. It was very hard to pin it down to just 8 but all these would definitely be an essential stop if we only had one day to visit.
Since 2014 we have set out into York each Summer to take part in The Four Towers Challenge, a 8 venue pub tour which follows York’s City walls. Starting in the early afternoon and aiming to cover all our chosen pubs before the walls close at sunset.
Each pub is selected based upon its proximity to the City Walls and their access points. Each year we lay out a slightly different route to keep things interesting and allow us to visit different pubs.
Others are always welcome to take part with us throughout the day, but of course this challenge can be attempted at any time.
We do urge that you take it easy with sensible drinking and be careful not to fall off the walls!
Approximate Statistics:
● Total Distance: 4 miles
● City Walls Length: 2 miles
● Recommended Start time 1:00pm
● Walls close at dusk, anti-clockwise
from Fishergate Postern. June & July at 9pm.
● Sunset at 9:40pm on 29th June.
We also take up the challenge in memory of our good friend Andy Watson who started reviewing with us right back when we founded Within the Walls, which would eventually become Roaming the Ridings. Sadly after 30 years of battling against Kidney failure he passed away in 2012, we do the Four Towers Challenge close to his Birthday each year and raise a glass to him.
The opening times for the walls varies depending on the month, so if you plan to undertake the challenge at any other time it’s worth checking them out here:
York City Walls Opening Times.
Check our Facebook events page to see when the next Four Towers Challenge is taking place.
Link below.
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Inspired by the 1983 book ‘A Walk around the Snickelways of York’ by Mark W. Jones, we’ve taken all the best bits of the route and combined them with great pubs to form an entertaining and informative pub tour around York.
A Snickelway for those who aren’t local is defined as “a narrow place to walk along, leading from somewhere to somewhere else, usually in a town or city, especially in the city of York”.
All the Snickelways are marked in orange with their name.
If the Sun is out and you feel the need for some alfresco drinking then this is your essential guide to where we think are the very best Beer Gardens in York.
As one of the most haunted Cities in the World York boasts a staggering amount of ghosts, many of which inhabit its old pubs and ancient streets.
To explore and celebrate these hauntings we have put together a Pub Tour which visits York's most haunted pubs while following a route around the City past some of its most notable hauntings. After visiting 8 spooky pubs maybe you'll experience the supernatural too, although we do advocate sensible drinking.
We’ve marked out as many ghosts as we can on the map along the route and this download also contains our Ghost Guide which gives a bit more information about each ghost at the Pubs on the tour.
If you like a bit of history then this tour of some of the York City Centre pubs which have been designated as having an historic interior of national importance by CAMRA is for you.
We've included a brief note about each pub but it is worth visiting CAMRA's Pub Heritage Website if you wish to learn more.
A remnant of York’s medieval past are a selection of cat statues and sculptures that adorn buildings throughout the City which were originally supposed to scare off mice and rats that could carry plague.
In more recent years York Lucky Cats has compiled all their locations with the popular York Cat Trail, this map is designed to be used in conjunction with theirs so you can go on a cat hunt and visit some fine York pubs along the way.
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