6/19 Clifford's Tower, York

York Castle is long gone, but its tower survives and is worth a visit.  First, you need to know that this English Heritage tower is NOT connected to the nearby museum, which has a large sign on the entrance that says "York Castle Museum."  This museum is also on the location of York Castle, but it focuses on more recent York history, primarily the Victorian Period to Modern.  

This page from the ENglish Heritage site tells a better history than I can so I will leave it to them:   https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/cliffords-tower-york/history-and-stories/history/

The important thing to know is that a castle stood here for a thousand years and was once considered the greatest castle in Northern England and home to the seat of government for Northern England for several hundred years.  The tower was originally made of wood, but was burned down in 1190 during the massacre of Jews.  The castle was rebuilt in stone and a new tower was constructed by Henry III.  

I got up my courage and climbed the 55 stairs to the entrance of the tower, and then found another 50 oe so stairs inside the tower, so I got my exercise today.   

Took it easy, but made it all the way up. 

There is no original roof to this tower, and the second floor is mostly missing, so more stairs to climb.  However, there were a lot of explanatory displays along the way.

 

 

Obviously, this tower has had to be reinforced from the inside.  The square wooden timbers hold up a platform on the top where an original platform would have enabled soldiers to watch the goings-on in the distance.   

 

 

A great view of the city of York and the Minster in the distance.   

 

 

And some very twisty stairs down to the first level and the stairway exit.   

This was the end of the day, so I walked about half a mile back to my hotel.  One problem with turning so many streets into pedestrian walkways is that there are no taxis available!