Walk York along its city walls
York keeps most of its medieval walls and a maze of narrow lanes inside them. FOG keeps the map dark until you walk it, and the walls draw a near complete ring that you can then fill street by street.
A ring of walls
York has the longest surviving medieval town walls in England, and you can walk along the top of most of them, a circuit of a little over three kilometres with gateways called bars at intervals. The view over the rooftops to York Minster is the best in the city.
The Minster, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe, stands inside the walls at the north end of the old town.
Lanes inside
Inside the walls, the streets are medieval in layout. The Shambles is the famous one, a narrow lane of overhanging timber framed buildings. Between the streets run snickelways, tiny alleys and passages, many with odd names, which are easy to miss and great for fog clearing.
Walk the full wall circuit first, then come down and work the lanes inside it, one quarter at a time. Clifford's Tower and the riverside paths along the Ouse are south of the centre.
Coverage
The walled city is small, so you can clear it thoroughly. The snickelways are the detail: find them all and the map shows a remarkably fine web.
York is flat, which makes walking easy, and the river sometimes floods its banks in winter.
Share the shape you walked
After a proper walk FOG can offer a walk card: the shape of the route you just covered in York, ready to post as a square, a story or the bare shape. The lifetime card shows the area you have unfogged, the distance travelled and how much of the city you have lit.
It all runs on your phone with no account and no cloud. Choose kilometres in Settings, pick a fog colour (Midnight, Abyss, Violet, Ember or Slate) and a density, and walk. Exploring is free, and one purchase of FOG Unlimited opens every rank, every path and Google Timeline and GPX import.
Questions people actually ask
Can you walk on York's city walls?
Yes, most of the circuit is open to walkers, a little over three kilometres in total.
What are snickelways?
York's narrow alleys and passages between the old streets.
Does it work with the app closed?
Yes. With background exploring on, FOG keeps clearing fog while the app is closed and the screen is off.
Start with a dark map.
FOG is free to explore. No account, no subscription, and your map never leaves your phone.
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