Head for the Museum at Micklegate Bar

Mind your head when you visit Micklegate Bar Museum and its three floors of history set above the Royal Gateway into Historic York. Many of its visitors in the past were not so careful and quite literally lost their head's over Micklegate Bar for acts of treason against the King. Richard Duke of York (pictured above) in 1460, made a guest appearance above Micklegate Bar as a warning to others of the penalty for coming second.

There has been a gateway here for well over a thousand years now, with the stone archway replacing an earlier wooden structure in the early 1100's. Micklegate Bar stands close to the site of where a Roman Gateway would of led into Eboracum, the Roman City.

When is a Bar not a Pub?

The phrase "Bar" in York means a gateway into the City. The word "Gate" is taken from the old Viking word "Gata", which means street. Finally, the word "Mickle" descends from another Viking word meaning great or important. Therefore Micklegate Bar is "The Great and Important Street's Gate", this is because it was the gateway to the South and so many Kings and Queens would travel through it.