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The third stop on our tour was York Museum Garden’s. I refer to it as the open air museum because essentially that’s what it is, a collection of buildings and treasures out of doors. In addition to this, it is surround by beautiful botanical gardens and wildlife.
The History
The museum garden was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society which had been created in 1822 by royal assent. It was then when they started to prepare the beautiful botanical gardens to house their collections.
The buildings in the garden’s that make up this collection are:
St Mary’s Abbey
St Mary’s Abbey is the most popular, it was built in 1088 by the Benedictine order in York.
St Mary’s Abbey 
Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the other buildings because I accidentally deleted them and had no back up to retrieve them 😮
Abbey walls and gateway walls
The walls around the Abbey were built in the 1260s
The Hospitium
This would have been like what we know as today, as a guest house to the monastery.
Ruins of St Leonards Hospital
This was the largest medeival hospital in England
York Observatory
This was built in 1832 and 1833 and is the oldest in Yorkshire. People have been coming here to gaze at the night skies for thousands of years. The observatory is still used for this purpose today. It is ran by volunteers who run it in the evening. Here you can learn about the history and astronomy in York as well as, gaze at the skies through the cooke telescope.
Roman Fortress
The Romans built this fortress to house over 5000 men, it was built in the 3rd and 4th century.
Wildlife
There are over 40 species of birds that live in the garden’s.
Birds Of Prey Shows
From February to October, the shows are ran 7 days a week from 11 to 4pm. The show includes a variety of different birds and you can hold them for £4 😐
They were kept on chains!!!
Not sure how long these birds are kept here on chains, but we certainly were not happy to see it regardless.Keeping them on chains so they don’t fly away is just simply cruel in my opinion 🤷🏾😓
This isn’t something I would support however, it is a travel blog, therefore I always mention anything I discover along the way.
Having said this, this is a wonderful place to visit and it’s free!!! So don’t miss it if you do pay a visit to York.
Opening Times
7 days a week 10.30am to 6pm
NattyTravels 
York’s Open-Air Museum looks to be a picturesque spot to spend a bit of time in, whilst in the city itself. I agree with you that keeping the birds shackled is unethical, so I would probably skip out on that. But for the rest of the place, I’d be keen on exploring every inch of it!
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Aww, it is Rebecca! I wish I would have had more time to sit and enjoy it tho. Yes, the bird thing was quite shocking to me 🙄. Thanks for your comment
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