York Museum Gardens

The west corner of the Roman fort of Eboracum, the ruins of St Mary's Abbey church and the Yorkshire Museum all stand within these 10-acre botanic gardens beside the River Ouse. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society created the gardens and museum on the abbey's former grounds in the 1830s. Landscape architect Sir John Murray Naysmith designed them in a gardenesque style. Today they are a Grade II listed park and garden with a variety of plants, trees and birds.

The Roman remains include the Multangular Tower and stretches of wall later absorbed into York's city walls, along with the Anglian Tower. Medieval survivals include the abbey's Hospitium, lodge and part of its precinct wall, and the chapel and undercroft of St Leonard's Hospital. The Yorkshire Museum holds permanent collections of biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy, and its octagonal observatory also stands in the grounds. The gardens host open-air theatre and festival activities.