England's third-smallest city — and gateway to Fountains Abbey
Ripon is a quietly distinguished cathedral city in North Yorkshire whose market square has been set out exactly the same way since the late Middle Ages — complete with the ceremonial blowing of the horn each evening at 9pm by the Wakeman, a tradition unbroken since 886 CE. The cathedral contains some of the earliest surviving Anglo-Saxon crypt in England, and the city sits at the door of Fountains Abbey, the most complete Cistercian ruin in Europe.
Ripon's market charter dates to 886 CE when Alfred the Great granted the town its right to trade, and the evening horn ceremony — originally a signal that the Wakeman was on duty and householders could sleep safely — has been continuous since then. Ripon Cathedral's crypt dates to c.672 CE, making it one of the oldest intact structures in northern England. The town was historically the centre of the local wool trade and later the site of a major harness-making industry that supplied cavalry equipment to the British Army.