The Bloody York Gin Tour launches with Mad Alice
The Bloody York Gin Tour is no longer available. This is the statement when it was launched in 2019.
Mad Alice is still York's best tour guide - make sure you join one of her fantastic tours!
The Bloody York Gin Tour and the 57% Outlaw gin launch on 1st March - York Gin Day- a year to the day since the company sold its first bottle of gin.
The tour is led by award-winning guide ‘Mad Alice’ whose Bloody Tour of York is one of the most popular tours of the city, according to TripAdvisor.
The new tour is a blood-curdling, history-filled, two-hour walking and gin-drinking tour, mixing horrible history and restorative York Gins at three bars along the route.
It follows the stories of the city’s most notorious and lesser-known outlaws including Guy Fawkes, Dick Turpin and ‘The Yorkshire Witch’, Mary Bateman.
The tour price of £35 includes 3 different single York Gin & tonics, including the new York Gin Outlaw. Tours are for groups of between 6 and 20 people.
York Gin director Emma Godivala said: “The Bloody York Gin Tour takes you on a journey through York’s darker history. With all the horror stories, you’ll need a regular revitalising York Gin. Thousands of people love Mad Alice’s Bloody Tour of York - they’ll love this new adult-only tour even more as it has York Gin stops on top!”
Harry Cooke, co-director, added: “Our motto is ‘History in the tasting’ - and at 57% ABV, York Gin Outlaw pushes the boundaries - rather like the city’s historic villains. Stronger flavours; higher alcohol - you’ll need to enjoy it with care, tonic and ice.”
The new Outlaw gin is a traditional overproof or Navy Strength gin - named after the test used by officers from the early 1700s to see if the gin on board their ships had been illegally diluted.
York’s outlaws
York has the reputation as a beautiful historic but sometimes, rebellious, city. And with gory stories of bad behaviour by its very own outlaws going back millennia, you can see why.
Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament in 1605 - and his effigy is burned every 5th November for his troubles. He managed to throw himself off the scaffold and break his neck just before he was hanged, drawn and quartered. He was a resourceful product of St Peter’s School, York to the end. Childhood friend of Fawkes, John Wright, was also a pupil at St Peter’s and part of the Gunpowder Plot. He also came to a sticky end in 1605 (shot dead).
Meanwhile, the terrifying 18th Century highwayman, horse thief and general, all-round baddie, Dick Turpin, was caught in York and hanged on the city’s Knavesmire for horse stealing - rather than the crimes which make him famous: ‘Your money or your life’ and all that.
The city has punished its poisoners and murderers, its heretics and general naughty citizens in a variety of gruesome ways.
Mary Bateman,‘The Yorkshire Witch’, was hanged in 1809 - as a notorious poisoner. Elizabeth Broadingham was burned at the stake for ‘petty treason’ for conspiring to murder her husband in 1776 ... a touch harsh, even for the times.
York Gin Outlaw
With York Gin Outlaw, we celebrate things that are slightly dangerous and rebellious about this most historic of cities. Stronger flavours; higher alcohol - enjoy York Gin Outlaw with care, tonic & ice.
Pubs and bars you might visit on the tour include the following:
- Black Horse, Monkgate
- Black Swan, Peaseholme Green
- Dyls
- Evil Eye bar
- Lil's Bistro
- House of the Trembling Madness
- Maltings
- Plonkers
- Valhalla
- Walmgate Ale House
With more awaiting confirmation - get in touch if you'd like to be a bar on the tour or to pre-order York Gin Outlaw (50cl bottles).
No two tours are the same - and you can buy food at your last stop. Book a tour now