Can’t wait for spring to come? Fed up with dark nights and gloomy weather? Well even at this time of year. York offers spectacular sights, especially when the sun shines. MATT CLARK reports from one of the best.

SUMMER may be most people's favourite time to visit Museum Gardens, but you might be surprised how much there is to see in York's ten-acre botanical park in winter.

Established in the 1830s by Yorkshire Philosophical Society, the gardens are famous for their collection of trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs.

Granted there aren't any flowers to see at the moment, but around most corners a blaze of unexpected golds and russets still awaits.

With most tourists tucked up beside a log fire, the empty park again belongs to foraging squirrels. That said, this is the time of year to ponder Museum Gardens' perennial perennials; the spectacular ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, the Museum, observatory and Roman Multangular Tower, while the gardeners keep busy sweeping up leaves and edging lawn borders, that sort of thing.

The abbey ruins from are all that's left of one of the wealthiest Benedictine monasteries in England. Its estate once occupied the entire site of the Museum Gardens and the abbot was one of the most powerful clergymen of his day, on a par with the Archbishop of York.

When the monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII, the monks at St Mary's were pensioned off and the abbey buildings were converted into a palace for the King when he visited York.

Gradually they fell into ruins and were used as agricultural buildings before being excavated by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in the 1820s.

All that remains is the walls of the nave and crossing of the abbey church, where the monks prayed, and the cloister, where they washed their clothes, contemplated and were allowed to speak.

A decent stone's throw from St Mary's Abbey is its guest house, the timber and stone Hospitium.

A thousand years before the abbey estate was built, the Romans arrived in York and a fortress was built in 70AD to house the men of the VIth legion. This fortress was rebuilt in stone in the 3rd or 4th centuries.

The corner tower of this fortress stands remains and is known as the Multangular Tower on account of the many angles of its design.

York Press: Museum Gardens. Picture: Matt Clark (14861202)

Another attraction is the Observatory, the major part of York Museums Trust’s Astronomy Collection. It was built in 1832 and 1833 and is the oldest working observatory in Yorkshire.

The four-inch refractor telescope was built by Thomas Cooke in 1850, who went on to make the largest telescope in the world, at the time which was installed in 1981 when the observatory was restored.

The observatory also houses a clock dating from 1811 which tells the time based on observations of the positions of stars. It was once the clock by which all others in York were set and is still always four minutes, 20 seconds, behind Greenwich Mean Time. In the 19th century it cost sixpence to check a timepiece against the clock.

During the 1780s, leading astronomers John Goodricke and Edward Pigott were based in York and laid the foundations of variable star astronomy, this is the study of stars of varying brightness.

Goodricke has a college at the University of York named after him and Pigott was the first English man to discover a comet then have it named after him.

For tourists, no visit to York is complete without looking round the Yorkshire Museum, from which the gardens gets its name. Opened in 1830 by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, this was one of the first purpose-built museums in the country.

Notable exhibits include The Coppergate Helmet,The Cawood sword, the Medieval Shrine of Saint William of York and the Middleham Jewel.

But, to be honest, on a perfect late winter's afternoon, while strolling through the gardens you can't move for precious stones, especially when they bathe in the last rays of a watery sun.

York Museums Gardens are open every day with the exception of Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Entry is free. Garden Tours are held on Sundays between 1-2pm.

The Yorkshire Museum is open daily from 10am – 5pm, with the same exceptions. The Observatory is open every Thursday and Saturday 11.30am-2.30pm.