The wall on the castle side has a window on the rock face illuminating descending tunnels to a newly discovered large underground city from Roman times.

Together with the similarly placed Yeşilırmak (river) valley further east, it forms a natural east-west pathway used since the antiquity as a trade route, possibly as part of the silk road.

The older history of Boyabat may have started from Bronze Age, and it may have been ruled by Kaskians, Hittites, Paphlagonians, Persians, Lydians, Pontus kingdom, and Romans.

Since it has been captured a few decades after the Battle of Manzikert (1071) by Gazi Gümüshtigin, the second leader of the Danishmends - a wassal of the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum - the area has been under the rule of several Turkish states (Danishmends, Seljuq Turks, Pervaneoğulları, Jandarids, Ottoman Empire, Turkish Republic) and has been spared from military conflicts and battles on its territory during the last 500 years.

The town boasts some local industry, notably brick, tiles, and ceramic production, unhusking and polishing of rice, and tanning.

Mondays a weekly bazaar is held in Boyabat center and the town overflows with farmers and merchants of the area.

A larger several days long yearly event "Panayır" (fair) is held in autumn (starting the second Wednesday of October) just outside town center.

Village weddings and the Panayır (fair) also include a wrestling championship performed to the tune of davul and zurna, playing non-stop epic "Köroğlu" melodies (typically in five eight rhythm) in the background.