The walk traces a route around the city and has eight trail points at the places where waymarkers used to designate that travellers were within 1-mile (1.6 km) of the cathedral at Ripon and thus afforded The Sanctuary of Ripon.

The waymarker at Sharow is the base of one of the crosses that used to mark the edge of the Sanctuary of Ripon.

In 937,[note 1][2] King Athelstan created the Sanctuary of Ripon by placing eight crosses on the roads approaching the city.

[3] The sanctuary was known as the Liberty of St Wilfrid and was maintained by the ecclesiastical body in the city.

[4] The boundary waymarkers have all since been removed or destroyed except the remnants of the base of one of the crosses at Sharow,[5] which is now a listed monument.