Oxfordshire
On the lower slopes of its high namesake hill, this elegant, minimalist horse image is the oldest chalk figure in Britain. Created during the Bronze Age, around 3000 years ago, by cutting metre-deep trenches out of the hill and filling them with blocks of chalk, it has been maintained by locals for centuries. Perhaps it was a display for the gods; it’s best seen from the air.
It’s a half-mile walk east through the fields from the hillside car park, signposted off the B4507.
29.71 MILES
An ultramodern makeover at ancient Stonehenge has brought an impressive visitor centre and the closure of an intrusive road (now restored to grassland)…
20.32 MILES
One of the greatest stately homes in Britain, and a Unesco World Heritage Site, Blenheim Palace is a monumental baroque fantasy, designed by Sir John…
17.98 MILES
With its compelling combination of majestic architecture, literary heritage and double identity as (parts of) Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, Christ Church…
18.18 MILES
At least five kings, dozens of prime ministers and Nobel laureates, and luminaries such as Oscar Wilde, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien have studied in Oxford's…
18.06 MILES
Britain’s oldest public museum, Oxford’s wonderful Ashmolean Museum is surpassed only by the British Museum in London. It was established in 1683, when…
16.11 MILES
With a diameter of 348m, Avebury is the largest stone circle in the world. It's also one of the oldest, dating from 2500 to 2200 BC. Today, more than 30…
18.32 MILES
Guarding access to a breathtaking expanse of private lawns, woodlands, river walks and even its own deer park, Magdalen ('mawd-lin'), founded in 1458, is…
18.39 MILES
If exploring an enormous room full of eccentric and unexpected artefacts sounds like your idea of the perfect afternoon, welcome to the amulets-to-zithers…
0.15 MILES
Uffington Castle, atop White Horse Hill, is a superbly sited hill fort that dates from around 700 BC. All that’s visible today is the vast grassed-over…
0.18 MILES
The 10m-high, flat-topped mound known as Dragon Hill was believed by locals to be the site where St George slew the dragon. Archeologists prefer to think…
1.44 MILES
Much older even than the nearby White Horse, this chambered neolithic long barrow measures over 50m long. Fourteen human skeletons discovered within it…
8.3 MILES
Nestling near the Thames 20 miles west of Oxford (northwest of Faringdon), Kelmscott Manor is a gorgeous garden-fringed Tudor pile that was bought in 1871…
14.11 MILES
Younger visitors in particular will enjoy this hugely popular wildlife centre, 3 miles south of Burford. Its vast 250-species menagerie includes penguins,…
14.53 MILES
At the southern end of the village green, fine St Mary’s was built in the late 12th century, probably on the site of an earlier Saxon church. Many of…
15.08 MILES
A fine testament to Witney’s wool-trade prosperity, the baroque Blanket Hall, built in 1721 to host the Witney Company of Blanket Weavers, dominates the…
15.5 MILES
The main sight in Old Minster is Minster Lovell Hall, a 15th-century riverside manor house that fell into ruins after being abandoned in 1747. You can…