Bodleian Library

Lonely Planet review

Oxford's Bodleian Library is one of the oldest public libraries in the world, and one of England's three copyright libraries. It holds more than seven million items on 118 miles of shelving and has seating space for up to 2500 readers.

Library tours allow access to the medieval Duke Humfrey's library and 17th-century Convocation House and Court. The tour takes about an hour and is not suitable for children less than 11 years old. The oldest part of the library surrounds the stunning Jacobean-Gothic Old Schools Quadrangle, which dates from the early 17th century.

On the eastern side of the Old Schools Quadrangle is the Tower of Five Orders, an ornate building depicting the five classical orders of architecture.

On the west side is the Divinity School, the university's first examination room. It is renowned as a masterpiece of 15th-century English Gothic architecture and has a superb fan-vaulted ceiling. A self-guided audio tour to these areas is available.