The prime visitor destination in Oxfordshire is Oxford itself, which as well being home to the hallowed university and several top-notch museums, holds restaurants and accommodation to suit all budgets. In addition, though, the villages and towns in the surrounding countryside abound in rustic charm, and make excellent day-trip options, as well as stop-off destinations for travellers heading west into the Cotswolds. To the northwest, Witney has a pretty town centre, but the major highlight is magnificent Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, adjoining attractive Woodstock. Southwest of Oxford, the Vale of the White Horse offers some intriguing prehistoric attractions.
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Oxfordshire.
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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 Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, and built between 1705 and 1722. Queen Anne gave both the land, and the necessary funds, to John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, as thanks for defeating the French at the 1704 Battle of Blenheim. Sir Winston Churchill was born here in 1874, and Blenheim (blen-num) remains home to the 12th duke.
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With its compelling combination of majestic architecture, literary heritage and double identity as (parts of) Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, Christ Church attracts tourists galore. Among Oxford’s largest colleges – the largest, if you include its bucolic meadow – and proud possessor of its most impressive quad, plus a superb art gallery and even a cathedral, it was founded in 1525 by Cardinal Wolsey. It later became home to Lewis Carroll, whose picnic excursions with the then-dean’s daughter gave us Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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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 Bodleian Library, a magnificent survivor from the Middle Ages. Wander into its central 17th-century quad, and you can admire its ancient buildings for free. Both Blackwell Hall and the exhibition rooms in the Weston Library can be visited free of charge, while tours give you access to more of the complex.
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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 Elias Ashmole presented Oxford University with a collection of ‘rarities’ amassed by the well-travelled John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I. A new exhibition celebrates Ashmole’s 400th birthday by displaying original treasures including the hat worn by the judge who presided over the trial of Charles I, and a mantle belonging to ‘Chief Powhatan’, the father of Pocahontas.
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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 one of Oxford’s wealthiest and most beautiful colleges. Beyond its elegant Victorian gateway, you come to its medieval chapel and glorious 15th-century tower. From here, move on to the remarkable 15th-century cloisters, where the fantastic grotesques (carved figures) may have inspired CS Lewis’ stone statues in The Chronicles of Narnia.
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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 extravaganza that is the Pitt Rivers museum. Tucked behind Oxford’s natural-history museum, and dimly lit to protect its myriad treasures, it’s centred on an anthropological collection amassed by a Victorian general, and revels in exploring how differing cultures have tackled topics like ‘Smoking and Stimulants’ and ‘Treatment of Dead Enemies’.
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Housed in a glorious Victorian Gothic building, with cast-iron columns, flower-carved capitals and a soaring glass roof, this museum makes a superb showcase for some extraordinary exhibits. Specimens from all over the world include a 150-year-old Japanese spider crab, but it’s the dinosaurs that really wow the crowds. As well as a towering T-rex skeleton – ‘Stan’, the second most complete ever found – you’ll see pieces of Megalosaurus, which was in 1677 the first dinosaur ever mentioned in a written text.
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Surely Oxford’s most photographed landmark, the sandy-gold Radcliffe Camera is a beautiful, light-filled, circular, columned library. Built between 1737 and 1749 in grand Palladian style, as ‘Radcliffe Library’, it’s topped by Britain’s third-largest dome. It's only been a ‘camera’, which simply means ‘room’, since 1860, when it lost its independence and became what it remains, a reading room of the Bodleian Library. The only way for nonmembers to see the interior is on an extended 1½-hour tour of the Bodleian.
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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.
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