Christ's College has been educating the great and the good for 500 years and the gleaming Great Gate is emblazoned with heraldic carvings of Tudor roses, a portcullis and spotted Beaufort yale (mythical antelope-like creatures). Its founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, hovers above like a guiding spirit. A stout oak door leads into picturesque First Court, Cambridge's only circular front court. Contact the college for current hours and entry fees.
Dedicated to alumnus Charles Darwin, the college gardens feature plant species brought back from his famous Galapagos voyage. The Second Court has a gate to the Fellows' Garden (open Monday to Friday only), which contains a mulberry tree under which 17th-century poet John Milton reputedly wrote Lycidas.
