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Ashmolean Museum, Britain’s oldest public museum, is the University’s museum of art and
archaeology, founded in 1683. The world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to
contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.

The Ashmolean’s collections are extraordinarily diverse, representing most of the world’s great
civilisations, with objects dating from 8000 BC to the present day. Among many riches they have
the world’s greatest collection of Raphael drawings, the most important collection of Egyptian pre-
Dynastic sculpture and ceramics outside Cairo, the only great Minoan collection in Britain,
outstanding Anglo-Saxon treasures, and the foremost collection of modern Chinese painting in the
Western world. On Beaumont Street.

Lesser known but equally enthralling is the Pitt Rivers Museum, officially the Oxford Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology, a collection of artefacts collected by explorers from the four
corners of the earth. Over half a million bits and pieces including musical instruments, weapons,
masks, textiles, jewellery, and tools. Fiona Bruce, writing in The Telegraph, put it rather well: “If
Indiana Jones created a museum, this Oxford institution would be it.”

Oxford Castle a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle on the western side of central Oxford.
Most of the original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced in stone in the 11th
century but by the 14th century the military value of the castle had diminished. Most of the castle
was destroyed in the English Civil War and by the 18th century the remaining buildings had
become Oxford’s local prison. A new prison complex was built on the site from 1785 onwards and
expanded in 1876; this became HM Prison Oxford. The prison closed in 1996 and was
redeveloped as a hotel.

The medieval remains of the castle, including the motte and St George’s Tower and crypt, are
Grade I listed buildings and a Scheduled Monument.

Blenheim Palace. Palatial baroque-style mansion built between 1705-1722 by Sir John Vanbrugh
and given by Queen Anne to to the Duke of Marlborough for his defeat of Louis XIV. It has
remained the private home of the Marlborough Family ever since. It has a 2000-acres park with
terraced water gardens laid our by landscape designer Capability Brown. Sir Winston Churchill,
the British wartime leader, was born here in 1874. Absolutely worth a visit.

More from Wikipedia . . .

Fancy a bit of shopping? Why not? Go to the Oxford Covered Market, to be found unsurprisingly,
in Market St. The majority of the businesses are independent, with some going back generations.
Over 40 traders selling food, gifts, shoes, fashion, flowers and jewellery and lots more.

Or, if, like me you love books – not just reading them, but looking at them, feeling them, flicking
through the pages – then you have to go to Blackwell’s, an Oxford institution in Broad St. Founded
in 1879 it now proffers 125,000 volumes across four floors. Take a packed lunch and a compass .
. . you could be happily lost for days.

How about having the living daylights (or nightlights) scared out of you? Take professional actor
Bill Spectre’s Oxford Ghost Trail. Dressed in funereal black, with props and illusions, he’ll lead
your through the streets and alleys of this ancient city to reveal its darker side. Find out more on
his website . . .

Get on yer bike! And do as the locals do: Cycle the city with Bainton Bikes, who offer bike hire,
tours and holidays in the Oxford region. Find out more from their website . . .

Go punting on the River Thames as it meanders its way through the city. Visit Cherwell Boathouse
and hire a punt for the day from Oxford’s biggest punting station. A timeless classic, take your punt