Traveling Info

Dartmoor isn't just wild in places, it's special too and is a wonderful place to visit all year round. With nature reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, endangered birds, rare plants and thousands of archaeological sites, including burial chambers, stone circles and menhirs - more than anywhere else in North Western Europe - there is something of interest for everyone on Dartmoor. Weather The weather on Dartmoor can be unpredictable and often very different from the coastal areas of Devon. Metcheck.com provide a forecast of the weather at Yes Tor (external link, opens new window) on the north moor which is very useful for walkers. What to See and Do around Dartmoor National Park Dartmoor has lots of attractions to enjoy including castles and historic houses, gardens, museums and heritage centres. There are also forest walks, waterfalls, animal and wildlife parks, railways, arts and crafts centres and farmers' markets. As well as places to visit you can enjoy a...

The Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley in the English county of Surrey south of London, is one of the three most visited paid gardens in the United Kingdom alongside Kew Gardens and Alnwick Garden.[citation needed] It is one of four public gardens run by the Society, the others being Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall and Rosemoor. Wisley was founded by Victorian businessman and RHS member George Ferguson Wilson, who purchased a 60 acre (243,000 m²) site in 1878. He established the "Oakwood Experimental Garden" on part of the site, where he attempted to "make difficult plants grow successfully". Wilson died in 1902 and Oakwood (which was also known as Glebe Farm) was purchased by Sir Thomas Hanbury, the creator of the celebrated garden La Mortola on the Italian Riviera. He gifted both sites to the RHS the following year. Since then Wisley has developed steadily and it is now is a large and diverse garden covering 240 acres (971,000 m²). In addition to numerous f...

The garden at Sissinghurst Castle in the Weald of Kent, near Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Tenterden, is owned and maintained by the National Trust. It is among the most famous gardens in England. Indeed, some garden enthusiasts would put it first. History Sissinghurst's garden was created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West, poet and gardening writer, and her husband Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat. Sackville-West was a writer on the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group who found her greatest popularity in the weekly columns she contributed as gardening correspondent of The Observer, which incidentally—for she never touted it—made her own garden famous. Sissinghurst's garden is one of the best-loved in the whole of the United Kingdom, drawing visitors from all over the world. The garden itself is designed as a series of "rooms", each with a different character of colour and/or theme, the walls being high clipped hedges and many pink brick walls. The site is ancient— ...

Warwick Castle ( pronounced /ˈwɒrɪk/ ) is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a cliff overlooking a bend in the River Avon. Warwick Castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978 From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power. The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II. It has been used to hold prisoners, including some from the Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century. Under the ownership of Richard Neville – also known as "Warwick the Kingmaker" – Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV. Warwick Castle has been compared with Windsor Castle in terms of sca...

History & Heritage This Cathedral Church, so named because it houses the throne (or ‘cathedra’) of the Bishop of Winchester, has its origins in the seventh century, when a Christian Church was first built on the site. Since then it has played a fundamental part in the life of this ancient city, and a role in our nations history. The site of the original CathedraBegun in 1079 in the Romanesque style, this Cathedral is at the heart of Alfred's Wessex and a diocese which once stretched from London's Thames to the Channel Islands. Its bishops were men of enormous wealth and power, none more so than William of Wykeham, twice Chancellor of England, Founder of Winchester College and New College Oxford. The chantry chapels and memorials of these great prelates are a feature of the Cathedral. These influential bishops also developed, re-fashioned and adorned this great Cathedral. There pilgrims sought the shrine of local saints, notably a former bishop, Saint Swithun, whose festival...

Dunster Castle is the historical home of the Luttrell family located in the small town of Dunster, Somerset, England (grid reference SS991434). Colonel Sir Walter Luttrell gave Dunster Castle and the greater part of its contents to the National Trust in 1976. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. There has been a castle at the top of the hill at Dunster for more than 1,000 years. The Domesday Book records one on this location before 1066. The castle was granted by William the Conqueror to William de Mohun, whose family lived there until the castle was sold in 1376 by Lady Joan de Mohun to Lady Elizabeth Luttrell. Lady Elizabeth's descendants owned Dunster Castle until 1976. The castle dominates a steep hill overlooking the picturesque village of Dunster. The hill has been fortified since Saxon times, although nothing now remains of these early defences. During the early medieval period the sea reached the base of the hill offering a natural defenc...

Hadrian's Wall (Latin: perhaps Vallum Aelium, "the Aelian wall") is a stone and turf fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of what is now northern England. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the middle of three such fortifications built across Great Britain, the first being from the River Clyde to the River Forth under Agricola and the last the Antonine Wall. All were built to prevent raids on Roman Britain by the Pictish tribes (ancient inhabitants of Scotland) to the north, to improve economic stability and provide peaceful conditions in Britain, and to mark physically the frontier of the Empire. Hadrian's Wall is the best known of the three because its physical presence remains most evident today. The wall marked the northern limes in Britain and also the most heavily fortified border in the Empire. In addition to its use as a military fortification, it is thought that the gates through the wall would also have served as ...

Discover the treasures of the Cotswolds at the award winning Corinium Museum, in Cirencester. Roman Britain's second city Step through a triumphal arch to arrive in Corinium; second largest city in Roman Britain, population c. 15, 000. Experience life as a Roman. Marvel at the stunning mosaics. Dress as a Roman soldier. Explore their engineering and artistry. Face to face with the Saxons Revealed to the world for the first time the Anglo-Saxons of Butler's Field, Lechlade. Re-united with their astonishing treasures. Our ancestors brought to life through forensically re-constructed heads. Look them in the eye. Wonder how life was. Wool, wealth and war Trace a path from the Iron Age to the English Civil War. A story of war, of wool, of royalty; of dissolved monasteries and of a local worthy's rise from rags to riches. Explore the history of eighteenth and nineteenth century Cirencester Investigate a computer database of our fantastic collection of historic photographs of Ci...

The Roman Painted House is a Roman mansio, a hostel for government officials, which was built in c. 200. It was discovered in 1970 by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit and, as it houses some of the finest example of Roman murals in Britain (over 400 sq ft (37 m2). of painted plaster, the most extensive ever found north of the Alps), it has been called "Britain's Buried Pompeii". Above a lower dado, of red or green, an architectural scheme of multi-coloured panels framed by fluted columns is still visible. The columns sit on projecting bases above a stage, producing a clear 3-D effect. Parts of 28 panels survive, each with a motif relating to Bacchus, the Roman God of wine. This Bacchic link, and the building's proximity to the baths, port and fort, has been said by some to suggest that the Painted House was once a brothel. However, this is entirely circumstantial evidence (frescos in brothels tended to be more explicit, as in those at Pompeii, and Bacchic motifs are...

Avebury is the site of a large henge and several stone circles in the English county of Wiltshire surrounding the village of Avebury. It is one of the finest and largest Neolithic monuments in Europe dating to around 5,000 years ago. It is older than the megalithic stages of Stonehenge, which is located about 32 kilometres (20 mi) to the south, although the two monuments are broadly contemporary overall. It lies approximately midway between the towns of Marlborough and Calne, just off the main A4 road on the northbound A4361 towards Wroughton. The henge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a World Heritage Site. Avebury is a National Trust property. The monument Most of the surviving structure consists of earthworks known as the dykes, consisting of a massive ditch and external bank henge 421 metres (1,381 ft) in diameter and 1.35 kilometres (0.84 mi) in circumference. The only known comparable sites of similar date (Stonehenge and Flagstones in Dorset) are only a quarter of the size of...

is a castle currently in ruins found on Tintagel Island, located near the village of Tintagel in Cornwall, England, UK. The 'Island' is in fact a peninsula subject to erosion by the sea. The site was perhaps originally a Roman settlement, though the remains of the castle that stand today date from the 13th century. The castle is traditionally linked to the legend of King Arthur and as such it is currently a popular tourist site run by English Heritage. Ticket Price Adult: £4.90 Children: £2.50 Concession: £4.20 Family Ticket: £12.30 Useful Information Address: Cornwall - PL34 0HE Road Access: On Tintagel Head, 600 metres (660 yards) along uneven track from Tintagel; no vehicles except Land Rover service, extra charge Bus Access: Western Greyhound 594/5 from Bude, 584/594 from Wadebridge (withconnections on 555 at Wadebridge to Bodmin Parkway railway station) Telephone: 01840 770328, Local Tourist Information: Tintagel Visitors' Centre:01840 779084; Camelford (Summer only): ...

Glastonbury Abbey Photo Gallery You can find here a romantic ruins, 36 acres peaceful parkland with pounds, orchard and wildlife areas. Also you can find unusual gift at Glastonbury Gift Shop that sit beside ticket office. History In 1955 Ralegh Radford's excavations uncovered Romano-British pottery at the west end of the nave. Saxon era A community of monks were already established at Glastonbury when King Ine of Wessex enriched their endowment. He is said to have directed that a stone church be built in 712, the foundations of which now form the west end of the nave. Glastonbury was ravaged by the Danes in the ninth century. The contemporary reformed soldier Saint Neot was sacristan at Glastonbury before he went to found his own establishment in Somerset. The abbey church was enlarged in the tenth century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, Saint Dunstan, the central figure in the tenth-century revival of English monastic life, who instituted the Benedictine Rule at Glastonbury. Dunstan...

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Click here for Kew Gardens Photo Gallery The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to simply as Kew Gardens, are extensive gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. The director is Professor Stephen D. Hopper, who succeeded Professor Sir Peter Crane. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is also the name of the organisation that runs Kew Gardens and Wakehurst Place gardens in Sussex. It is an internationally important botanical research and education institution with 700 staff and an income of £56 million for the year ended 31 March 2008, as well as a visitor attraction receiving almost 2 million visits in that year. The gardens are a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Created in 1759, the gardens celebrated their 250th anniversary in 2009. The Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is responsible for the world’s largest collection of living plants. The organisation employ...

This ancient fortress continues to pack in the crowds with its macabre associations with the legendary figures imprisoned and/or executed here. There are more spooks here per square foot than in any other building in the whole of haunted Britain. Headless bodies, bodiless heads, phantom soldiers, icy blasts, clanking chains—you name them, the Tower’s got them. Centuries after the last head rolled on Tower Hill, a shivery atmosphere of impending doom still lingers over the Tower’s mighty walls. Plan on spending a lot of time here. The Tower is actually an intricately patterned compound of structures built throughout the ages for varying purposes, mostly as expressions of royal power. The oldest is the White Tower, begun by William the Conqueror in 1078 to keep London’s native Saxon population in check. Later rulers added other towers, more walls, and fortified gates, until the buildings became like a small town within a city. Until the reign of James I (beginning in 1603), the Tower was...

This huge circle of lintels and megalithic pillars, believed to be approximately 5,000 years old, is considered by many to be the most important prehistoric monument in Britain. Some visitors are disappointed when they see that Stonehenge is nothing more than concentric circles of stones. But perhaps they don’t understand that Stonehenge represents an amazing engineering feat because many of the boulders, the bluestones in particular, were moved many miles (perhaps from southern Wales) to this site. If you’re a romantic, you’ll see the ruins in the early glow of dawn or else when shadows fall at sunset. The light is most dramatic at these times, the shadows longer, and the effect is often far more mesmerizing than it is in the glaring light of midday. The widely held view of 18th- and 19th-century Romantics that Stonehenge was the work of the Druids is without foundation. The boulders, many weighing several tons, are believed to have predated the arrival in Britain of the Celtic cultur...