The Cotswolds
All soft pastels, country comfort and dashes of colour, the Swan sits beside the River Windrush in tiny Swinbrook, 3 miles east of Burford. Six cosy, elegant rooms in a former barn overlook orchards – the plush top-floor suite is perfect for families – while five delightful rooms in the newer riverside cottage have a more contemporary style. There’s an excellent restaurant.
Downton Abbey fans: this is the pub where Lady Sybil and Branson planned their elopement.
10.23 MILES
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…
14.95 MILES
With its compelling combination of majestic architecture, literary heritage and double identity as (parts of) Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, Christ Church…
14.9 MILES
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…
14.65 MILES
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…
28.36 MILES
Gloucester’s spectacular cathedral is among the first and finest examples of the English Perpendicular Gothic style. Benedictine monks built a Norman…
28.33 MILES
With a diameter of 348m, Avebury is the largest stone circle in the world. It's also one of the oldest, dating from 2500 to 2200 BC. Today, more than 30…
15.24 MILES
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…
14.81 MILES
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…
0.23 MILES
This 12th-century church, in the village of Swinbrook, 3 miles east of Burford, is remarkable for the tomb of the Fettiplace family, who dominated this…
2. St John the Baptist’s Church
1.85 MILES
Burford's splendid church, near the river, took over three centuries to build, from 1175 onwards. Its fan-vaulted ceiling, Norman west doorway and 15th…
1.92 MILES
This engaging local museum occupies the upper floor of an unusual 16th-century building with a columned open arcade at street level where traders once…
2.65 MILES
The main sight in Old Minster is Minster Lovell Hall, a 15th-century riverside manor house that fell into ruins after being abandoned in 1747. You can…
3.43 MILES
Younger visitors in particular will enjoy this hugely popular wildlife centre, 3 miles south of Burford. Its vast 250-species menagerie includes penguins,…
4.81 MILES
A fine testament to Witney’s wool-trade prosperity, the baroque Blanket Hall, built in 1721 to host the Witney Company of Blanket Weavers, dominates the…
4.88 MILES
At the southern end of the village green, fine St Mary’s was built in the late 12th century, probably on the site of an earlier Saxon church. Many of…
8.29 MILES
Nestling near the Thames 20 miles west of Oxford (northwest of Faringdon), Kelmscott Manor is a gorgeous garden-fringed Tudor pile that was bought in 1871…