Oxford Castle Unlocked

Oxford Castle Unlocked

Experience Oxford’s fascinating history on a guided tour of Oxford Castle.

Your guide - who will be playing the part of one of the castle’s many colourful characters – will have you captivated from the start with stories about the real people and events from the site’s turbulent past.

You could find yourself accompanied by anyone from Empress Matilda, who made an epic escape from the castle on home-made ice-skates, to Solomon Wisdom; a cruel, scheming prison governor from the late 1700s.

Guided tour of Oxford Castle

• Climb the Saxon St George’s Tower, one of the oldest buildings in Oxford, and witness stunning panoramic views over this historic city.
• Venture deep underground into the 900-year-old crypt, the only surviving remains of St. George’s Chapel.
• Find out where the education for which Oxford is famed began, and where Geoffrey of Monmouth penned the Legends of King Arthur.
• Explore the confines of the 18^th-century Debtors’ Tower and Prison D-Wing.
• Scale the mound of the 11^th-century motte-and-bailey castle. 

After the tour, you will be able to explore the castle’s prison and wider site at your leisure.

Meet the residents…

Just some of the castle’s famed residents who you’ll discover more about on this tour include:

• Marshall William Smith, the King’s prison keeper who made Oxford Prison as feared and as notorious as Colditz
• Jack Ketch, the public executioner and the man on whom the Punch & Judy hangman character was modelled
• Anne Green, who survived her own hanging and narrowly escaped being anatomised by an Oxford medical student in 1650

Get a taster of what's in store at Oxford Castle in this video:

Suitable for:

• Families
• Couples
• Groups
• Teenagers
• Seniors

Great for:

• Explorers
• Culture Vultures