Salisbury Cathedral

This full-day tour allows you to visit several of the most historic sites in the UK - Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and Old Sarum.

The tour begins with a drive across the rolling hills of Berkshire Downs into the historic town of Salisbury. Visit the 800-year-old Salisbury Cathedral, situated in the town's center. The cathedral has the tallest church spire in England at 404 feet; has the world's oldest working clock (from 1386 AD); and houses one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta.

Next, visit the Iron Age site of Old Sarum, located just outside Salisbury. Old Sarum is the original settlement location of Salisbury built around 500 BC. The site included a cathedral, castle and fortress and was occupied by Romans, Saxons and Normans during its main existence. The site fell into a deep decline beginning in the 13th century.

Lastly, visit the mysterious, prehistoric stone monument Stonehenge, as well as its sister site, Avebury. Both sites were erected about 5,000 years ago. Avebury is larger in area than Stonehenge. Both sites are believed to have served as ancient burial grounds. Stonehenge and Avebury have also been thought of as places of sun worship, part of an astronomical calendar or associated with pagan and/or devil worship.

Tour vehicles are designed to enable you to travel in spacious luxury for up to six people. They are air-conditioned and fitted with a cooler stocked with complimentary drinks.

Please Note: This tour requires a minimum of 2 people to operate.

More Info About the Sites

Salisbury Cathedral
~ The cathedral is located in the center of this beautiful old town with a wealth of wonderful buildings and picturesque streets. The tour vehicle will park and you can walk through the town to the cathedral grounds where you can go in if you want to, and you can explore the parks and riverside walks through the town.

Old Sarum
~ Just outside Salisbury, you can visit the Iron age site of Old Sarum, the original settlement in the area and a truly fascinating experience. This was the site of old Salisbury until after the Norman invasion, and you can explore the ruins of the old castle. The great earthwork of Old Sarum stands near Salisbury on the edge of Wiltshire's chalk plains. Its mighty ramparts were raised in about 500 BC by Iron Age peoples, and later occupied by the Romans, the Saxons and, most importantly, the Normans.

William the Conqueror paid off his army here in 1070, and, in 1086, summoned all the great landowners of England here to swear an oath of loyalty. A Norman castle was built on the inner mound and joined soon afterward by a royal palace. By the middle of the 12th century, a new town occupied much of the great earthwork, complete with a noble, new Norman cathedral, the mother church of a huge diocese.

But, Norman Sarum was not destined to thrive. Soldiers and priests quarreled, and life on the almost waterless hilltop became intolerable. The solution was a move downhill to the new settlement now known as Salisbury, where a new cathedral was founded in 1220. Thereafter, Old Sarum went into steep decline. Its cathedral was demolished and its castle was, eventually, abandoned.

Stonehenge and Avebury
~ As old as the pyramids in Egypt, was Stonehenge designed as a place of sun worship, or as part of a huge astronomical calendar? Each monument was a circular structure, aligned with the rising sun at the solstice. Erected between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC, the stones were carried hundreds of miles over land and sea, while antlers and bones were used to dig the pits that hold the stones.

Avebury rivals - some would say exceeds - Stonehenge as the largest, most impressive and complex prehistoric site in Britain. Built and altered over many centuries from about 2850 BC to 2200 BC, it now appears as a huge circular bank and ditch, enclosing an area of 28.5 acres, including part of Avebury village. Within this henge ditch is an inner circle of great standing stones, enclosing two more stone circles, each with a central feature. The site's present appearance owes much to the marmalade heir Alexander Keiller, who excavated and re-erected many stones during the 1930's, and whose archaeological collections are displayed in the nearby museum. Associated with pagan devil worship, many stones had been broken or buried in Medieval and later times, one crushing its destroyer as it fell.

This tour does not operate on December 24, 25, 31 and January 1.

Please Note: This tour requires a minimum of 2 people to operate. Tour includes hotel pick-up and drop-off at Oxford hotels. Rates are in US Dollars and are per person. Please reserve online, or call us toll-free at 800-887-2860.