4 Old Ruins to Explore in Oxfordshire

The picturesque ruins of Minster Lovell Hall, a 15th century Oxfordshire manor house, lie in a beautiful rural setting beside the River Windrush. They include a fine hall, tower and nearby dovecote. The Hall was a fairly typical if impressive manor house. The buildings surround three sides of a square; the fourth side towards the River Windrush was closed off by a wall. The great tower at the south-west corner seems to be a later addition to the house, as part of the adjoining west wing had to b

The remains of North Leigh Roman Villa are set within a peaceful landscape on the banks of the river Evenlode in Oxfordshire. This ‘courtyard villa’ is considered to be one of the larger villas of Roman Britain. It was at its most extensive in the early 4th century, when it included three bath suites, 16 mosaic floors and 11 rooms with under-floor heating. Significant finds of pre-Roman Iron Age pottery and other features beneath the former south-west range show evidence of earlier occupation.

Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle on the western side of central Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. Most of the original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced in stone in the late 12th or early 13th century and the castle played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy. In the 14th century the military value of the castle diminished and the site became used primarily for county administration and as a prison.

The Rollright Stones is an ancient site located on the Oxfordshire & Warwickshire border in England. The complex consists of three main elements, The King's Men stone circle, the King Stone, and the Whispering Knights. They were built at different periods in late prehistory. During the period when the three monuments were erected, there was a continuous tradition of ritual behaviour on sacred ground, from the 4th to the 2nd millennium BCE.