Oxford University England - Guide to a Walk Around Oxford University England

The Ashmolean Museum to Balliol College, Past the Martyrs Memorial

Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum

©Ferne Arfin

The museum may be old but its world famous collection is anything but dusty and boring. It spans ten millennia and covers art and artifacts of eastern and western civilizations.

The Ashmolean is always free and time spent here is bound to be rewarding. Among the treasures:

• The Jericho Skull - A 10,000 year old representation of the human image, one of the earliest ever found.
• The Alfred Jewel - An ancient Anglo Saxon object of gold, enamel and rock crystal, that may have belonged to King Alfred the Great.
• Powhatan's Mantle - The deerskin and wampum cloak of Pocahontas's father.
• Drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael.
• 2000 years of ceramics
• A Stradivarius violin circa 1715.

Opening Hours

Tuesday to Saturday, including Bank Holidays, from 10a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The museum closes for the St. Giles Fair, September 2 to 4. It is always free.

Give yourself plenty of time at the Ashmolean before moving on.

• Turn left on leaving the museum and cross St. Giles Street to Balliol College.
• The monument on the traffic island to your right is The Martyr's Memorial, honoring two Protestant bishops burned at the stake in the 16th century.
• Turn right and continue along St. Giles
• Turn left into Broad Street. The entrance to Balliol is a short way along, on the left.

• Oxford Rail Station: The Start of a Half-Day Walk Around the Oxford Colleges
• Worcester College to the Ashmolean Museum
• The Ashmolean Museum to Balliol College, Past the Martyrs Memorial
• Balliol College to The Sheldonian Theatre
• The Sheldonian Theatre to Radcliffe Square and the Radcliffe Camera
• Radcliffe Square to the Radcliffe Camera
• Radcliffe Camera to Turl Street
• Turl Street to Oxford Covered Market
• Oxford Covered Market to Lunch and Retail Therapy