Oxford Highlights Audio Tour: Scholars and Spires

Explore Oxford at your own pace

Beneath the honeyed stone of Oxford lie centuries of blood, ambition, and scholars who traded books for blades. The silent towers hold echoes of rebellions that nearly tore the crown apart.

This self-guided audio tour peels back the polished facade of the city centre. Wander past the iconic Radcliffe Camera and the Bodleian Library to uncover scandalous secrets and forgotten power struggles that standard guidebooks ignore.

Which defiant student accidentally sparked a riot that burned through the University Church of St Mary the Virgin? What dark pact was signed in the shadows of these ancient cloisters? Why was a specific bishop buried with a secret that terrified the monarchy?

Photo: Honcques Laus, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Tour details

• Duration: 1 hour 49 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 5.2 km (3.2 miles)
• Stops: 15 landmarks, including Oxford Castle, Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
• Audio: up to 38 minutes of narration
• Starts at: Oxford Castle

Map data by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors

How it works

• Book here and a redemption code arrives by email within minutes.
• Download the free AudaTours app on your phone and enter the code.
• Download the tour once and the whole thing works offline.
• Walk to the first stop and press play. The audio for each landmark starts automatically as you approach it, so your phone can stay in your pocket.

There is no fixed date and no start time. The date you pick at checkout does not matter, and the tour stays on your phone permanently, so you can use it whenever you next visit and walk it again as often as you like.

What is included

• Professionally narrated audio that plays automatically at each stop
• An interactive map showing the walking route between landmarks
• Full offline access once downloaded, so you need no data or signal
• Freedom to start, pause and resume whenever you like
• Lifetime access - your code never expires

Where you will stop

• Oxford Castle
• Christ Church, Oxford
• Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
• University of Oxford Botanic Garden
• New College, Oxford
• Pitt Rivers Museum
• Oxford University Museum of Natural History
• Ashmolean Museum
• Martyrs' Memorial, Oxford
• Balliol College, Oxford
• Trinity College, Oxford
• Sheldonian Theatre
• Bodleian Library
• Radcliffe Camera
• University Church of St Mary the Virgin

Image: AudaTours

What is AudaTours?

AudaTours turns a walk through a city into a story. Our guides bring landmarks to life with the history, the scandals and the detail you would never get from a plaque.

• Immersive: real stories about the places in front of you, not a dry commentary
• Offline: download once and use it with no data, anywhere
• At your own pace: start, pause and resume whenever you want
• Accurate: every story is built from verified historical sources and checked before release

Good to know

• This is a self-guided audio tour on your own phone. There is no in-person guide.
• It does not include entry to any building or site along the route.
• The landmarks on the tour are not affiliated with AudaTours.
• You need a smartphone with Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 16 or later.
• Bring headphones and start with a charged phone.

Who it suits

Solo travellers, couples, families and small groups who would rather explore on their own schedule than follow a guide and a fixed departure time. It suits a first visit, and it suits anyone who has already seen the famous sights and wants to know what actually happened in them.

Image credits

Photos: Honcques Laus (Wikimedia Commons, public domain); Liv Cashman (Unsplash); AudaTours.