Why this ride
364 km from Woodstock to Woodstock, about 6 h 02 of riding. It goes by way of Avebury and Associated Monuments, Stonehenge, City of Bath and back through Stonehenge. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Blenheim Palace and City of Bath
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 364 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 02
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Blenheim Palace → Avebury and Associated Monuments
This part of the ride is 89 km of Blenheim Palace → Avebury and Associated Monuments.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 89 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Blenheim Palace
Blenheim is what happens when a nation decides to say thank you with stone. After John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, beat the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, Queen Anne granted him the royal manor of Woodstock, and Parliament voted funds for a palace to go on it. Sir John Vanbrugh designed it, with Nicholas Hawksmoor at his side, and the result is so theatrical, so heavy with towers, trophies and courtyards, that it still divides opinion three centuries later. Funding rows, a famous falling out between Vanbrugh and the Duchess Sarah, and decades of building followed.
Read the complete Blenheim Palace write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Blenheim Palace is where the day begins. Next is Avebury and Associated Monuments.
2. Avebury and Associated Monuments
Avebury is the place where a village grew up inside a stone circle. The henge, a huge circular bank and ditch enclosing the largest stone circle in Britain, was built around four and a half thousand years ago, and the village, with its church, its manor house and its pub, sits partly within it, with a road running right through the middle. You can walk among the stones, touch them, sit beside them, and watch the sheep grazing around them, which is a very different experience from the controlled visits at Stonehenge, its more famous partner on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Avebury and Associated Monuments write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Avebury and Associated Monuments comes up about 89 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stonehenge.
3. Stonehenge
Nobody quite knows why Stonehenge was built, and that is part of its power. Begun around 3000 BC as a circular ditch and bank, it was remodelled over the following thousand years, and the great sarsen stones, some weighing more than twenty tonnes, were raised around 2500 BC. The sarsens came from the Marlborough Downs, about twenty-five kilometres north; the smaller bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in west Wales, more than two hundred kilometres away, and how they were moved remains one of the great puzzles of prehistory. The monument is aligned with the sunrise at the summer solstice and the sunset at the winter solstice, and thousands gather here at those times. With Avebury and the surrounding landscape, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Stonehenge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Stonehenge. Next is City of Bath.
4. City of Bath
Bath is one of the few whole cities on the UNESCO list, and it earns it twice over. Underneath lie the Roman baths of Aquae Sulis, built around the only natural hot springs in Britain, where water still comes up at around forty-six degrees and the great pool, with its later colonnade above, steams in the cold. On top sits the Georgian city that eighteenth-century society built when Bath became the place to see and be seen, in honey-coloured local limestone: the Circus, the sweep of the Royal Crescent, the shops on Pulteney Bridge over the Avon and the long elegant terraces climbing the hills.
Read the complete City of Bath write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
City of Bath, about halfway. Next is back through Stonehenge.
5. back through Stonehenge
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stonehenge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Stonehenge sits at 231 km, about halfway. Next is back through Avebury and Associated Monuments.
6. back through Avebury and Associated Monuments
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Avebury and Associated Monuments write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Avebury and Associated Monuments comes up about 284 km into the recorded legs. Next is Blenheim Palace.
7. Blenheim Palace
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Blenheim Palace write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Blenheim Palace closes the day.
Leg by leg
Blenheim Palace to Avebury and Associated Monuments
Blenheim Palace → Avebury and Associated Monuments is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Avebury and Associated Monuments to Stonehenge
Avebury and Associated Monuments → Stonehenge is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stonehenge to City of Bath
Stonehenge → City of Bath is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
City of Bath to back through Stonehenge
City of Bath → back through Stonehenge is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stonehenge to back through Avebury and Associated Monuments
back through Stonehenge → back through Avebury and Associated Monuments is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Avebury and Associated Monuments to Blenheim Palace
back through Avebury and Associated Monuments → Blenheim Palace is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.