King Arthur Tour: Day Trip from London

A day trip out to England's beautiful and ancient West Country, visiting the sites traditionally associated with that most mysterious of British rulers, the legendary King Arthur.

Travelling in a luxury Mercedes minicoach, we'll piece together fragments of evidence to build a picture of Arthur's life and times. King Arthur is the inspiration behind many fabulous stories in European literature of which you’ll hear about throughout the day.

Our private minicoach tour starts in Central London passing through its western suburbs, including leafy Chiswick, and Twickenham—the home of international rugby. We’ll see where Elton John made his first professional appearance, then drive through Surrey Heath and find out where the Martians landed in H.G. Well's novel, ‘The War of the Worlds’.

Joining the A303 (the Highway to the Sun), a road steeped in both myth and magic, we drive through the ancient town of Amesbury—our first reference to the mysterious figure of Arthur. The nearby site of Blick Mead indicates that man has lived in the area thousands of years longer than thought and in this ancient wood exists the yet to be excavated Iron Age fortress of Vespasian's Camp, one of the many candidates for King Arthur's Camelot.

The World Heritage Site of Stonehenge is next on the itinerary—a site that first came to the attention of a broader audience thanks to Robert Wace's writings from the mid 1100s. In his illuminated manuscript, legendary giants are seen constructing Stonehenge with stones conjured over from Ireland by Merlin the magician—King Arthur’s mentor. Stonehenge remains a mystery; we still don't know why it was built and what it was intended for.

Stonehenge was developed over two distinct periods from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, a time span of almost one and a half thousand years. We'll consider some of these ideas on our tour, bearing in mind that Stonehenge is just a small part of an extensive landscape that was developed by early man. In the Visitor Centre we can experience what it is like to stand in the middle of the Stone Circle as it developed over the centuries and during the passage of the seasons.

Further west, we pass through the coaching towns of Shrewton and Chitterne and over land controlled by the ministry of defence—watch out for tanks! Then we'll pass iron age fortresses including Cley Hill, and then on to the market town of Warminster—watch out for UFOs!

We will soon be in Somerset (the land of the summer people) where legend has it of 'permanent summer'. There’s a grain of truth in this as will be explained on the tour. Passing over the ancient Roman road of Watling Street, we get our first glimpse—weather permitting—of Glastonbury Tor, which is the centre of many folklore tales of King Arthur's adventures in his search of a magical cauldron.

Then a visit to the Chalice Well—where legend has it—the Holy Grail was hidden by Joseph of Arimathea. You can drink the waters to this day from the Lion's Head Well, rich in minerals and said to have restorative properties. Glastonbury Abbey is a short drive away and on our visit we'll see the place where King Arthur's body was exhumed and reburied.

After lunch we make our way towards the town of Devizes, famous for smugglers, and drop by the Kennet and Avon Canal. Then over Wansdyke, a 30 mile long (50 kilometre) earthwork that was constructed during Arthur’s time. Towards the Marlborough Downs we'll hear about a Civil War battle fought in 1643 and on our way into Avebury we will see the enormous man-made prehistoric mound of Silbury Hill—the largest in Europe. Unlike Stonehenge, Avebury offers the chance to go right up to the stones where you will hear how the site was built and what purpose it served. We will also try to experience the power of the stones using some dowsing rods—you can have a try! Avebury also boasts a medieval church, and the Henge Shop is the ideal place to buy gifts such as books on crop circles, magic and dowsing.

We then join an old coaching road that takes us through the market towns of Marlborough (with the widest street in England and the tea shop where the Princess of Wales bought her cakes) and Hungerford (the last place in Britain to celebrate the Hocktide ceremony). Crossing over the gin-clear waters of the River Kennet we join the motorway that will take us back to London.