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< Back to our Holiday ideas page  World Heritage Sites
Britain boasts a great many World Heritage Sites. These remnants of past ages hold importance in forming not only the UK's heritage but also that of the world. There are twenty five World Heritage Sites in Britain, many of which are easily accessible from Landmarks.
Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
Clytha Castle just 20 minutes drive away, and Maesyronen Chapel is just over 40 minutes drive across the Brecon Beacons National Park.
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Blenheim Palace
25 minutes drive from The Stewards House or The Old Parsonage or 45 minutes drive from Gothic Temple at Stowe.
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Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church
St Martin's Church was the private chapel of the Queen of Kent when St Augustine arrived in England in the 5th Century to revive Christianity. St Augustine's Abbey and the Cathedral were founded shortly after and became hugely important to the re-establishment of Christianity in Britain.
The Grange is 40 minutes drive from Canterbury, and Prospect Tower around 20 minutes.
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Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd
Bath Tower occupies a part of the fortified town wall, built to protect Caernarfon, and there are three Landmarks at Rhiwddolion, 40 minutes drive into Snowdonia National Park, near Betws-y-Coed.
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City of Bath
Marshal Wade's House and Elton House almost overlook the Roman Baths and Marshal Wade's House has particularly good views of the Abbey. Beckford's Tower is a short bus journey north of the town, along the Lansdown Road.
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Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
Danescombe Mine is one such site, where Landmark accommodation has been created within an old engine house. Whiteford Temple, The Egyptian House, Endsleigh, Lower Porthmeor and Frenchman's Creek are all also within easy reach of the sites.
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Derwent Valley Mills
North Street is a former factory worker's house, and one of the earliest planned industrial housing in the world.
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Durham Castle and Cathedral
The Banqueting House is around 30 minutes drive away, and The Grammar School around 40 minutes.
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Frontiers of the Roman Empire
The Pineapple, Gargunnock House and The Hill House are all within easy reach of the Antonine Wall, and Coop House, Causeway House and The Banqueting House are close to Hadrian's Wall.
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Ironbridge Gorge
The turbulence of the River Severn below echoes the power that swept through Coalbrookedale in the 18th century and took the technology that was developed here across the world.
Iron Bridge House sits above a former grocer's shop, with an unparalleled view over the bridge and river below.
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Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
The New Town was made up of seven planned towns built between 1767 and 1890 and is peppered with high quality neo-classical architecture. The successful growth and spread of these towns is seen to be an example for town planning the world over.
Our Landmarks at Roslin (Collegehill House and Rosslyn Castle) are within a short bus ride to Edinburgh city centre, but both buildings are steeped in histories of their own.
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Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal
St Winifred's Well is 20 minutes away, Plas Uchaf also around 20 minutes, and Dolbelydr is 45 minutes away.
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Saltaire
Salt set a standard of planning and architecture in 1853 which was applied to similar model villages elsewhere and influenced Howard's Garden city movement.
Calverley Old Hall is just 15 minutes drive from Saltaire or 25 minutes on a direct bus.
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Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
Other sites nearby and those further afield at Avebury provide a rich insight into prehistoric life and world view.
The Wardrobe at Salisbury is 20 minutes drive from Stonehenge.
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Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey
The Ruin, just 7 miles away, was built as an ornament in the Hackfall Wood by William Aislabie, the same son who had furthered his father's work at Studley. He turned what had been bought for quarrying and timber into a natural Gothic landscape with follies, waterfalls and built structures.
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Dorset and East Devon Coast
Accessible through the South West Coast path which runs the entire length, and passes close to Margells and Clavell Tower. Peters Tower, Woodsford Castle and Wolveton Gatehouse are also nearby.
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London
The historic city of London has no less than four World Heritage sites:
Fish Court and The Georgian House are within the historic Hampton Court Palace and in easy reach of all of the sites. However, Princelet Street and the Cloth Fair properties are right within the heart of the city and allow you to live for a short while as a privileged resident, providing the best base to explore central London.
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The industrial landscape of Blaenavon, South Wales, includes the remnants of the mines and furnaces that powered the industrial revolution. In the 19th century, Wales was one of the major producers of both iron and coal, and the area remains rife with evocative reminders of its past importance, and the society that supported it.
Blenheim Palace, near Oxford, is widely regarded as one of the most important architectural sites in Britain. Built between 1705 and 1722, the Palace and its grounds are amongst the finest examples of the work of Vanburgh, Hawksmoor and "Capability" Brown.
The sacred importance of Canterbury has been recognised for centuries as it is home to some of the most important early Christian sites in Britain.
The castles of Beaumaris and Harlech, and the fortified towns of Conwy and Caernarfon constitute some of the finest and best preserved examples of medieval military architecture in Europe. Built by Edward I to support his conquest of Wales , these four monuments are breath-taking in their size and sophistication. Requiring the finest skill of the age, the walls of Caernarfon Castle are even said to have been modelled on those at Constantinople.
Bath is steeped in history and its journey from its beginnings as a Roman spa through to its transformation in the 18th Century to the elegant architecture we see today, is well preserved and highly visible. The Neo-classical style of the Georgian architects remains overwhelming and continues to evoke the relaxing atmosphere of those civilised times.
At one time producing two thirds of the world's copper and half the world's arsenic, Cornwall and West Devon changed forever with the industrial revolution. Technology developed here was exported all over the world, allowing other countries to follow Britain 's industrialisation. The ruins of engine houses, foundries and ports still litter this pock-marked landscape.
Using his own new technologies, Richard Arkwright applied water power to drive the process of cotton spinning in the 1770s. This led to the widespread progression from cottage industries to the large scale factory production we have today. The Derwent Valley is home to these first few mills. Cromford was the first of all, and required the creation of housing and infrastructure to support the workers - a model which was adopted by many others across Europe and the USA .
Durham Cathedral is home to the relics of St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede, both early Christian evangelists, and is considered to be the finest example of Norman style architecture in England. The Castle was long the seat of the Bishop of Durham until in 1837 when it was passed to the university. Both monuments sit within a bend of the River Wear and central to Durham.
The northernmost limits of the Roman Empire in Britain were protected by the 73 mile Hadrian's Wall and later by the less well known 37 mile Antonine Wall. Both were constructed to defend the Empire against Barbarian attack, and fragments of both remain visible. Hadrian's Wall was built around 122AD and ran from near Carlisle on the shores of the Solway Firth, to roughly where Newcastle is today. The Antonine Wall was constructed around 20 years later and ran between the Firths of Clyde and Forth.
The Gorge once rumbled with the sounds of industrialisation, and was the home to the discovery of coke in 1709. Coke made higher temperature furnaces possible and through them the smelting and casting of iron.
The fusing of Edinburgh's old and new towns has led to its recognition as a globally important site. The medieval street plans seamlessly work with modern needs and additions giving the city a unique character.
Thomas Telford completed the Pontcysyllte aqueduct in 1805, under the supervision of William Jessop. When constructed, the terrain this 11 mile stretch of canal had to cross, presented the greatest challenge. Telford used many of the innovations the early Industrial Revolution had to offer, and engineered a bold solution, crossing the River Dee at a height of up to 38 metres.
Created by Titus Salt, the model village of Saltaire was built to house the combined workforce of his five mills with amenities far outclassing the living standards of the nearby slums. A hospital, schools, parks and even a concert hall were all provided for the benefit of his workers.
Probably the most famous World Heritage Site in the UK, Stonehenge's importance is well known. Exceptional in its complexity and size, the monument's purpose has never been fully explained.
Created by two generations of Aislabies, the spectacular water gardens and grounds of Studley Royal Park were built to incorporate the ruins of what once was the richest abbey and is now the largest medieval ruins in the UK. The site was built and improved over a period of 800 years.
Stretching from Exmouth to Swanage in a 95 mile broad sweep, this section of the coastline has offered an unparalleled window into the last 185 million years. An abundance of geographic formations and fossil sites have contributed a great deal to our understanding of the earth's history.
Kew has long been a seat of ecological and botanical research and learning, and holds the world's largest collection of living plants. The grounds were created by the hugely influential ?Capability? Brown among others. Kew is also responsible for an ever-growing and internationally important number of seed and plant specimens.
William the Conqueror built the beginnings of the complex with the White Tower in 1066 in an attempt to stamp his authority on London. Marked by the evolution of the monarchy, its architecture has developed with its uses.
Since 1100, all monarchs have been crowned at Westminster Abbey, and many have been buried here. The group of sites illustrate clearly the balance within the first constitutional monarchy in the world. Westminster Palace is home to a parliament which at one time controlled the largest empire in history and a quarter of the world's population.
