Oxford Castle Unlocked

Discover more as you embark on a journey spanning 10 centuries....

The site has been used as a place of incarceration since 1071, continuing until the closure of HM Prison in 1996. The old buildings have been preserved and are now open to the public revealing a time capsule – allowing the buildings to tell their story.

Visitors to Oxford Castle - Unlocked will learn about the real people and events from the sites turbulent past: the first Oxford teachings, the owners, visionaries, activists and inmates. People like Marshall William Smith, the King’s prison keeper, who in the 1600s made Oxford Prison as feared and as notorious as Colditz; Mary Blandy a convicted murderess, who became an 18th-century celebrity; Jack Ketch, the public executioner and the man on whom the Punch & Judy hangman character was modelled; and Anne Green, who survived her own hanging and narrowly escaped being anatomised by an Oxford medical student in 1650!

Guided Castle Tours

Our costumed character guides will reveal the site’s colourful past as you...

• CLIMB the Saxon St George’s Tower and enjoy its stunning 360° views over Oxford
• DESCEND to the dark atmosphere of the 900 year old underground crypt
• MARVEL at the mound of the 11th-century Motte and Bailey Castle with Vaulted Well Chamber
• EXPERIENCE the austere confines of the 18th-century Debtors Tower and prison D-Wing
• FACE the prison regime with our hands on displays