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Castles and battlefields near Banbury: one day by car, April to September
A day by car through the Civil War around Banbury: Deddington's castle banks, Cropredy Bridge, the Edgehill memorial and ridge, then Broughton Castle. It works only on a Wednesday, Sunday or bank holiday Monday, 4 April to 29 September 2027. A winter version is below.
- 1 day by car
- Wed, Sun or bank holiday Mon
- 4 April to 29 September 2027
- About 45 miles (72km) driving
- Broughton Castle £13 adult (2027)
A Wednesday or Sunday in season
Day 1 · Earthworks, a bridge and a ridge in the morning, a moated house in the afternoon
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9am
9am Market town 30 minutes here
Deddington Castle
About 15 minutes from Banbury by car on the A4260. Free in daylight, in by two pillars on Castle Street. Grassy banks up to 15m high and no walls. Park in the village centre.
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10am
10am Village 30 minutes here
Cropredy Bridge
About 25 minutes by car, back through Banbury. A royalist army beat Waller here on 29 June 1644. The bridge is a 1937 rebuild, faced in old Hornton stone, with an inscription on its south side. Free.
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11am
11am Village 15 minutes here
Edgehill memorial stone
About 30 minutes by car, on the B4086 near Kineton, CV35 0JP. The field itself is closed Ministry of Defence land, so this roadside stone is as near as you can get. Free.
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11.45am
11.45am Village 30 minutes here
The Edge Hill ridge
About 15 minutes by car, up to the top. There is no signed viewpoint or board that we could confirm, so see the plain from the footpaths, the road, and the garden of the sham castle.
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12.15pm
12.15pm Eat and drink 1 hour here
Lunch at the Castle at Edgehill
In a castellated tower of the 1740s, above the battlefield. Food from midday to 2.30pm on Wednesdays, and midday to 5.30pm on Sundays (2026). Book on 01295 670255.
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1.30pm
1.30pm Things to do 30 minutes here
Broughton Castle: gardens and tea room
About 20 minutes by car. Enter by the lodge and turn first left for the car park. Gardens and tea room open at 1.30pm. Tickets at the gatehouse only, as there is no advance booking.
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2pm
2pm Things to do 2 hours here
Broughton Castle: the house
Open 2pm to 5pm, last entry 4.30pm. A moated medieval house made Elizabethan by the Fiennes family, who opposed Charles I. Adult £13, child (5 to 15) £8, garden only £8, for the 2027 season. No large bags or rucksacks.
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5pm
5pm Eat and drink
Home to Banbury for supper
About 10 minutes by car. The Reine Deer on Parsons Street serves every day until 9pm. Or see the best pubs near Banbury for one in a village.
In more detail
The first pitched battle of the Civil War was fought a few miles from Banbury. This day stitches together what you can still see: a Norman castle's earthworks, the bridge where a royalist army beat Waller in 1644, the ridge above Edgehill, and a house tied to the opposition to Charles I. You need a car, because we found no bus to Edgehill and none to Broughton on a Sunday. You drive about 45 miles (72km) in all by a routing engine's figures on an empty road, and nobody from this guide has driven it for this page, so give yourself spare time.
The day it works, and why it is seasonal
Broughton Castle decides the day. The castle's 2026 season has ended, and its site gives 2027 as Sunday 4 April to Wednesday 29 September, from 2pm to 5pm on Wednesdays, Sundays and bank holiday Mondays only. So do this on one of those days or swap it as below. See its open days. There are no advance tickets, and Historic Houses members go free with a card. Our guide to castles and houses near Banbury compares it with the others.
The morning: earthworks and a bridge
Deddington Castle comes first because it takes the least time and needs no opening hours. You see only banks, which is the point of it: English Heritage looks after the earthworks of the eleventh-century castle of Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror's half-brother. Go on toCropredy Bridge, where you can read the inscription on the south side. The fight turned on river crossings along this stretch, and there is little else to see but the water and the fields. Skip the bridge in the Cropredy Convention weekend of 12 to 14 August 2027, when the village is full.
The memorial stone and the ridge belong together. The Battle of Edgehill was fought on Sunday 23 October 1642 in the open fields between Radway and Kineton. You come at the field from below, and then climb to the top for the view down to it. The Civil War in Banburyshire gives the sequence, and the haunted battlefield gives the ghost story that followed.
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The afternoon: Broughton
The Castle at Edgehill is a sham: a pub in an eighteenth-century tower on the ridge, built by Sanderson Miller where Charles I is said to have raised his standard. Reach it for midday, then drive to Broughton for the 1.30pm opening. Toilets at Broughton are only in the car park, about 300 paces from the house, so use them on the way in. Allow two hours for the house and garden. You may know the rooms from Shakespeare in Love and Wolf Hall.
Swaps: winter, rain, or the wrong day
From October to March, or on a day when Broughton is shut: replace the afternoon with Upton House, a few minutes along the ridge from the pub. It is not a Civil War house, but it is open. Its Christmas opening runs from 14 November to 24 December 2026 and 27 December 2026 to 3 January 2027, with the house open 11.30am to 3.30pm, says the National Trust, and theseason changes through the year, so check its calendar. The rest of the morning needs no opening hours at all. The Castle at Edgehill's kitchen also stops at 2.30pm on weekdays. Compton Verney is another indoor choice, open from Wednesday to Sunday on its own site, andday trips from Banbury has more. Sulgrave Manor is closed until March 2027.
In the rain: drop Deddington and the ridge, and give the time to Banbury Museum, free, with a cannon from Banbury Castle. Broughton's house is indoors, so the afternoon still stands.
For a walker: the Edgehill Circular is 5.4 miles from the Upton House car park, about two and a half hours, along the ridge to the pub and back through Ratley, with six stiles and 500m on the A422. That car park is locked outside Upton's hours. Do it in place of the Deddington and Cropredy morning.
What to skip: Banbury Castle, which is gone. Wroxton Abbey is close to the road between Edgehill and Broughton, but its house is closed to visitors, so do not detour for it. The Rollright Stones are a different day altogether.