Medieval Bristol: A Self-Guided Audio Tour
- 1–1.5 hours
- Free cancellation up to 24h before
- Guided in English
- Instant confirmation
Highlights
Bristol's medieval streets carry more than a thousand years of drama, ambition, and spectacle. On this self-guided audio tour, you'll trace the city's most gripping stories through plague, rebellion, public punishment, and royal ceremony – uncovering how power and criminality shaped one of England's great medieval cities. The tour starts at St John on the Wall, a 14th-century church built atop the last surviving fragment of Bristol's medieval wall, complete with a portcullis groove still visible overhead. From here, you'll walk through the arch where Elizabeth I processed on horseback and Queen Victoria knighted a mayor without stepping from her carriage. The tour ends at the crossroads of High Street and Wine Street, where the High Cross once soared 50 feet high as Bristol's stage for coronations, executions, and naked parades of shamed lovers.
Inclusions
What's included
- Lifetime access to this tour in English before your booking date and after it
- Offline access to audio, maps, and geodata
- Flexibility to explore at your own pace with a self-guided GPS tour
- App for Android and iOS
- Directions to the starting point so that when you’re in the right place, the tour will start
What's not
- Smartphone and headphones
- Food and drink
- Transportation
- Personal expenses for admission fees not included during the tour
Itinerary
Pass through the last surviving fragment of Bristol's medieval wall and spot the portcullis groove still visible in the arch overhead. Walk in the footsteps of Elizabeth I, who processed on horseback through this very gateway during her royal visit to the city.
Admire the grand façade of this 18th-century exchange, built to serve Bristol's booming merchant trade. Step outside to find the famous bronze nails on the pavement, where merchants once settled their deals on the spot — giving rise to the expression "paying on the nail."
Explore one of Bristol's oldest and most atmospheric trading spaces, tucked beneath the arches of the historic city centre. Stroll through stalls and covered passages that have drawn merchants and market-goers to this spot for centuries.
Climb this narrow, cobbled medieval stairway lined with timber-framed buildings that lean overhead as you ascend. Discover the layers of history packed into one of Bristol's most evocative and unchanged streetscapes.
Seek out the surviving remains of Bristol Castle's Great Hall, all that is left of a 30-acre royal fortress that once dominated the city. Stand in the open parkland and imagine the scale of the stronghold that shaped Bristol's medieval power.
Cross the River Avon on the site of a bridge that once carried five-storey houses, a chapel, and a thriving community above the water. Hear the remarkable story of a cow that survived being swept into the Avon when the original structure collapsed.
Gaze across the floating harbour that made Bristol one of England's most powerful trading cities and a hub of the Viking slave trade long before the 18th-century trade began. Walk the waterfront where merchants, sailors, and contraband once moved freely between ships and city.
Step inside one of Bristol's rare surviving Tudor interiors, with its richly carved oak room dating back to the 1590s. Explore a building that has witnessed the city's transformation from Elizabethan prosperity to Georgian reform.
Enter a perfectly preserved merchant's townhouse and come face to face with the intimate details of 18th-century Bristol life. Discover the lives of both the wealthy sugar merchant who owned it and the enslaved people whose labour funded its construction.
Cancellation
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.
Know before you go
- Meeting point
- This tour starts at St John On The Wall. Before arrival, please install the mobile app and use the code provided on your confirmation ticket. Detailed starting point instructions are available after downloading.
- Pickup
- Everyone meets at the starting point; there is no pickup.
- Ticket type
- Mobile or paper ticket accepted
- Operated by
- VoiceMap Audio Tours
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
How it compares in Bristol
- Its from-price is 89% below the median of the 117 experiences we list in Bristol.
- It is shorter than most of them.
- The operator lists free cancellation on it.
About Bristol
Bristol is a harbour city in south-west England, known for the Clifton Suspension Bridge, Brunel's SS Great Britain, street art and a creative streak.
Bristol grew rich as a port on the Avon, and the floating harbour at its heart is lined with museums, warehouses turned into flats, and cafés. Brunel's SS Great Britain, the pioneering iron steamship, sits in the dry dock where she was built, and nearby are the M Shed museum and Aerospace Bristol, home to a Concorde. Above the Avon Gorge, Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge spans the cliffs, with lawns and Georgian terraces on the Clifton side.
Top-ranked sights in Bristol: Smoke & Mirrors, Brunel's SS Great Britain, Cabot Tower.
Special offers in Bristol
Was/now prices come from the operator, never from us.
