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Find places to visit in Britain by name, location, type of attraction, or other keyword. This listings directory of over 950 entries is being phased out, to be replaced with ‘Places to Visit’.  You may find what you are looking for there. Tap/Click ‘find listings’ for a detailed search – or just have a browse.  […]

Britain, places to visit, attractions, heritage
Find places to visit in Britain by name, location, type of attraction, or other keyword.

This listings directory of over 950 entries is being phased out, to be replaced with ‘Places to Visit’.  You may find what you are looking for there.

Tap/Click ‘find listings’ for a detailed search – or just have a browse. 

JULIUS CAESAR’S LANDING PLACE

A concrete memorial near the beach between Deal and Walmer commemorates the landing of Julius Caesar and his invading army in 55BC, which allegedly took place nearby. However, the location of this great event, and Caesar’s more serious landing the following year, 54BC, is disputed. It is suggested that Caesar, who described his landing in graphic detail, actually came ashore a little further north, in Pegwell Bay. This, claims the experts, more accurately fits the coastal geography of 2,000 years ago. The remains of a Roman fort have also been uncovered near Pegwell Bay, now inland but close to where the coast would have been twenty centuries ago. Maybe the Romans landed at Deal first and Pegwell Bay later.

Anyway, we can still stand by the Deal-Walmer memorial and contemplate the Romans offshore, fearfully hesitant to get stuck into the screaming woad-covered Britons waiting for them on the shingle beach – until the eagle-bearer of the X Legion leaped from his ship and lead to way to battle – and victory.

At school, we used to recite, “Julius Caesar, the Roman geezer, conquered Britain with a lemon squeezer.” Just thought I’d mention it.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
The Beach
Walmer
Deal
County
Kent
Post Code
CT14 7HE
Main Historic Period
Modern
Tip/Nearby
Between Deal and Walmer Castles.
Primary Management
Local Authority
LOCKERBIE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE

The Lockerbie Garden of Remembrance at Dryfesdale Cemetery commemorates the 270 victims of the so-called Lockerbie Air Disaster. ‘Disaster’ is a euphemism – it was, in fact, a terrorist attack and, at the time of writing, the deadliest in UK history.  A bomb was planted on Pan-Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Detroit via London Heathrow and New York.  The aircraft blew up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie at about 7pm on 21 December 1988, scattering debris and bodies over a wide area. Large sections of the aircraft fell on the town, destroying houses.  243 passengers and 16 crew died from the aircraft and 11 people on the ground.  Those murdered were aged from 2 months to 82 years old and from 21 nations.  190 were US citizens (many of them young students) and 43 were UK subjects.

The garden is situated at the back of the cemetery, on the right, with lawns, flower beds and paths. The main memorial is set into the wall of the cemetery with three large stone tablets, the names in six columns.  There are other individual and private remembrance stones and plaques in the lawn, around the garden and on the wall.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Dryfesdale Cemetery
Dumfries Road
Lockerbie
County
Dumfries and Galloway
Post Code
DG11 1HZ
Main Historic Period
Modern
Primary Management
Local Authority
Macpherson Memorial

The Macpherson monument is a cairn erected in 1996 to the memory of Ewan Macpherson of Cluny (1706-64), who was colonel of the local Badenoch men in the '45 rising. He was at Derby with Bonnie Prince Charlie, the skirmish at Clifton (reckoned by some to be the last battle on English soil) and the Battle of Falkirk. In the awful aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, he spent nine years on the run from the government, sometimes hiding in a cave, eventually escaping to France. He was chief of the clan from 1746 until his death in Dunkirk. The monument stand in site of Creag Dhubh (black rock), a 2350 foot high mountain, which was also Clan Macpherson's war cry. At the bottom of the commemorative plaque is the Macpherson clan motto, "Na Bean Don Chat Gun Làmhainn", "Touch Not The Cat But A Glove", sometimes rendered as "Touch Not The Cat Bot A Glove". 'Bot' means without. The reference is to a wildcat and the wildcat's 'glove' is its pad. The ungloved cat has its vicious claws out. So, the motto is (apparently) a warning not to tangle with the violent Macphersons. Macpherson, by the way, means 'son of the parson'; they breed tough parsons in the Highlands.

Post code is approximate.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Glentruim Road
between the A889 and the A9
3 miles south of Newtonmore
County
Highland
Post Code
PH20 1BE
Main Historic Period
Georgian
Link to featured article
Useful Website Address
Tip/Nearby
The Centre of Scotland, Ruthven Barracks, Macpherson Clan Museum
Primary Management
Other
The Monument

The Monument (note the definite article), designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Dr Robert Hooke, commemorates the Great Fire of 1666 which destroyed most of the medieval City of London. The fire began in Pudding Lane, less than a stone's throw away.  The column is 202 feet high and there are 311 leg-busting steps to the top; great views, though!

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Fish Street Hill
County
London
Post Code
EC3R 8AH
Main Historic Period
Stuart
Useful Website Address
Tip/Nearby
North end of London Bridge, Monument tube station
Primary Management
Local Authority
NATIONAL MEMORIAL ARBORETUM

The National Memorial Arboretum is a centre of remembrance for the fallen - members of the armed forces, civilian services and ordinary people.  It is set in 150 acres of reclaimed gravel pits between the rivers Trent and Tarne.  There is an astonishing variety of memorials - 320 of them at the last count - to every conceivable group you can imagine - surrounded by 30,000 trees.  It is both impressive and humbling.

The NMA is managed by the Royal British Legion.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Croxall Road
Alrewas
County
Staffordshire
Post Code
DE13 7AR
Main Historic Period
Modern
Primary Management
Other
NATIONAL WALLACE MONUMENT

The National Wallace Monument is a large Victorian tower, in baronial/medieval style, built high on a prominent hill, to commemorate the Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace (c1270 - 1305), who led resistance against the English during the Scottish Wars of Independence before being betrayed, captured and taken to London, where he was executed. The Monument opened in 1869 and includes 3 exhibition chambers telling the story of Wallace, his victory at nearby Stirling Bridge in 1297, and the building of the monument. There are 246 steps to the top of the monument, from which there are stunning views of Stirling, the castle and surrounding countryside.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Abbey Craig
Hillfoots Road
Causewayhead
Stirling
County
Stirlingshire
Post Code
FK9 5LF
Main Historic Period
Victorian
Link to featured article
Tip/Nearby
Stirling Castle
Primary Management
Other
Peter Pan

The Scottish author J M Barrie erected a statue to his creation in Kensington Gardens in 1912, on the spot near the Long Water, where Peter landed having flown out of his nursery.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Kensington
County
London
Post Code
W2 2UH
Main Historic Period
Modern
Link to featured article
Useful Website Address
Tip/Nearby
Post code is very approximate. Use a map and explore Kensington Gardens
Primary Management
Royal Parks
PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL

On the seafront and overlooking Southsea common, Portsmouth Naval Memorial commemorates nearly 10,000 British and Commonwealth sailors of the First World War and almost 15,000 of the Second World War, whose only grave is the sea. After WW1, the Admiralty recommended that the three great Royal Navy ports of Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth should each have an identical memorial of unmistakable naval form, an obelisk, which would serve as a leading mark for shipping. Portsmouth's memorial was unveiled by the Duke of York, later King George VI, on 15 October 1924. The Second World War extension was unveiled by his widow, the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on 29 April 1953.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Clarence Esplanade
Southsea
Portsmouth
County
Hampshire
Post Code
PO5 3NT
Main Historic Period
Modern
Link to featured article
Useful Website Address
Tip/Nearby
Royal Garrison Church, Portsmouth Dockyard
Primary Management
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Postman's Park

Postman's Park opened in 1880 on the site of the former churchyard and burial ground of St Botolph's Aldersgate. It was popular with workers from the old General Post Office nearby - hence its name - and is home to the unusual Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice. G F Watts (1817-1904) was a painter and philanthropist who proposed a park commemorating 'heroic men and women' who had given their lives attempting to save others. The result is an installation at the park consisting of glazed tablets containing bare information about dramatic acts in which ordinary people - men, women and children - perished trying to save others.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
King Edward Street
County
London
Post Code
EC1A 7BT
Main Historic Period
Edwardian
Useful Website Address
Tip/Nearby
St Paul's tube station
Primary Management
Local Authority
QUAKER GARDENS, Islington

Also known as Quaker Garden Bunhill Fields, this is the remaining portion of a Quaker (Society of Friends) burial ground, in use between 1661 and 1855 and containing some 12,000 unmarked burials, including that of the Society's Founder, George Fox (1624-1691). Reduced by development, the area is now a garden, with a playground attached, and adjacent to a Quaker Meeting House - the remains of buildings destroyed by bombing. The garden is maintained by the London Borough of Islington, whose website wasn't feeling well when this record was created.

Region/Nation
Location/Address
Quaker Gardens Walk
Islington
County
London
Post Code
EC1Y 8QQ
Main Historic Period
Georgian
Link to featured article
Tip/Nearby
Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, John Wesley's House and Museum
Primary Management
Local Authority

If your favourite attraction is not listed yet, and you have a good quality digital photograph of it that you are able to freely send, please get in touch

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