Port Meadow

The wildest, most open green space within walking distance of the centre — a thousand-year-old common where the city gives way to river, sky and grazing horses.

Port Meadow is roughly 440 acres of open common on the western edge of Oxford, running north along the Thames towards Wolvercote. It has never been ploughed, and grazing rights held by the Freemen of Oxford and the Commoners of Wolvercote go back to before the Norman Conquest — the meadow is recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086. The result is an unusually ancient, unimproved grassland: horses and cattle wander freely across it, curlews and lapwings nest in the tussocks, and in winter the low ground floods and, in hard years, freezes for skating. It is best treated as a walk rather than a destination. A riverside path runs the length of the meadow past moored narrowboats, the ruins of Godstow Abbey and two of Oxford's finest riverside pubs — The Perch at Binsey and The Trout at Wolvercote. There are no gates, no admission and no closing time; there is also no lighting and no hard path across the middle, so stout footwear and daylight are the sensible defaults.