Welcome to Bath: Private Walking Tour including Bath Abbey
Explore the beautiful city of Bath, home of Jane Austen and a UNESCO World Heritage Site built on underground bubbling thermal springs by the Romans in the 1st century AD. With elegant, honey-coloured architecture, it was made famous for its healing waters, first by the ancient Romans, and later by the Georgians.
On your private walking tour, you will:
- Begin your tour with a visit to the beautiful Bath Abbey, the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells and dating back to the 7th and 12th centuries;
- Explore the elegant, golden-stone, Regency-era city of Bath, situated by the River Avon, famed for its healing thermal waters and stunning architecture from the Gothic Abbey to the Georgian townhouses;
- Admire the Pulteney Bridge over the River Avon, one of only four like it in the world;
- Find out why doctors of the 18th and 19th centuries recommended people to ‘take the waters for their health;
- Discover the fascinating ancient Celtic and Roman history of the city; called Sulis by the Celts for their sun goddess, and renamed Sulis Minerva by the Romans, who built the first spa town here;
- Learn about Roman bathing rituals, and the later popularity of the sulfurous waters for medicinal purposes, not least to cure leprosy in the Middle Ages, after the legend of Prince Bladud;
- Walk past Jane Austen’s old house and the museum dedicated to her;
- Admire the amazing Royal Crescent, the Circus, and Queen Square, all designed by John Wood the Elder and his son, John Wood the Younger in the 18th Century;
- Spot the Masonic symbolism not-so-well hidden in the architecture;
- End your tour at Assembly Rooms, where Jane Austen will have danced and socialized and hear about the upper-class social life of Regency England.
Bath is a beautiful city situated near the Mendip Hills, just south of the Cotswolds in Somerset. With a history dating back to pre-Roman times (thanks to the miraculous thermal waters), the ‘modern’ city was built in the 18th century, with the local honey-coloured stone on a steep hill beside the River Avon. There are a few sites more idyllic.
This stunning private walking tour of Bath will show you all the city’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites beginning at the Royal Crescent, a sweeping arc of Georgian townhouses built 1767-1774. Georgian architecture is at its finest here, with the Circus inspired by the Roman Colosseum in a design of thirty-three mansions over a trio of terraces where famous residents included Thomas Gainsborough, Clive of India and David Livingstone.
Discover more Georgian splendour at the Bath Assembly Rooms, a glamorous haunt once frequented by Jane Austen and much later Charles Dickens. At the Cross Bath, a historic bathing pool, learn how the 1688 “miracle pregnancy” of James II’s wife was attributed to the mineral-rich waters’ health-giving powers.
You will explore the elegant Georgian streets and townhouses, learn about the infamous Window Tax, the bun wars between the Sally Lunn Bun and the Bath Bun, and the social season held here during the Regency period in the late 18th and early 19th Century when John Nash, the famous socialite ruled the roost. You’ll learn all about the people who made Bath famous – not least Jane Austen who lived out her final years here.
Enjoy the gentle atmosphere and boutique shops as you stroll down the hill, passing Queen Square, the Theatre Royal and the Assembly Rooms, towards the beautiful Pulteney Bridge which crosses the Avon, and is often compared to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence and the Rialto in Venice.
Your last stop with your guide will be a fully guided tour of the magnificent interior of Bath Abbey – your donation fee is included in the price of the tour. The Abbey’s history dates back to the 7th century and was rebuilt in the 10th, 12th, 16th and 19th centuries. It is the quiet and still centre of this beautiful city and situated right next to the Roman Baths which you can visit after the tour.
Note: This tour does not go into the Roman Baths. We can help you purchase tickets in advance so you can go at the end of the tour.
