Castle Hill and Kettle's Yard
From Castle Street to the mound where Cambridge began: a local-history museum, a modernist house and gallery, and two churches.
Castle Hill is where the town's story starts, and Castle Street below it holds two museums and two churches. The walk follows Castle Street from the Northampton Street corner to the site of the Norman castle.
The route
Start: Museum of Cambridge
A social-history museum, formerly the Cambridge and County Folk Museum, in a sixteenth-century Grade II listed building that was once the White Horse Inn. It records life in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire and the Fens from 1700 onwards. It stands at the corner of Northampton Street.
The former home of Jim and Helen Ede, made from four cottages from 1956 and given to the University of Cambridge in 1966. The collection leans towards British modernists, among them Hepworth, Moore and Nicholson. An exhibition gallery was added in 1970. It is close to the Museum of Cambridge.
A redundant medieval church on Castle Street, in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The font is twelfth-century, with mermen at the angles, and the south doorway is thirteenth-century. It is Grade II* listed.
4. Castle Mound
The Normans raised Cambridge Castle here in 1068, and only the mound and some groundworks remain. The hill was the site of the original settlement, and the Romans built a town called Duroliponte on it. Shire Hall, formerly the headquarters of Cambridgeshire County Council, stands next to it.
A Grade II* Victorian church, consecrated in 1875, that reuses a twelfth-century chancel arch and doorway. The site was founded in 1092 with an endowment from Hugolina de Gernon. It stands at the junction of Castle Street and Chesterton Road.
Practical notes
- Check each stop's page for opening times and any tickets or booking before you set out.
- The distance and time in the sidebar are estimates, worked out from the straight lines between stops with an allowance for street detours.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
