Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in 1621 as the first botanic garden in the UK. It is part of the University of Oxford and contains over 5,000 different plant species. This makes it one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families.
The Botanic Garden has been a rich source of inspiration. In the 1860s, this is where Charles Lutwidge Dodgson took the Liddell sisters, inspiring the stories that became Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. See if you can find the grinning Cheshire Cat, tucked away in the Literary Woodland in the Walled Garden.
Equally, the author JRR Tolkien spent much time here, in particular in the company of the late great Austrian pine tree (Pinus nigra), whose twisting branches is said have resembled the 'ents' in his 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy.
Perhaps most poignantly, in Philip Pullman's brilliant 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, the protagonists Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry meet between their respective parallel worlds on a bench in the back of the garden. At the end of the novels, they promise to sit on the bench for an hour at noon on Midsummer's day every year to feel each other's presence. Just behind their bench, you will find a stainless steel sculpture by the sculptor Julian Warren, depicting the ‘daemons’ of the novels.