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Oxford has a collection of magnificent sundials. Most of them are inside colleges, which normally restrict visitors to a
short period in the afternoons, typically 2 to 4 pm. They will sometimes let you in at other times if you explain that
you are specially interested in their sundial at the Porter;s Lodge.
There is an excellent book "Oxford Sundials" by Margaret Stanier which gives more details of amny of the sundials listed here, and some others. It can be obtained from the British Sundial Society
Before starting this Oxford sundial trail, you will find it helpful to
print out this street
map of the City. You may also find it useful to look at
another map which indicates the main colleges and other places of
interest and has other information about Oxford. On this page, walking directions are given in italics
The trail starts at the top left hand corner of the map. Green College is on the Woodstock Road, which
is the left hand fork of the two main roads at the top of St. Giles. The second sundial is in the small graveyard garden
of St. Giles Church, which is at the top of St. Giles, between the Woodstock and Banbury Roads.
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This vertical declining mean time noon mark at Green College was designed by C. St. J Daniel in 1994 and made by Martin Jennings. It works by projecting a spot of light through the gilded sun shape above and to the left of the dial. When the spot of light falls exactly on the "figure-of-eight" or analemma, the time is exactly 12 noon GMT (or 1 pm BST when summer time is in operation). When the spot falls on the vertical gold line through the centre of the analemma, it is solar noon in Greenwich, and when it falls on the vertical white line just to the right of this, it is the time of solar noon in Oxford. An explanation of the differences between GMT ( the time on our watches) and solar time, please visit our Equation of Time page
The armillary sphere in the garden of St Giles Church has the gnomon
(which casts the shadow) slanting up at the same angle as the latitude;
the shadow falls on the curved plate marked in Roman numerals. This
sundial was placed as a memorial and has a small inscription plaque
on the pedestal
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Now walk south down St. Giles to the end, passing St. Johns College on your left and the Ashmolean Museum on your right. Leave St. Giles by taking the short road to the left of the church (St. Mary Magdalen) Leave the church of St. Mary Magdalen on your right at the end of St. Giles, following the very short Magdalen Street, and then turn left into Broad Street. Here you have colleges to left and shops on the right. Walk to the end, where just before the Sheldonian Theatre you have the Museum of the History of Science on the right, with its large collection of scientific instruments including sundials. This museum is open most afternoons. At the end, continue straight on down Holywell Street, until you come to the entrance of New College on your right. Here there is a most interesting
new sundial which was made in the summer of 1999 by the noted stonecarver
and diallist Harriet James. It measures 15 by 17 feet, and is carved
directly into the stone of the tower. More details of this dial
are given on our New Dials page
From the gate of New College, turn right to the end of Holywell Street. At this point, you can turn left up St. Cross Street to see the dial on St. Cross Church restored by Harriet James in 1999 and pictured below, or you can continue down Longwall 9see below)
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(If you have visited St. Cross, retrace your steps to Holywell Street, and) continue down Longwall which curves round to the right. Halfway along Longwall, on the left-hand side, is the back gate of Magdalen College. If it is open, you will be able to go a few paces inside, and find the octagonal tower at the end of the new Longwall quad facing you. On the gable end above the tower is the large vertical dial by David Harber erected in the year 2000.
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Continue down Longwall to the traffic lights at the High Street, cross over the High Street and turn right. Then turn left into Merton Street, just after the Eastgate Hotel. Continue along Merton Street when it takes a sharp turn to the right. Further on, on your left is the entrance to Merton College
Merton College has two interessting sundials. The first is on a
buttress of the chapel, just inside the main gate and to the right.
It is east-facing, and only shows the hours from 6am to 9 am. It
dates bck to 1629. It has three sets of lines, the gold lines slanting
upwards to the right with the 7,8, and 9 marks at their foot to
indicate the hours, the gently slanting black lines, with figures
indicating the number of hours since sunrise, and the vertical balk
lines indicating the azimuth (direction of the sun) from 10 deg.
S of E, by 10 deg increments to 20 deg. N of E. In addition there
are 9 black lines slanting steeply down to the right which are lines
of constant solar declination of no interest to the observer, but
used for the construction of the time lines.
The second dial is high up on the wall of the quad. It is a west-facing
dial, and indicates the time from 2pm to 7 pm. This dial also has
declination lines running across the dial, with the relevant signs
of the zodiac indicating the month of the year
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Turn left out of the gate of Merton and continue along Merton Street.
The next college on your left is Corpus
Christi which has the famous Pelican dial standing on its pillar just
inside the front entrance. This dial by Charles Turnbull was erected
in 1581, and has had a number of restorations since. It is a multiple dial, with
one major south-facing dial on the surved surface of the pillar shown
in the right-hand photo, and four smaller sundials on the square section
abaove it on each face of the pillar, facing respectively south, west,
north and east. There are four more reclining dials on the next level
up, and the whole is crowned with a magnificent pelican. This is a
"tour def orce" of sundial construction, and has been the
unchallenged king of all the Oxford sundials for more than 400 years. |
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Turn right out of the gate of Corpus Christi (back towards Merton), and right again into Merton Grove. This will take you out onto a gravel path with playing fields on your left and Christ Church on your right. When you get to the gravel path (Broad Walk) across the wide expanse of Christ Church Meadow turn right and continue until you get to the visitors' entrances to Christ Church. Oxford Cathedral is within the college, and visitors to the Cathedral are admitted free of charge.
Follow the signs to the cathedral, and when you reach it, continue straight on for fifty feet or so. This sundial is facing you on
the side of the Kilcanon building.
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Leave Christ Church by the same entrance, turn right through a garden to emerge on St. Aldates, the main road from the south. Turn right towards the centre of the city, until you get to the main crossroads called Carfax. Here you turn right along the High Street, walking for 300 yards or so until you reach the gates of All Soul's College on the left
This magnificent sundial is at the far side of the second quadrangle; it was made in 1659, and the motton translates as "The hours
pass away and are ste down to our charge". It shows the hours from6 am to 5 pm in minutes.
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From the gate of All Souls, turn right a short way back up the High Street, and take the first right again into Radcliffe Square. Brasenose Lane is across the square to your left, and you walk down this fifty yards or so to the gate of Brasenose College on your right. This marvellous sundial is in the first quad.
It was made in 1719, and faces 6 degrees east of South. The half hour lines have fleur-de-lys at their ends, and are further divided in four.
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This ends the Oxford sundial trail, but if you have time, it is well worth taking the guided tour round the Bodleian Library, which has
its entrance on Radcliffe Square. The tour includes a visit to the Convocation House, which has two stained glass sundials set in the south and west windows in an upper room. They are very difficult to see from the ground. The dials no longer have gnomons, but
they are very interesting examples of their kind.
There is another stained glass sundial in a window of the Museumof the History of Science, which is just behind the Bodleian
Library, and which you passed earlier in your tour. It is halfway up the stairs, and again lacks a gnomon. The motto translates
"The evening is uncertain, - come now! - delay is harmful - tomorrow is nothing" It was made around 1611.
Pictures of these stained glass sundials are included in "Oxford Sundials" by Margaret Stanier which can be obtained from the British Sundial Society
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