Lyra's Oxford — His Dark Materials Walk

Philip Pullman attended Exeter College from 1965 to 1968 and has set most of His Dark Materials in Oxford — a Lyra's Oxford that runs in parallel to the real one. The trilogy's heroine, Lyra Belacqua, grows up at the fictional Jordan College; the trilogy ends with her and Will Parry making a promise on a bench in the Oxford Botanic Garden. The walk below threads the verifiable points of the books' Oxford geography into a short loop and finishes at that bench.

The route

Start: Exeter College — Turl Street

The fictional Jordan College — Lyra's home for the early part of Northern Lights — is widely understood to be modelled on Exeter, where Pullman was an undergraduate. Stand outside the Turl Street gate or step into the Front Quad if visitors are admitted that day; the chapel, modelled on the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, is one of Oxford's finest.

1. The Covered Market — High Street entrance, 3 minutes south

In Lyra's Oxford (the 2003 novella that follows the trilogy), the Covered Market is part of Lyra's daily Oxford. The market itself has been operating in roughly its current form since 1774 — a working market rather than a tourist gallery, with butchers, cobblers, florists, cafés.

2. Radcliffe Square and the Bodleian — 5 minutes east

Lyra's Oxford has its own Bodleian — the books contain a parallel-universe version of the great library, under a different name. From the square, walk east through Catte Street and the Bridge of Sighs.

3. New College Lane and Holywell Street — 5 minutes

The narrow medieval lanes between New College and the Holywell Music Room are some of the most atmospheric stretches in central Oxford and supply the visual register of much of the trilogy.

4. Magdalen Bridge and the High Street — 8 minutes south-east

Cross Magdalen Bridge over the Cherwell. The river and meadows beyond it are the eastern edge of Lyra's Oxford and the route to her later wanderings.

5. End: Lyra's bench, Botanic Garden — Rose Lane, opposite Magdalen Bridge

Through the main Botanic Garden gate, walk to the back of the garden. The bench is the spot where, in the closing chapter of The Amber Spyglass, Lyra and Will promise to sit at noon on Midsummer's day every year, each in their own world. The Botanic Garden also contains the former site of J.R.R. Tolkien's favourite tree, making this single ticket Oxford's densest pair of literary pilgrim spots.

Practical notes

• Distance: approximately 1.5 km (1 mile)
• Time: 45–60 minutes walking; allow longer if visiting Exeter or the Bodleian
• Admission: Botanic Garden charges admission (verify current price at botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk); college admissions vary
• Best for: readers of the trilogy, especially with children old enough to appreciate the pact at the end of the books
• Companion read: Pullman's Lyra's Oxford (2003) is a 50-page novella that maps several of these locations explicitly