Photo: Vauxford (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walk through Warwick, a castle town that burned on 5 September 1694 and was rebuilt in brick and stone. It begins at the West Gate, with St James's Chapel riding on top of it, and the Lord Leycester Hospital, the guild buildings Robert Dudley turned into a home for old soldiers in 1571. Along the High Street you follow the line of the fire, which destroyed 460 buildings in five hours, past the Court House to Thomas Oken's timber-framed house, a survivor. Then Warwick Castle, from William the Conqueror's motte of 1068 to Richard Neville, the Kingmaker, who held Edward IV prisoner here in 1469; Mill Street, one of the few streets that still looks as the town did before the fire; and Castle Bridge, for the view of the south front above the Avon. The walk returns through St John's House and the East Gate to St Mary's, the Beauchamp Chapel, the Shire Hall and its gaol, and the Market Hall of 1670. About 3 km on foot.
14 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 67 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 18 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
West Gate and St James's Chapel, Lord Leycester Hospital, High Street and the Great Fire of 1694, Court House, Thomas Oken's House and Castle Street, Warwick Castle.
Mill Street, Castle Bridge.
St John's House, East Gate and St Peter's Chapel, St Mary's Collegiate Church, Beauchamp Chapel, Shire Hall and the County Gaol, Market Hall Museum.
The guild buildings Robert Dudley made into an almshouse for old soldiers in 1571; retired servicemen still live there.
The fire of 5 September 1694 destroyed 460 buildings in five hours, and the street was rebuilt wider and straighter in brick and stone.
William the Conqueror's castle of 1068, rebuilt by the Beauchamps, where the Kingmaker held Edward IV prisoner in 1469.
Timber-framed houses the 1694 fire stopped short of, running down to the river beneath the castle walls.
The single 105-foot arch built after 1788, with a fine view of the castle, and the medieval Great Bridge's ruins below.
Richard Beauchamp's chantry, with his metal effigy, hands raised towards the Virgin, and the Dudley tombs beside it.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 14 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 14 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Warwick — the Castle, the Kingmaker and the Town the Fire Rebuilt, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
14 narration points, including Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick Castle, St Mary's Collegiate Church, West Gate and St James's Chapel and High Street and the Great Fire of 1694. That is about 30 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1½ hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 14 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.