Experiences

Tucked within our garden lies the Maison du Miel - Cedar Hollow Oxford Bee Museum & Apiary - a cosy, enchanting nook where the hidden world of bees gently unfolds. It’s where we harvest our honey, but it’s also a space for curiosity and connection. Discover the extraordinary lifecycle of these vital pollinators, and explore why bees are more essential than ever. With hands-on displays, a peek into our working hives, and tastings of honey made right here at Cedar Hollow, it’s a delicious blend of nature, sustainability, and story.

As proud recipients of the Gold Award from Green Tourism, we’re buzzing to share the wonder of our bees with you.

At Cedar Hollow, magic is more than a theme. It is a craft. Created by a member of The Magic Circle, illusions are woven throughout the estate, from secret carvings and woodland wonders to an AI-powered talking mirror.

Wander through the Eastern Woods, where nothing is quite as it seems and every turn offers another magical moment to discover, capture and remember together.

Our story-led escape experiences are available exclusively to guests staying at Cedar Hollow Oxford.

Choose how you would like to play:

Self-Guided Experience | £15 per game
Play independently using our fully automated game system, with atmospheric sound, interactive technology and optional hints available whenever you need them.

Game Master Experience | £100 per game
A dedicated Game Master will introduce the story to your group, monitor your progress and provide personalised hints as the adventure unfolds.

Each experience lasts approximately one hour.

The Queen’s Hunt (Exclusive to Beaver’s Den guests)
The fire is warm and the tea is still on the table, but the Queen’s wolves are closing in. Can you escape before they reach you?

The Call Beyond the Lamp Post (Available to all guests)
The Professor is trying to reach you through an old Oxford telephone box, but the Queen has bewitched the connection. Can you restore the line before her spell takes hold?

Discover how remarkably different honey can taste when it is produced in one woodland across the changing seasons.

This guided tasting introduces three contrasting Cedar Hollow honeys from our own hives: delicate spring honey, rich summer honey and smooth creamed honey.

Taste each honey on its own before exploring carefully chosen pairings with artisanal crackers, selected cheeses, fresh fig, crisp apple and fresh honeycomb from our hives.

Along the way, you will discover how flowers, seasons and landscape shape the flavour of honey, hear the extraordinary story of the fig and the fig wasp, and learn why crystallised honey is something to celebrate rather than avoid.

The experience concludes with a blind tasting comparing our raw Cedar Hollow honey with a mass-produced commercial alternative.

A selection of traditional teas is included, alongside naturally sweet honeybush tea and sparkling honeyade.

£25 per person (Minimum booking of two guests)

Optional additions include
Homemade Cedar Hollow Honey Ice Cream - £4.5 per scoop
Mead (Honey wine) Tasting with Historical Introduction - £8 per person

People believe the story began when four children entered a wardrobe.

But years earlier, an eccentric Oxford magician claimed to have discovered a way to travel between worlds. His experiments, he said, had opened a passage into a mysterious Land Beyond.

Now, a distant descendant of one of his few friends has inherited a locked case filled with notebooks and strange apparatus.

That case has been placed in our hands, along with a single instruction:

“Prove that magic is real.”

Join the Wizards of Ox for an intimate, story-led magic show as we attempt to prove that the Land Beyond truly exists.

Performed by a Member of The Magic Circle or one of their apprentices.

Daily at 6:00 pm subject to magician availability
£15 per person
Duration: Approximately 45 minutes

We provide everything you need for a magical night of bat watching, including a user-friendly bat detector and red light torch (to preserve night vision and limit bat disturbance).

Whether you’re a curious beginner or a seasoned nature lover, our kits make it easy to tune in to the hidden world of bats.

Just step outside at dusk and let the adventure begin.

Bats in the UK are most active from April to October. During these months, you can observe various species of bats flying around at dusk when they come out to hunt for insects.

Our woodlands extending to Shotover Country Park is a haven for birdwatchers, with its ancient woodland and heathland attracting a rich variety of species. Red kites soar overhead with their distinctive forked tails, while tawny owls call from the canopy at dusk. Look out too for great spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches and yellowhammers alongside familiar favourites like robins and goldfinches.

In partnership with the C.S. Lewis Foundation, we’ve created an interactive walking tour of Lewis’s Oxford, guided by Jack, as he was known to his friends.

Hear stories of the Inklings, the pubs where they gathered, and the colleges that shaped their imagination. From The Eagle and Child to Magdalen College, follow Lewis’s footsteps through the city he loved and let his own words bring it to life.

A quiet woodland tribute to C. S. Lewis’s journey of faith and imagination.

Follow the story from his spiritual awakening on a double-decker bus climbing Headington Hill to the journey to Whipsnade Zoo when he finally embraced his faith.

The trail features our Routemaster, overlooking Lewis’s former garden, and a 1926 Triumph motorbike and sidecar representing the journey to Whipsnade. It also includes original stonework from Holy Trinity Church, where Lewis worshipped and is buried.

The base of the church’s former baptismal font has found new life here as a woodland bird bath, while beams reclaimed during renovation work at Holy Trinity have been incorporated into our accommodation.