Nottingham: on the trail of Robin Hood

Nottingham Castle, rebuilt in the nineteenth century on medieval foundations, hosts a statue of Robin Hood right at its feet, an almost mandatory photographic destination.

A short walk away, the City of Caves, a network of artificial caves carved into the sandstone beneath the city center, was used over the centuries as a cellar, tannery, and air-raid shelter.

Continuing on, you visit Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, a pub claiming the title of England's oldest, partly carved inside the caves beneath the castle.

Toward evening, Sherwood Forest, about half an hour from the city, houses the thousand-year-old oak tree called 'Major Oak', linked according to legend to Robin Hood himself.

Major Oak, an over-eight-hundred-year-old oak in Sherwood Forest, is now supported by a system of metal poles due to the excessive weight of its branches, yet it remains alive and flourishing.

The caves beneath Nottingham, carved from sandstone since medieval times, form one of the most extensive networks of urban caves in the United Kingdom, still largely unexplored by the general public.