A City Like No Other: Discovering Bath from Strawbale Lodge

From the top of Solsbury Hill, on a clear morning, you can see exactly what you're in for. The city of Bath sits in the valley below like something from a film set — pale gold stone, church towers, Georgian crescents curving against the hillsides, the River Avon threading through it all. It's a view that has stopped people in their tracks for centuries. And the remarkable thing is that it looks even better close up.

Strawbale Lodge sits just a mile from the city, which means that everything Bath has to offer is on your doorstep — the museums, the restaurants, the spa, the walks, the architecture — yet when you return home each evening, you're back in genuine countryside, with the sounds of the hill replacing the hum of the city. It's a rare combination. Here's what's waiting for you when you head down the slope.

A City Built on Hot Springs

Bath's story begins underground. The city became a spa with the Latin name Aquae Sulis — "the waters of Sulis" — around 60 AD, when the Romans built baths and a temple in the valley of the River Avon. The hot springs had been considered sacred long before the Romans arrived, but it was they who transformed them into one of the most impressive bathing complexes in the ancient world — a place of religion, healing, and social life that drew visitors from across the empire.

The Roman Baths is one of the finest historic sites in Northern Europe and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the UK. Walking around the great bath itself, with its steaming green water and surrounding Roman stonework, is genuinely moving. The museum beneath the modern city is extensive and beautifully interpreted — plan at least two hours. Booking tickets in advance is strongly recommended, especially in summer.

If the Romans inspired you to take the waters yourself, you can enjoy the same natural hot spring water at Thermae Bath Spa — a one-of-a-kind complex that brings the spa into the twenty-first century, with lovely treatments, relaxation spaces and a spectacular rooftop pool offering 360-degree views of the city. Soaking in warm thermal water while looking out over a World Heritage cityscape is, it's fair to say, one of life's finer experiences.

Georgian Grandeur

If the Romans gave Bath its foundations, it was the eighteenth century that gave it its face. Bath became perhaps the most fashionable of the rapidly developing British spa towns during this period, drawing wealthy visitors from London and beyond. The architect John Wood and his son John Wood the Younger transformed the city with sweeping terraces, elegant squares, and the iconic crescent — all built from the warm, honey-coloured local limestone that gives Bath its distinctly golden quality in afternoon sunlight.

The Royal Crescent is the showpiece: thirty houses sweeping in a single majestic arc, looking out over a broad lawn to the hills beyond. No. 1 Royal Crescent offers visitors a step into a world of historic splendour at the first house built on the Royal Crescent 250 years ago, with a chance to discover how wealthy Georgians lived. It's one of the best house museums in England — intimate, beautifully dressed, and full of detail.

From the Crescent, it's a short walk to the Circus — another Wood masterpiece, a perfect circle of townhouses — and from there down to Pulteney Bridge, one of only three bridges in the world lined with shops, spanning the Avon above a graceful weir. The view from the bridge downstream, with the weir curving below and the hills behind, is one of those postcard images that genuinely earns its reputation in person.

Culture, Literature and the Jane Austen Connection

Bath has a treasure trove of museums and galleries ranging from fine art at the newly transformed Holburne Museum to fashion history, astronomy, and East Asian art. But the cultural figure most closely associated with the city is Jane Austen, who lived in Bath between 1801 and 1806 — years that found their way into Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street tells the story of her time here through costumed guides and period exhibits. Even if you're not a devoted Austen reader, it's a warm and engaging window into Regency life in what was then Britain's most glamorous city.

The city's literary and artistic heritage is remarkably deep. Mary Shelley wrote portions of Frankenstein here. Gainsborough lived and painted here. The Theatre Royal, one of the oldest working theatres in the country, continues to stage productions ranging from touring West End shows to new writing.

Food, Drink and Everyday Life

Bath is an exceptionally pleasant city to simply wander. The centre is largely pedestrianised, the streets are handsome, and there's a density of independent cafes, restaurants, and shops that puts most comparable cities to shame. Milsom Street and its surroundings offer upmarket shopping, while the Walcot Street area has a more bohemian, artisan character — antique dealers, independent bookshops, makers' studios.

For food, the range is wide. The Pump Room, adjacent to the Roman Baths, serves lunch and afternoon tea in an extraordinary Georgian interior — it is, frankly, worth visiting for the room alone. Beyond the obvious landmarks, Bath has a genuinely good restaurant scene, with everything from long-established fine dining to wood-fired pizza and excellent street food.

And if you want to see Bath at its most local and unguarded, the free walking tours offered by the Mayor of Bath's Honorary Guides have been running since 1934 — all guides are volunteers and accept no tips. They leave daily from outside the Roman Baths at 10:30am and 2pm. For a city this layered with history, having a knowledgeable local walk you through it is the single best way to start.

Getting There from Strawbale Lodge

One of the practical pleasures of staying on Solsbury Hill is that Bath is genuinely close. The walk down into Batheaston takes around twenty minutes, from where buses 3, 13, and 231 run regularly into the city centre. By car it's a five-minute drive, though parking can be tight in the centre — the park-and-ride sites on the outskirts are well-organised and inexpensive.

The city is almost entirely walkable once you're in it, and wandering without a fixed agenda is very much encouraged. Allow at least a full day to do it justice — more if you plan to visit multiple museums or spend time at the spa. Many guests find themselves going back more than once during their stay, drawn by the way the city rewards the slow and the curious rather than the rushed.

Few places in England repay that kind of attention quite so generously.