Stone lions, a time-eater and a chair leg: Cambridge as a game
The Cambridge scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you walk from landmark to landmark, solve a riddle at each one by looking closely at what is in front of you, and unlock the stories and legends behind it. From the green of Parker's Piece to the gatehouse of St John's the route covers 2.5 km and only about 35 minutes on foot across 10 stops, while riddles, stories and breaks stretch the game to around 3 hours, which begin whenever you open it.
Highlights include the Fitzwilliam Museum and its stone lions, the Mathematical Bridge at Queens' College, the time-eating Corpus Clock, King's College Chapel, Great St Mary's and the gates of Trinity and St John's. Central Cambridge is flat and compact, and the colleges, museums and the river Cam lie within easy walking distance of each other.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 35 min · 2.5 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
How the game plays out between Parker's Piece and St John's
Riddles cut into college stone
Each stop gives your team one riddle to crack from what is in plain view: the Latin words above the Polar Museum door, the straight timbers of the Mathematical Bridge, the chair leg in Henry VIII's hand above Trinity's Great Gate. Careful looking and a little logic will do, so nobody has to have studied at Cambridge.
Newton, Hawking and a football rulebook
A solved riddle opens the story of the place: how games on Parker's Piece fed into the first football rules, why the tale of Newton's bolt-free bridge cannot be true, and how Stephen Hawking unveiled the Corpus Clock in 2008. All of it can come to you through the audio narration instead of the screen.
2.5 km of flat, compact streets
Only about 35 minutes of the game is actual walking, along Lensfield Road and Trumpington Street, then up King's Parade and Trinity Street. Google Maps points the way from stop to stop, and the short hops leave plenty of time for looking up.
Tea on King's Parade, whenever you like
Unlike the clock at Corpus, the game keeps no time: stop for tea on King's Parade or sit on the grass of Parker's Piece, and carry on later that day or on another one. Arriving by train, you can walk from the station to the green and start straight away.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who plays among the colleges and the Cam
Hop on a train from King's Cross
Around 3 hours of play shows you King's College Chapel, the Mathematical Bridge and the Corpus Clock with no schedule to keep. Begin when your train gets in and reach St John's with time left for a punt on the Cam.
Children chasing lions and whales
Kids love the legend of the Fitzwilliam lions that come down to drink at midnight, the fin whale skeleton of more than 20 metres in the Museum of Zoology's glass hall and the Chronophage gobbling up the minutes. Every team needs an adult, and the short walk suits younger legs.
Colleagues and student groups
A team is up to 5 people, every one of them with the riddles on their own phone, and a bigger party simply splits into several teams that cross Parker's Piece a few minutes after each other. The finish at St John's College is a short stroll from Bridge Street and the river, an easy place to regroup afterwards.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
The route: from Parker's Piece past King's College to St John's College
10 stops · about 35 min walking · start: Parker's Piece · finish: St John's College
The hunt starts on the green of Parker's Piece and heads to the Polar Museum on Lensfield Road and the Fitzwilliam Museum. After the Mathematical Bridge over the Cam you pass the Museum of Zoology and reach the Corpus Clock, then follow King's Parade past King's College to Great St Mary's. The final stretch leads to Trinity College and finishes at St John's College. Not one riddle needs you inside a college court or a museum, so no ticket is asked for along the way, and if you happen to be nearer King's Parade than Parker's Piece, the app lets you open the game there and rearrange the remaining stops.
Open the route map ↗
1Parker's PieceStart
This large open green takes its name from Edward Parker, a college cook who leased the land in the early 17th century. Games played here under the Cambridge Rules, first drawn up in 1848, influenced the rules of the Football Association founded in 1863. The lamp post where the paths cross is known locally as Reality Checkpoint.
2Scott Polar Research Institute (Polar Museum)
The institute was founded in 1920 as a memorial to Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the men who died with him on their return from the South Pole in 1912. Its building on Lensfield Road houses the Polar Museum, and a Latin inscription above the entrance honours Scott's search for the secrets of the Pole.
3The Fitzwilliam Museum
The University's museum of art and antiquities was founded in 1816 with the bequest of Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam. Its grand classical building with a columned portico was designed by George Basevi and begun in 1837. A student legend says the stone lions at the entrance come down to drink when the clock strikes midnight.
4Mathematical Bridge
This wooden footbridge across the Cam belongs to Queens' College and was designed by William Etheridge and built by James Essex in 1749. Its straight timbers form an arch, which inspired the popular myth that Isaac Newton built it without nuts or bolts. Newton had died in 1727, and the bridge has since been rebuilt twice.
Read the full story →
5University Museum of Zoology
The Museum of Zoology on the University's Downing Site holds animal specimens from all over the world, including some collected by Charles Darwin. The skeleton of a fin whale more than 20 metres long hangs in its glass entrance hall and can be seen from outside.
6Corpus Clock
Unveiled by Stephen Hawking in 2008, this clock on the corner of Corpus Christi College's Taylor Library was conceived by the inventor John Taylor. A creature called the Chronophage, or time-eater, crawls over its gold-coloured disc and seems to devour each passing minute. The clock is deliberately erratic and is exactly right only once every five minutes.
Read the full story →
7King's College
King Henry VI founded King's College in 1441, and its chapel, built in stages between 1446 and 1515, has the largest fan vault in the world. The choir's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast around the world every Christmas Eve. From King's Parade you see the chapel rising behind the 19th-century gatehouse.
Read the full story →
8Great St Mary's
Great St Mary's is the University Church and traditionally the centre of Cambridge: university distances are measured from it, and students once had to live within three miles of it. The chime of its bells, written for the church in 1793, was later copied for Big Ben in London and became known as the Westminster Quarters.
9Trinity College
Henry VIII founded Trinity College in 1546, and his statue above the Great Gate holds a chair leg instead of a sceptre, the result of a student prank. Isaac Newton studied and worked here, and an apple tree outside the gate is said to descend from the tree in his garden. Behind the gate lies the vast Great Court.
10St John's CollegeFinish
St John's College was founded in 1511 under the will of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII. Her coat of arms, held by mythical beasts called yales, decorates the gatehouse. Further inside, the covered Bridge of Sighs, built in 1831, crosses the Cam.
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Anja– Germany –
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Marion– Germany –
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Die Schnitzeljagd war super, für Erwachsene und auch für Kinder (10 und 16 Jahre). Sie zeigt Bekanntes und weniger Bekanntes in Cambridge. Für Fußball Fans ist der Beginn der Schnitzeljagd ein absolutes Muss – ohne die Schnitzeljagd hätten wir den besonderen Ort nicht kennengelernt – wie auch die “Dunky Doors” völlig übersehen. Absolut empfehlenswert!
Netherlands –
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Christine– Germany –
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Am Anfang waren die Rätsel fast zu einfach, aber es hat trotzdem Spaß gemacht, weil man alle Hotspots besucht und gleichzeitig viele Infos über die einzelnen Spots erhält.
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Excellent! Easy to use, great clues a fantastic activity 🙂