Bringing the past to life
Travel back through 10,000 years of human history, and discover every day life in the ancient past!
The closest thing we have to time travel…
Butser Ancient Farm is an open-air experimental archaeology museum and active research centre in Hampshire, learning about the past by recreating it.
Our experiments are world-renowned, and our buildings include a Roman villa, Iron Age/Celtic village, Stone Age settlement, and Saxon halls — all reconstructed from real UK archaeology, and open to be explored!
Step into the past…
Explore over 10,000 years of history at Butser, and experience the sights, sounds, and scents of the ancient past.
Butser Book Festival
Experience exciting and insightful entertainment, talks and workshops, storytelling, and live poetry readings on nature and folklore to inspire your creativity! Immersive yourself in Saxon lyre and poetry with skald Eorðen, or listen to fascinating talks on writing and researching historical fiction by bestselling authors Lucy Holland, Conn Iggulden, and Elodie Harper by the open fires of the hearth. If you love books that blur the lines between real-world myth and exciting new worlds, then meet Samantha Shannon, Shauna Lawless, Amy Jeffs and Anna Smith Spark in our ancient buildings. Ignite your family’s creativity joining a workshop learning how to tell amazing tales, write like a Saxon, craft a folkloric bookmark and much more!
Butser is an active research site and education centre, working to push forward our understanding of the ancient past. Every one of our buildings is an active experiment, reconstructed from real UK archaeology!
