23 May 2007

BEST OF BRITISH HERITAGE SITES ARE NOW JUST A CLICK AWAY AT WWW.BRITISHHERITAGEPASS.COM

New Great British Heritage Pass Site Offers Info & Click-On Active Maps That Almost Drive You There From Just £1 Per Day

The best of the UK’s heritage properties have now come to a screen near you with the launch of the new Great British Heritage Pass website - now complete with interactive maps.

Just click on: www.britishheritagepass.com for a complete rundown on everything offered by this unique pass which offers access to the best heritage sites throughout the country.

Run for VisitBritain by the Leisure Pass Group, the Great British Heritage Pass now offers entry to nearly 600 incredible historic sites to visitors from outside the UK.

For the first time in its 30 year history, the Pass is now available as a Family Pass, covering two adults and up to three children (ages 5 to 15). Available for 4, 7, 15 or 30 days, it costs between £62 and £154. That’s from just £1 a day for a whole family to experience the cre`me of the country’s heritage. It was previously only available to individuals.

To make it as easy as possible for foreign visitors to get to all the properties featured on the Pass, the new website offers Google-driven active maps which even include driving instructions and a printable motoring map.

The initial map shows the country and many of the property categories by type. Simply click on an icon for more information about the property, then click again for more details, maps, and a click-on purchase. Or browse through a menu that lists all the properties by type or by area in the UK. A few more clicks get you all the details you need and your directions.

Properties covered by the Great British Heritage Pass come from English Heritage, the National Trust, Treasure Houses of England, Historic Houses Association, Cadw, National Trust for Scotland, and Historic Scotland.

The pass is also great value because many of the properties are on any visitors ‘must see’ list such as: Stonehenge, Edinburgh Castle, Shakespeare’s Birthplace, and Warwick Castle. And there’s more for 2007 with 19 new properties on the Pass including Rockingham Castle, Alnwick Castle, and Burghley House.

This means lots of fun for everyone, including the kids who might think that history was dull, until it was explained to them that places you can visit on the Great British Heritage Pass offer some pretty gruesome examples of death and destruction.

Take Warwick Castle, for example, which boasts the world’s largest Trebuchet which, at 18 meters high, used to knock down castle walls as well as hurling diseased animals as big as a horse into the castle to spread a horrible death.

Or there is Leeds Castle, which doesn’t just have birds of prey - it actually has Jack, the only flying Buzzard in the UK, Lurch the Vulture and the sort of Eagles that can make off with your granny.

Harry Potter fans will be sharpening up their wands at the thought of going to Alnwick Castle, which stood in for Hogwarts in the films and even has a school of its own where you can learn to be a Knight.

The Great British Heritage Pass has now been running successfully for 30 years and it gets bigger and better ever time.

For further information, please contact:
Angus Rankine. Leisure Pass Group. T: +44 (0) 20 7907 1522
John Samson. Presslink. T: +44 (0) 20 7831 0023.