Weekend courses at Madingley Hall

Our popular programme of weekend courses runs all year round and features more than 150 courses on subjects ranging from Ancient Greek to genetics, taught by leading Cambridge experts.

madingley_hall_and_fountain

Madingley Hall and gardens

Madingley Hall is a 16th-century country house, set in seven acres of landscaped gardens. It is just four miles from the centre of Cambridge, and only 60 minutes from London.

Weekend courses are open to all, and no background knowledge is required in most cases. You will be taught in small, informal groups by academics who are expert not only in their subjects but also in teaching students of all ages and experience.

As a weekend student, you will enjoy award-winning cuisine in our elegant Dining Hall and first-rate facilities in an atmospheric and inspiring setting. You can choose to stay at the Hall for the duration of your course, or attend as a non-resident.

To find out what's on offer, you can either browse the courses below, or order a free copy of our course brochure.

Available courses

Click on column headings to sort

Title Start Date Status
Poetry masterclass: catching time in its flow 14 May 2012 Available
Pineapples: art, status and the Fitzwilliam Museum 18 May 2012 Available
The Great Victorians: men and women who made our world 18 May 2012 Available
Reading Classical Greek (all levels) (May 2012) 18 May 2012 Available
Reading contemporary bestsellers: identity and innovation 18 May 2012 Available
Philosophy of fiction 18 May 2012 Available
Writing for children 1 June 2012 Available
Presidents and their wars III 1 June 2012 Available
Hector Berlioz: Fantastique romantic 1 June 2012 Available
The poetry of John Clare 1 June 2012 Available
Advanced French weekend 1 June 2012 Available
Science and religion 1 June 2012 Available
The making of more masterpieces 1 June 2012 Available
The philosophy of religion 15 June 2012 Available
Reading Classical Latin: Ovid and Cicero 15 June 2012 Available
Thomas Hardy: poetic realist? 15 June 2012 Available
The Newlyn painters 15 June 2012 Available
Name that plant 15 June 2012 Available
Nordic Noir: ice crime 15 June 2012 Available
Verdi: opera for all 15 June 2012 Available
The geological history of Britain 6 July 2012 Available
Human sexuality 6 July 2012 Available
Introduction to ancient Greek art 13 July 2012 Available
Basic level Italian weekend 13 July 2012 Available
The glory of the garden: painting plant portraits 13 July 2012 Available
Intermediate French weekend 13 July 2012 Available
Survival and revival: the country house in the 20th century 13 July 2012 Available
Fairy tales in opera 3 August 2012 Available
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Shakespeare, Purcell, Mendelssohn and Britten 3 August 2012 Available
Time to write 3 August 2012 Available
An introduction to the Old English language and its literature 3 August 2012 Available
Romans, druids and apple trees: Dr William Stukeley (1687-1765) 3 August 2012 Available
History, memory and storytelling: prose and poetry of the 21st century 3 August 2012 Available
Advanced Italian weekend 3 August 2012 Available
The origins of hospitality and tourism 3 August 2012 Available
The life and works of John Locke, revolutionary philosopher 7 September 2012 Available
Medieval palaeography for beginners 7 September 2012 Available
German language weekend 7 September 2012 Available
Exploring the NanoWorld 7 September 2012 Available
Conservation: from theory to practice 7 September 2012 Available
Facing figures: the art of portraiture through time 7 September 2012 Available
Existential psychology: finding courage, direction and meaning in a life of one's own 7 September 2012 Available
Rocks, minerals and fossils: an introduction to geology 14 September 2012 Available
Reading Classical Greek 14 September 2012 Available
The Eastern Front reconsidered, 1941-45 14 September 2012 Available
Victorian myth and medievalism: the later Pre-Raphaelites 14 September 2012 Available
Hindu viewpoints and paths: the textual and philosophical perspectives of Upanishads 14 September 2012 Available
Introduction to jazz and improvisation 14 September 2012 Available
Will the real me please stand up? 14 September 2012 Available
John of Gaunt 21 September 2012 Waiting list
Art on the rocks: a survey of world rock art 21 September 2012 Available
Reading Classical Latin: Cupid and Psyche 21 September 2012 Available
Music, magic and mysticism 21 September 2012 Available
Tracing the origins of the British using genetics, linguistics and chroniclers 21 September 2012 Available
In and out the workhouse: Victorian and Edwardian poverty issues 21 September 2012 Available
The psychology of everyday life 21 September 2012 Available
Poetry masterclass: a woman of wit and invention 1 October 2012 Available
Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy: the search for moles inside intelligence communities 19 October 2012 Available
The Passions of J S Bach 19 October 2012 Available
Advanced French weekend 19 October 2012 Available
Pride and Prejudice Part Deux: adapting and rewriting the classics 19 October 2012 Available
Medieval castles and fortified houses 19 October 2012 Available
Intermediate Russian weekend 19 October 2012 Available
Medieval Fenland 19 October 2012 Available
The inter-war garden: Roaring Twenties into Modernist Thirties 19 October 2012 Available
Drawing and painting autumn flowers, fruits and fungi 26 October 2012 Available
Royal Newmarket 26 October 2012 Available
Small town America: the films of John Ford and Frank Capra 26 October 2012 Available
More than meets the ear: how music creates its effect 26 October 2012 Available
Medieval Latin for beginners 26 October 2012 Available
The washing of the spears: the rise and fall of the Zulu nation 26 October 2012 Available
Alexander the Great 26 October 2012 Available
Acts of the Apostles: history or myth? 2 November 2012 Available
Shakespeare's last plays: The Winter's Tale to Two Noble Kinsmen 2 November 2012 Available
Meet the Spartans 2 November 2012 Available
H is for holly, hornbeam and hawthorn 2 November 2012 Available
Oliver Cromwell and John Milton: parallel lives 2 November 2012 Available
Understanding the media in the Second World War 2 November 2012 Available
Flash fiction:unlocking the writer within 9 November 2012 Available
Birds: their hidden world 9 November 2012 Available
Romantic poetry: exuberance and dejection 9 November 2012 Available
Compose yourself: writing and arranging music 9 November 2012 Available
Life as we know it 9 November 2012 Available
Art, architecture and society in the age of Hogarth 9 November 2012 Available
Intermediate Spanish weekend 9 November 2012 Available
God and evil 23 November 2012 Available
Reading Classical Greek 23 November 2012 Available
Did the Romans wear false teeth? 23 November 2012 Available
Villages and their fields 23 November 2012 Available
Comedy on the 18th Century English stage 23 November 2012 Available
The philosophy of Macbeth 23 November 2012 Available
Dealing with the dead: ghosts and spirits from around the world 30 November 2012 Available
Philosophy panorama 30 November 2012 Available
Byron: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 7 December 2012 Available
Biological collections at the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge: a unique historical record 7 December 2012 Available
The magic of Christmas 7 December 2012 Available
Maya doomsday 7 December 2012 Available
Language: what is it, who has it and why did it evolve? 7 December 2012 Available
The Sherlock Holmes phenomenon 7 December 2012 Available
Reading Classical Latin: Suetonius and Virgil 7 December 2012 Available

* Not available to book online