Never been to London. Have 2 nights - best place to stay

The Tower of London is centrally located and very "castle like", so no real need to travel outside the capital. Another is Windsor castle, a short train ride and close to Heathrow airport.

with your two nights in London - is one of them after an international flight? Do you have all the day before the first night, than the whole next day and any part of the day after the second night?

It is a very short time - let's optimize it.

Where are you going to next? You will want to be in the right place for that.

Fairies are more Irish than English. I don't know anything about Outlander but all the new age and mystic stuff is highly concentrated around Glastonbury but unless you are going to the Southwest next it is really in the wrong direction.

Am I right that you don't want to do anything in central London, despite the headline reading "Never been to London"?

more interested in castles, fairy circles, mystical, magical, old lore

Harry Potter stuff? Plenty of that.

Day trip to Stonehenge?

Thank you so much for all these replies…all so helpful!

If you have never seen a "broadway"-type musical performed by top performers, take in one in London. Book tickets in advance online or try once you are London. There are many to choose from and it can be a magical experience.

If you do opt to go to Windsor, please do not leave without walking into Eton! Eton College has a very Hogwarts feel, and even the high street in Eton is about as "ye olde" and village-y as you can get when you are that close to London. It's just delightful.

You can get a bus to Windsor from Victoria for 2 pounds (right now - the fare is going up to 2 pounds and 30 pence soon): https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/greenline

Or you can take the Elizabeth line to Windsor from Liverpool Street or Paddington. Take a Reading-bound train, get out at Slough, and transfer to the GWR train to Windsor and Eton Central. The train is more expensive, but can be up to 30 minutes faster each way.

As others have noted, Stonehenge is an easy day trip from London. You can't walk into the standing stone circle any longer, but it is still magnificent. If you get a train or coach to Salisbury, there are Stonehenge tours from there. I would also recommend Old Sarum, which I believe you can still walk into. http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/englandoldsarum.htm It is about 2 miles from Salisbury Cathedral, and is truly a magical place. Per the site linked above: "Old Sarum lies on one of the earliest recognised examples of leylines as determined by Sir N. Lockyer. It is connected to both Salisbury and Stonehenge, both sacred places on the Wiltshire landscape." I absolutely adored it.

There are also trains to Glastonbury, which is about as mystical/magical as you can get... but it's gotten pretty commercialized and might be more depressing/tatty than evocative these days. I'd suggest getting more feedback on that. It's been eons since I have been on Glastonbury Tor.

OP’s post is from September.

Also Volva is incorrect about the impending fare increase. The £2 flat fare is staying until the end of 2024. The planned increase has been cancelled.
I know this is an old post but it is important for the record for anyone else picking the post up to get the facts correct.
Not all operators have yet updated their websites accordingly.

Volva is also incorrect in stating that there are trains to Glastonbury. Castle Cary is the nearest station then use the bus.
Also the buses to Glastonbury depart from Yeovil, Taunton and Bristol. They only leave from Castle Cary when the festival is on.
Again we must get basic facts right for other readers.

lots of lecturing going on

lots of lecturing going on

That's seems to have become the "norm" in certain parts of the forum.

The alternative to what you call “lecturing” would be to leave incorrect information up for future visitors to get confused by. The information on bus fares is understandable as the extension is only a fairly recent change but the last train to Glastonbury ran in March 1966.

People make mistakes. We're all eager to help and sometimes we get a little ahead of ourselves. That said, I think that it is best to correct misinformation. I have posted info that was incorrect in the past (gasp!) and was very grateful when someone corrected me. I would have been mortified if someone had relied on my misinformation.

I do think corrections should be made without too much finger pointing, but I don't see that here. 😊

Well, yes, I do feel a little "lectured" by the tone of those responses... but on the other hand I don't want to put incorrect info out there. It is appropriate to make sure that we are not misinforming visitors to this board, no question!

Although... the fare increase on the Reading buses is posted right on the side of the bus... or it was as of a couple of days ago. I saw it with my own eyes when I hopped the #702 to Slough! That said, my apologies if I missed the change. The difference is 30 pence (or maybe I am wrong about that precise amount ;-) so it isn't a huge mistake, I don't think. But wrong is wrong, right? (And the Glastonbury train thing was a REAL howler. I feel stupid for that.)

That said, I think I will pull back a little and take a break. I am living in the UK for the first time and was very enthusiastic about having some actual local knowledge to go on. I will check my responses more carefully when I come back. Thanks all!

Reading Buses are one of the companies who have been very bad at adjusting their information and website each time the £2 fares have been extended.
In fact, technically, they have not yet agreed to extend the £2 scheme. There is no reason to think they won't, but it seems not to be agreed. Participation by every company, and on every route, is voluntary.

I can well believe that they have been advertising the new £2.50 fare.

For reference I advised someone, off the board, when Go North East, for the Hadrian's Wall Bus, were similarly recalcitrant last time about admitting they were extending the scheme- they finally agreed about 5 hours before the deadline. Meanwhile someone on the forum had bought full priced AD122 tickets on the GNE app. So I intervened on their behalf directly with GNE to get that full price ticket refunded.

I also felt lectured to this morning, by the above comments, which felt rather non productive when I was trying to be helpful to the OP, as I know Volva was, and apologise to Volva if I was a bit clod handed.