The Mayflower: From Scrooby to Plymouth Rock

The story starts in a Nottinghamshire village. The manor house belonged to the Archbishop of York, and William Brewster, the Archbishop's bailiff and postmaster, lived there. He hosted a Separatist church in the manor, was jailed for a short time, and tried to leave for the Netherlands in 1607. His first attempt failed; in 1608 he succeeded. In 1620 he sailed on the Mayflower. The manor house was demolished early in the 19th century, so the pin marks the village, not a building.

Location precision: The manor house no longer stands; the pin marks Scrooby village.

The Pilgrims were religious refugees who had fled England to Amsterdam in 1608 and moved to Leiden the next year. The Pilgrim Museum Leiden tells their story in a house dating to about 1365–1370. In 1620 they left Leiden by canal for Delfshaven to board the Speedwell. Their pastor, John Robinson, stayed behind to care for those who could not make the voyage.

Visitor guidance: The museum is open to the public; check its website for hours, as it recently moved to Kloksteeg.

Southampton was the point of departure for the Pilgrim Fathers aboard the Mayflower in 1620. Here the Pilgrims first saw the ship, which was being loaded with provisions. A leak was discovered on the Speedwell that required repair. The city's Mayflower Park on the waterfront bears the ship's name.

Location precision: Sources name the port, not the quay; the pin marks Mayflower Park.

Visitor guidance: Mayflower Park is a public park on the Southampton waterfront.

The Pilgrim Fathers put into Dartmouth's Bayard's Cove, en route from Southampton to North America. The Speedwell then sprang a second leak and the ships returned to Dartmouth for repairs. A third leak ended its journey.

Visitor guidance: Bayard's Cove is a short walk along the Dartmouth waterfront from the town centre.

Both ships returned to Plymouth, England, where 20 Speedwell passengers joined the overcrowded Mayflower. She sailed alone on 16 September 1620 with 102 passengers and a crew of 25 to 30. The Mayflower Steps in the Barbican are close to the site from which the Pilgrims are believed to have finally left; the Doric portico of Portland stone dates from 1934.

Location precision: The steps are close to, not at, the believed departure point.

Visitor guidance: The steps are in the Barbican area of Plymouth.

On 19 November 1620 the crew sighted present-day Cape Cod. Their intended destination had been the Colony of Virginia, but winter seas forced them back to the harbor at Cape Cod hook. A group of colonists drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact while still aboard the ship as it lay at anchor. The Pilgrim Monument, built between 1907 and 1910, commemorates the first landfall; it is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.

Location precision: The pin marks the Pilgrim Monument above Provincetown; the ship anchored somewhere in the harbor.

Visitor guidance: You can climb the monument and visit the Provincetown Museum at its base.

The Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor on 16 December 1620, and the colonists kept the name New Plymouth in honor of their final point of departure from Plymouth, Devon. The rock is another matter: the two main accounts of the colony, by Edward Winslow and William Bradford, never mention it. In 1741 it was declared that the boulder was the landing place of the Mayflower Pilgrims, and it has been moved several times since. It now sits beneath a granite canopy at Pilgrim Memorial State Park.

Location precision: The rock is the traditional landing place, not one the Pilgrims' own writings mention.

Visitor guidance: The rock lies on the waterfront in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in Pilgrim Memorial State Park.