Some basic questions about re varnishing wooden window ledge

[ElCI]

Hi all
I have some very basic questions about re varnishing my living room and kitchen window ledges. These have become terrible looking from the kids using them as roads for toy cars!

I have attached a picture of the window ledge. I understand it'll be impossible to say exactly what colour has been used but I'm hoping someone can steer me in a rough direction of the basic colour ie is it rosewood?

Also, I have said varnishing but is this the right type of treatment I should use? I haven't done anything like this since school so not sure if it is a wood stain or something else I should be using?

Finally, ideally I would like to simply recover this section of the ledges. In practice though will I need to sand off the existing colour before doing this?

Thanks in advance

 

[Doggit]

Sand it back first, and see what the colour is underneath. It may be Rosewood, or a a similar type, or it may just be stained, but once you've got the colour, you can then decide if you're going to stain it, or varnish it.