We were thinking about how we might prepare for a big walk through the Alps in June 2022 and had some time in our diaries in early May. "How about walking some of the Cotswold Way?" I asked David. "Sounds like a good idea" he says. "Let's ask John too and I'll bring the dog". I panicked a bit at this imagining being kept awake all night with a crazy dog jumping on me at regular intervals. "It'll be fine" says David, "you'll see".
David had run various sections of the Cotswold Way as his running club in Bristol had entered the Cotswold relay several times. He suggested Birdlip to Bath a good choice for 4 days. The Cicerone Guidebook written by Kevin Reynolds described this as eight stages but we reckoned we could do two a day. This is just under 2/3 of the whole trail at 104km. Four years later in February 2026 David and I are back to walk another three days from Chipping Camden to Birdlip. This description covers the route from end to end rather than following our chronology!
The Cotswold Way was set up as a route in the 1970s by the Gloucester County Council and adopted as a National Trail in 2007. This means that it has great signposting making it almost impossible to get lost. The full trail runs 163km from Chipping Camden to Bath and follows the western edge of the oolitic limestone escarpment. This provides great views across the Severn flood plain to the Malvern hills, Black Mountains and forest of Dean. However it also provides a lot of ascent and descent as the paths run alternately along the top, middle and bottom of the escarpment so that you are going up and down all the time. As a result it is tougher than you might think - certainly not as rough as our time on the Cape Wrath Trail in 2021 but not a doddle either.
Another contrast to walking in Scotland is the amount of accomodation on route. This means that we travel with light sacks staying in B&Bs and pubs along the way and finding refreshment in local villages at lunchtime. We did spot plenty of people sending their luggage ahead of them but as hardened walkers we did not think this necessary unless you were fitting this in as part of your 3 month visit to the UK (as two charming Americans whom we walked with for a morning were doing).
Start of the Cotswold Way in Chipping Camden
It has rained for the first six weeks of the year so I have been nervous about starting the Cotswold Way in mid-February. So when I wake after a comfortable night's sleep in the Noel Arms in Chipping Camden to see the sun shining I am delighted. David arrives at just after 9 and soon we are walking down the High Street with beautiful light making the cotswold stone buildings look fantastic. We are easing our way into the walk today with a gentle 10 mile stretch to Stanton. We soon leave town and follow a lane up onto the escarpment. At the trig post on Dovers Hill there are fine views over the Vale of Evesham. In 1612 Captain Robert Dover started his 'Olympick Games' here including leapfrog, skittles, wrestling and shin-kicking! The games were reintroduced in 1951 but I suspect that they no longer involve shin-kicking.
We drop down to cross the A44 and then climb again past earthworks to reach Broadway Tower. More great views here as well as quite a lot of Chinese tourists. The views continue as you follow the path down into Broadway. This is the heart of tourist Cotswolds. The wide main street has lots of elderly tourists (in February!) and shops are selling souvenirs and fancy local produce. We stop at 'No32' for coffee and then realise we are really early so drop into the Swan for a pint. Then on up the hill along a muddy path by a wood full of robins and wrens. We pick up a good path at the top of the hill and then follow another muddy path to Stanton. A very pretty, quiet village. We find The Vine, a classic Cotswold house where we are spending the night surrounded by oak beams, mullion windows and hunting regalia.
View from Dovers Hill, Broadway tower
Looking back to Broadway, Stanton
The Vine B&B in Stanton
Today we are walking two stages of the Way so we stock up on a hearty breakfast in the Vine's fine dining room. The going is flat as we leave Stanton and follow tracks to Stanway Hall. A new line of trees has been planted on what looks like a field of old strip farming. A Ukrainian flag hangs over the grand entrance to the Hall. We pass another large house as we leave the village and then climb past the farm at Wood Stanway getting fine views. The path drops across a meadow and round and down beside a wood where we meet a bunch of birdwatchers. We have seen robins, wrens and dunnock. They are hoping to spot more unusual winter visitors.
At the bottom of the hill are the remains of Hailes Abbey, a Cistercian community for three hundred years but dissolved by Henry VIII in 1542. The site is closed so we can only look at it over the hedge before going through the village and continuing on a very muddy stretch around fields - thank God for gaiters. A less muddy grassy slope leads down to Winchcombe, another pretty Cotswold town and the largest that we have passed so far. Time for a coffee stop in the attractive main street.
Hailes Abbey ruins and the fields beyond
Terrace in Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle
We follow the wall of an old abbey (no longer there) through Winchcombe and then walk down a pretty terrace and over the river Isbourne. Someone has been replacing many of the muddy tracks with compacted stone and sand, presumably to cope with the wear of thousands of hikers. We follow this yellow trail around a field and then climb a hill towards Belas Knap. Near the top of the hill we get great views back to Sudeley Castle where Catherine Parr is buried. Belas Knap itself is further up the hill - a finely preserved long barrow/burial mound dating back to 3000 BC.
From the burial mound a good straight path leads us towards the pylons and radio masts on Cleve Common, one of the highest points on the whole walk. The trail then follows the edge of the column so that we end up walking along three sides. We drop down a road into a valley and climb past the impressive Postlip Hall. This is now a community living project with 8 families living in the main building and outhouses - all busy rearing animals and growing vegetables. Very 'neorrurales' as my Spanish homework tells me. From the hall we climb onto the common watching kites and buzzards and soon come to the golf course where David tells me one of the relay stages ends. From here it is about another km to Cleve Hill where we are spending the night in the Rising Sun.
Beech woods on the edge of Cleve Common, Postlip Hall
For the last day of our 2026 walk we are following the common south with Cheltenham to our west and then heading west with Cheltenham to the north. So skirting Cheltenham for most of the day. We start out early, chatting to dog walkers as we climb back up onto the common. It is crisp and cool and skylarks are singing. Cheltenham racecourse is below us and in the distance we can see the hills where we will be walking at lunchtime. We follow the escarpment and walk through bramble and old-mans-beard lined dips. Because we are walking in winter you get great views through the trees. At the end of the common there is a long descent beside a wood. Fit runners are coming up the other way. At the bottom is the Dowdeswell reservoir which you can't really see as it is above you. Then a busy road before another steep climb through woods.
This part of the route has quite a bit of road walking. Not too bad as they are quiet country lanes. Just as we think we are back on trails we find the crew building the compacted yellow paths. They send us back on a big detour and more road walking. This takes us to a wood and path up to Crickley Hill, a famous neolithic site in beech woods. We stop for coffee and an icecream for David. Another yellow path takes us to some massive roadworks. Fortunately the path avoids these and we are soon walking along the escarpment that we started on 4 years ago. After a wood we are back on the road and up into Birdlip for a welcome pint in the Royal George before an Uber takes us to Gloucester Station and back to civilisation. To follow the rest of the route click here.
Castle Rock with racecourse in distance, some winter road walking
Crickley Hill and the Severn Vale