Cotswolds Way Walk
National Trail

The Cotswold Way National Trail is a scenic, undulating route through quiet Cotswold countryside following the ridge through the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) via the villages of Broadway, Winchcombe, Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge. An attractive and popular trail that offers beautiful rural surroundings with facilities and services always near to hand.

The low limestone hills and agricultural valleys should cause no problems for anyone who is reasonably fit, but there are a few steep slopes, rising to the highest point at Cleeve Hill (highest in the whole of the Cotswolds) near Winchcombe (330m/1,083ft). Some paths can be muddy or hazardous in winter and boots are recommended.

The Cotswolds Way together with the Cross-Cotswold Pathway and Cotswold Link, forms part of the Cotswold Round, a a 331km/207-mile circuit of the Cotswolds.

The walk is claimed to be the best marked trail in England.  

Update. In some locations the Cotswold Way is being diverted from its old route along new and improved paths. Where this occurs, the old path will remain open but will no longer be signed as the Cotswold Way.

Cotswolds Public Transport

• Rail. Bath, Stroud, Cheltenham, Moreton-in-Marsh and Evesham are on the Great Western main lines from London Paddington, and Statford-upon-Avon has a service to Birmingham. The Birmingham to Bristol line runs parallel to the Way with stations at Ashchurch, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Cam and Dursley.
• Coaches serve Bath, Cheltenham and Broadway, and pass within 5km/3 miles of Chipping Campden.
• Bus. There are bus services to numerous points along the Way including Cold Ashton, Tormarton, Hawkesbury Upton, Wotton-under-Edge, Dursley, King's Stanley, Painswick, Birdup, Leckhampton, Cleeve Hill, Winchcombe, Wood Stanway, Broadway and Chipping Campden (buses to Cheltenham, not Sundays). Few of these services run on Sundays.

Cotswolds Way Walk