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.
Click for full list of Hotels, Guest Houses
and B&B's, Cottages, Inns and Pubs, Wedding Venues, Camping and Caravanning and Conference
Centres in the Cotswolds and the six counties of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire,
Somerset, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire:-
