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Cotswolds Info

Cotswolds Info

The North Cotswolds

Broadway

A Worcestershire village below the escarpment, an old coaching stop with a long High Street, two museums, an artists' history and Broadway Tower on the hill.

The guide to Broadway

The South Cotswolds

Castle Combe

A small Wiltshire village running down a single street from a medieval market cross to a bridge over the By Brook. Park at the top, walk down, and come early.

The guide to Castle Combe

The South Cotswolds

Lacock

A Wiltshire village mostly owned by the National Trust, with an abbey made from a medieval nunnery, where Fox Talbot made the earliest surviving negative in 18…

The guide to Lacock

The North Cotswolds

Snowshill

A tiny hill village above Broadway with Snowshill Manor, Charles Wade's house of extraordinary collections, and lavender fields that flower in midsummer.

The guide to Snowshill

The Cotswold Edge

The Cotswold Edge

The western escarpment, where the wolds end in a wooded edge above the Severn vale: Winchcombe and Sudeley, Belas Knap, Cleeve Hill and the Cotswold Way along …

The guide to The Cotswold Edge

Find your kind of day

A wide view over a wooded valley with trees in the foreground

The Cotswold Way

102 miles along the edge, from Campden to Bath

From Chipping Campden's Market Hall to Bath, along the escarpment and over Cleeve Hill, at 330m the highest point on the trail and in the Cotswolds.

Walking in the Cotswolds

The Cotswolds in figures

790
Square miles
The largest of the 46 National Landscapes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
102 mi
Of the Cotswold Way
Chipping Campden to Bath
330 m
Cleeve Hill
The highest point in the Cotswolds
1966
Protected since
Designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Autumn in the Cotswolds

Trees in colour, thinner crowds and the first Christmas lights. What is worth planning around:

  1. Westonbirt in colourThe National Arboretum's peak season runs to 15 November 2026.
  2. Christmas at BlenheimThe palace's Christmas runs from 13 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.
  3. Steam to BroadwayEvening heritage trains run from Toddington to Broadway's late-night Christmas shopping on 27 November and 4 December 2026.

The year month by month

A wide view over a wooded valley with trees in the foreground

Places to start

All places to go
  • A long stone building beside a green on a sunny day

    Chipping Campden

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A wool town with a High Street of honey stone, a 1627 Market Hall, a great wool church and almshouses, and the start of the Cotswold Way on its doorstep.

  • People crossing a market square in front of tall stone buildings

    Stow-on-the-Wold

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A hilltop market town on the Fosse Way, more than 230m up, with a broad Square, a church that held 1,600 prisoners after the last battle of the Civil War, and a horse fair.

  • A row of old stone weavers' cottages beside a river under a white sky

    Bibury

    Village · Cirencester and the Coln Valley

    A village on the River Coln with a row of medieval cottages that draws up to 20,000 visitors on a peak weekend, by press estimates. Come early or late, and walk on down the river.

  • Vehicles parked along a street of tall stone buildings

    Cirencester

    Market town · Cirencester and the Coln Valley

    The Roman town of Corinium and the market town of the southern Cotswolds, with a museum of its mosaics, a great wool church, an amphitheatre and Earl Bathurst's park.

  • A street of honey-coloured stone cottages curving downhill between green trees

    Castle Combe

    Village · The South Cotswolds

    A small Wiltshire village running down a single street from a medieval market cross to a bridge over the By Brook. Park at the top, walk down, and come early.

  • Sheep grazing a hillside above a stone village in a valley

    The North Cotswolds

    Region · The North Cotswolds

    The high wolds between Chipping Campden and Bourton-on-the-Water: the Fosse Way towns, the Windrush villages, the Slaughters and the escarpment at Broadway.

One good day

Stow, Bourton and the Slaughters, without a car

The order we would do it in, from Moreton-in-Marsh station: the Square at Stow early, the bus to Bourton, the field path to the Slaughters and back.

The Cotswolds without the crowds

  1. 9am

    The Square at Stow

    People crossing a market square in front of tall stone buildings

    Before the shops open: the market cross, and St Edward's north door between its two yews.

    Stow-on-the-Wold

  2. 11am

    The 801 to Bourton

    A stone bridge over a clear river beside a sunny green

    A short ride on the bus that runs every day, leaving Stow at five past the hour, to the river before the crowds.

    Bourton-on-the-Water

  3. 11.30am

    Across the fields to the Slaughters

    A tree on a green field under a blue sky on the walk between the Slaughters

    A mile and a half across the fields to Lower Slaughter, then about a mile along the Eye to Upper Slaughter.

    Lower Slaughter

  4. Afternoon

    Back to Bourton

    Stone buildings beside the river under white clouds

    Walk back the way you came, and catch the 801 to Moreton station or up to Stow.

    Without a car

Six walks to start with

From an hour beside the River Eye to a morning on the edge above Winchcombe.

  • The Old Mill and cottages reflected in the River Eye at Lower Slaughter

    Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter

    Walk · Starts in Lower Slaughter · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A 2-mile (3.1km) there-and-back from Lower Slaughter, easy and almost level, in 45 minutes to an hour: on the Wardens' Way from Lower Slaughter's mill up the River Eye through riverside fields to Upper Slaughter's ford, church and manor, and back the same way.

  • Broadway Tower lit by the setting sun, with a path curving up the hill towards it

    Broadway and Broadway Tower

    Walk · Starts in Broadway · 3 hrs · Circular

    A 4-mile (6.5km) circular walk from the war memorial in Broadway, two and a half to three hours, moderate with steep sections and no stiles. It passes St Eadburgha's, climbs Coneygree Lane to Broadway Tower and comes back down the Cotswold Way.

  • A low stone bridge over a wide clear river, cottages and willows on the far bank

    Bibury and the River Coln

    Walk · Starts in Bibury · 2 hrs · Circular

    A 4-mile (6.5km) circular walk from the bridge by the Swan in Bibury, about two hours with one climb and a muddy stretch. It crosses the Coln below Bibury Court, climbs through Oxhill Wood to the line of Akeman Street, passes a dewpond and returns by Arlington Row.

  • Green fields above Winchcombe looking across the valley under a sky of white clouds

    Winchcombe and Belas Knap

    Walk · Starts in Winchcombe · 2 hrs, 45 mins · Circular

    A 5.5-mile (8.8km) moderate loop of two to two and three quarter hours from Winchcombe, up the Cotswold Way and through the woods to Belas Knap, the Neolithic long barrow, then home on the Winchcombe Way by Wadfield Farm and Sudeley, with two stiles and a narrow road.

  • Open limestone grassland on Rodborough Common sloping down to trees under a spring sky

    Rodborough Common and the fort

    Walk · Starts in Stroud and the Five Valleys · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A 2-mile (3.4km) circular walk on Rodborough Common above Stroud, easy, nearly level and about 45 minutes: up to the battlemented folly of Rodborough Fort, down the open western edge, and back past the Bear and an ice-cream stop. Grassy, and grazed by cattle.

  • The Grand Bridge across the lake in Blenheim Park, framed by conifers under a blue sky

    Blenheim Park from Bladon

    Walk · Starts in Woodstock · 2 hrs · Circular

    A 4.5-mile (7.2km) circular walk from Bladon round Blenheim's park, about two hours, easy and on estate roads. It crosses New Bridge, goes through High Park to Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge, past the palace and back by the walled garden. About half needs a Park and Gardens ticket.

Strange Things

Customs, legends and odd corners of history, with the record and the legend kept apart.

Explore Strange Things
  • Runners tumbling and sliding down the steep grass of Cooper's Hill, a packed crowd behind the orange fencing

    Cheese rolling at Cooper's Hill

    Story · Strange Things · 4 minute read

    Every spring bank holiday people hurl themselves down Cooper's Hill near Gloucester after a Double Gloucester cheese. The race is old, unofficial and dangerous.

  • An ornate stone banqueting house in a meadow with a tall church tower behind

    The Campden Wonder

    Story · Strange Things · 4 minute read

    In 1660 a Chipping Campden steward vanished and three people were hanged for his murder. Two years later he came home, with a tale of Turkish slavery.

  • The roofless great hall of Minster Lovell Hall, its gable and window openings

    Three dooms at Minster Lovell Hall

    Story · Strange Things · 5 minute read

    The ruined hall on the Windrush at Minster Lovell, the lord who vanished after the battle of Stoke, a skeleton said to sit at a table, and a bride in a chest.

Start here

Plan your first trip.

All stories
Open grassland with yellow gorse on a high common looking out over a wide vale

Story · Guides · 11 minute read

Where are the Cotswolds?

The Cotswolds are not a county, a town or a single place. They are a range of hills, a stone and a protected landscape of 787 square miles, and the boundary is drawn more precisely than most people think.

Planning a stay? Start with where to base yourself.

Which town suits a trip with or without a car, and where to stay for walking.

Where to stay Without a car

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