The Best Walks in the Cotswolds

Distance: Various

Lots of the best walks in the Cotswolds are sections of the Cotswold Way. If you haven’t got time to hike the full route or just want a flavour of it, take a look at our guide to the best day walks on the Cotswold Way.

One of the finest sections to tackle independently from the whole route is Chipping Campden to Broadway. This 6-mile romp through two of the prettiest villages on the trail with wonderful views from Dover’s Hill and Broadway Tower.

The other Cotswolds Way day hike standout is Broadway to Winchcombe. This 12-mile hike from the popular village winds through quintessential rural countryside winds via Stanton, one of the loveliest villages on the Cotswold Way, and the historic, evocative ruins of Hailes Abbey.

Distance: 6 miles/ 9.5km

Combine a superlative stretch of the Cotswold Way with a ride on a historic steam train for a unique day out. Start from Broadway, one of the best-loved of the traditional Cotswold villages. Before starting your hike, perhaps first explore the attractive village streets. Or climb to the picturesque Broadway Tower for impressive views of the English countryside landscape.

From the cobblestones of Broadway, set off south on the Cotswold Way. Stride out along the escarpment to Stanton and Stanway, two of the most attractive Cotswold towns.

Make time to drop into the Mount Inn in Stanway for a refreshing and well-earned pint. Then take in the Jacobean Stanway House before leaving the Cotswold Way and wandering west to Toddington.

Here, you’ll find a station that is home to the historic Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway. The railway is a preserved section of the old Great Western railway line that linked Birmingham and Cheltenham via Stratford-upon-Avon. These days you can trundle north from Toddington, across viaducts and along the foot of the Cotswold escarpment, to return to Broadway.

Distance: 13.5 miles/ 22km

Connecting the cosy stone towns of Winchcombe and Bourton-on-the-Water, this lovely, lonely route is full of Cotswold charm. From Winchcombe, take a hilltop route via Spooney Wood and Hawling past the remains of vanished mediaeval villages. Then join the river to follow the rushing water into the village of Bourton.

The famously photogenic village streets of Bourton are renowned across the world. Honey-hued cottages and Jacobean buildings line the tiny River Windrush, and a series of five beautiful stone bridges span the river. The whole place is picture-postcard perfect, which does mean it is perennially popular with tourists.

Distance: 8 miles/ 12.8km

Uncover an unsung corner of the Cotswolds on a short walk from one of its lively market towns, Chipping Norton, in the north of the region. Made rich from the wool trade, Chipping Norton is surrounded by scenic countryside patterned with dry-stone walls.

Cross this open countryside to reach the Rollright Stones, a scattering of megalithic monuments split into three groups. Standing guard on this spot for thousands of years, the rows of massive standing stones date from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.

The oldest monument on the site, evocatively named the Whispering Knights, is a single chamber tomb guarded by a huddle of upright stones.

Folklore and ancient monuments are often tightly linked, with these mysterious ancient structures inspiring tales of heroes and villains.

Close by, the King’s Men is a ceremonial stone circle made up of more than 70 irregularly-spaced stumps of limestone. Legend has it that these monoliths are the petrified soldiers of an unknown king turned to stone by a witch.

A strangely-shaped monolith named the King Stone gazes out pensively over the landscape from a third site. The path onwards from the site goes via the village of Over Norton before returning to Chipping Norton.

Distance: 42 miles/ 67.5km

Created to commemorate the Royal Silver Jubilee in 1977, the Wychavon Way was relaunched to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

Starting outside the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Worcestershire at the spa town of Droitwich, the route meanders through traditional meadows, copses, orchards and riverside pastures.

Discover secret corners and high hilltops where you can soak up views over the Vale of Evesham before the emergence of honey-coloured dry-stone walls signal that you’re in the Cotswolds. Descend the paths to enter the village of Broadway at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment.