Damian Hall - Walking in the Cotswolds: 30 circular walks in the Cotswolds AONB

About the Author

Damian Hall is a freelance outdoor journalist who grew up in Nailsworth. He didnt think much to the Cotswolds when young because they didnt have any good football teams and Radiohead never played there. So he went travelling for seven years.

Damian trekked many of the worlds famous and not so famous long-distance trails, including Everest Base Camp trek for his honeymoon and Australias Six Foot Track, where a hungry possum stole his walking boot.

Yet when time came to settle down, Damian came back to the Cotswolds, where he lives again with his wife, two children and a new walking boot. Forced to pick a favourite place, it would have to be Uley Burys dramatic hillfort.

Hes a member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, contributes regularly to Country Walking and Outdoor Fitness, wrote the official guide to the Pennine Way and Long-Distance Walking in Britain.

For more information go to www.damianhall.info and or follow Damian on Twitter: @damo_hall.

WALKING IN THE COTSWOLDS

30 CIRCULAR WALKS IN THE AONB

by Damian Hall

JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS,
OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL
www.cicerone.co.uk

Damian Hall 2016

Second edition

ISBN 9781783623334

Reprinted 2019, 2021 (with updates)

First edition 2014

ISBN 978 1 85284 692 3

Printed in Singapore by KHL Printing on responsibly sourced paper.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated.

This product includes mapping data licensed from Ordnance Survey with the permission of the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office. Crown copyright 2014. All rights reserved. Licence number PU100012932.

Acknowledgements

Huge, heartfelt thank-yous to Jenny Walters, Nick Hallissey, Rachel Broomhead and all at the continuously brilliant Country Walking (especially Editor Jonathan Manning), Jonathan Williams and all his team at Cicerone; Tom Bailey, Jon Sparks, Rudolf Abraham, Mark Bauer, Kev Reynolds, Tristan Gooley, Paul Tubb, John Burnett, Elizabeth Elliott, Mark Donald, Paul Simpson, Celso de Campos Jr, Vickie Bevan, Bevo, Jo, Kelvin, Barbara, Amy and Indy. And to the Cotswold Voluntary Wardens and everyone who helps maintain footpaths and keep the region such a wonderful place to tramp and live.

Updates to this Guide

While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk/735/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such things as transport, accommodation and shops locally. Even rights of way can be altered over time. We are always grateful for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by email to updates@cicerone.co.uk or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal LA9 7RL.

Register your book: To sign up to receive free updates, special offers and GPX files where available, register your book at www.cicerone.co.uk/735/updates.

Front cover: Views south along the Cotswold escarpment from Coaley Peak (Walk 18)

Looking south down the Cotswold escarpment from amid Coaley Peaks wild flowers, with Cam Long Down hiding Dursley (of Harry Potter fame)

Aiming straight for Chipping Camden (Walk 1)

INTRODUCTION

Views along the bottom of the Edge over a drystone wall on the way down to Dyrham (Walk 25)

Quintessential England chocolate-box pretty gentle, undulating hills Its almost as if theres a law against describing the Cotswolds without using these clichs. But its all hogwash. Well, okay, not completely. But from these lazy platitudes you might imagine the Cotswolds was a real-life Hobbiton: cosy, idyllic hills where everythings plump, prosperous and peaceful, and little has changed for hundreds of years. And, yes, there is some truth in that. But theres another side to the hardy hill chain that ripples and bulges all the way from Warwickshire and Worcestershire down through Gloucestershire to Somerset and Wiltshire, for some 145km (90 miles). In fact, covering 466km (790 square miles), this is the second largest protected landscape in England, after the Lake District, and the largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales.

While it is true that the more seasoned hill-walker may see the Cotswolds as a soft touch, get to know these stout, gutsy, timeless hills and valleys and youll find places of satisfying remoteness, authentic wildness and real drama. There are steep gradients to do battle with, 200-metre-plus climbs, while on the Edge, or on big, windy plateaus, the weather can treat you like youve insulted its mother.

After all, it was the Cotswolds that shaped adventurer and naturalist Dr Edward Wilson, who died a hero by Captain Robert Scotts side in a tent in Antarctica. One of Britains most famous adventurers, David Hempleman-Adams, has lived here for many years. The Alfred Wainwright of the Cotswolds, Cider With Rosie author Laurie Lee (), hitchhiked to Spain aged 19 and took part in their Civil War. These are the sorts of people the region creates and attracts.

Coming downhill from the monument near Beckbury Camp (Walk 5)

Indeed the evocative landscapes have long appealed to creative types too. The Cotswolds seduced esteemed artist, writer and Arts and Crafts Movement-mastermind William Morris, as well as poet WH Davies, author of the immortal line:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

Talking of wordsmiths, one William Shakespeare certainly didnt think the Cotswolds a soft touch. From Richard II come the lines:

I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire,

These high wild hills and rough uneven ways

Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome

The lush green hills and valleys were, however, much-loved by the invading Romans, the warring clans before them and the warring clans after them. And not to be left out, its where Roundheads and Cavaliers fought some of the Civil Wars bloodiest battles. So theres an awful lot about the region that isnt gentle and chocolate-box pretty.