The Cotswolds on foot: village to village from Stow and Chipping Campden

1. Day 1: Oxford to Stow-on-the-Wold

   Oxford on foot, then by van to Stow-on-the-Wold

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Lunch and welcome dinner
   • Stay in Stow-on-the-Wold
   Day 1 details

   We meet at about 11 am at a central Oxford meeting point we confirm with your booking, an hour by train from London Paddington or by direct coach from Heathrow or Gatwick. Your See Sight Tours guide starts with a short briefing on the week: boots, daypacks, how the easy and active options work, and the rain plan: which walk the guide swaps, shortens or moves if the forecast turns. Then a gentle 90-minute walk through the centre: Broad Street, the Sheldonian Theatre, the Radcliffe Camera, the Bridge of Sighs over New College Lane, and the college quads you can see from the lanes. Lunch is together in the city. In the afternoon our driver takes us about an hour west into the Cotswolds to Stow-on-the-Wold, a hilltop market town at about 240 m where drovers once sold sheep by the thousand. After check-in the guide leads a short walk round the market square and to St Edward's Church, whose north door is framed by two old yew trees. Welcome dinner in Stow.

   Included

   • Welcome briefing with your guide in Oxford
   • Guided walk through central Oxford
   • Lunch in Oxford
   • Drive to Stow-on-the-Wold
   • Evening walk round Stow and St Edward's Church
   • Welcome dinner

   Easier option: Skip the Stow walk and rest at the hotel before dinner.

   Free time: An hour or so free in Stow before dinner

   Activity: About 2.5 hours on foot in all, on pavements. Arrive in Oxford by 10:30 am.

2. Day 2: Bourton, the Slaughters and back to Stow

   Stow to Bourton-on-the-Water by van, then on foot via Lower and Upper Slaughter and Lower Swell to Stow

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Stow-on-the-Wold
   Day 2 details

   A ten-minute drive puts us in Bourton-on-the-Water at about 9 am, when its low stone bridges over the River Windrush are still quiet; by late morning the day coaches fill it. From the village green we take the field path north beside the River Eye to Lower Slaughter, where the brick chimney of the old mill rises over a stream lined with honey-coloured cottages. A riverside path climbs gently to Upper Slaughter, smaller and quieter, with its manor and church above a ford. From there we head up over open wold on farm tracks to Lower Swell, where lunch is a sit-down pub meal. The last stretch climbs back to Stow and the hotel door by mid-afternoon. The rest of the day is free: the antique shops round the square, a cream tea, or a rest with your feet up.

   Included

   • Early morning in Bourton-on-the-Water
   • Guided walk via Lower Slaughter, Upper Slaughter and Lower Swell to Stow
   • Pub lunch in Lower Swell

   Easier option: Walk from Bourton to Lower and Upper Slaughter, about 5 km, and the van brings you to lunch in Lower Swell and back to Stow.

   More active option: Add a loop from Upper Slaughter past Eyford Park before Lower Swell, about 3 km more.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Stow

   Activity: About 10 km and 200 m of climb on field paths and tracks, 3.5 to 4 hours with stops.

   

3. Day 3: Down the Windrush valley

   Stow to Burford by van, on foot via Widford, Swinbrook and Asthall to Minster Lovell, then back to Stow

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Stow-on-the-Wold
   Day 3 details

   We drive about 25 minutes south-east to Burford, a wool town whose High Street runs steeply down to a medieval bridge over the Windrush. From the bridge we follow the river east on meadow paths, the flattest walk of the week. First comes St Oswald's at Widford, a tiny church standing alone in a field, then Swinbrook, where four of the Mitford sisters are buried in the churchyard of St Mary's. The path goes on through water meadows to Asthall, with its Jacobean manor beside the church, where we stop for a pub lunch. In the afternoon we walk the last stretch along the river to Minster Lovell and the roofless ruins of Minster Lovell Hall, a fifteenth-century manor beside the water, open to walk round. The van meets us there and takes us back to Stow, about 40 minutes, by late afternoon. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Burford High Street and bridge
   • Guided Windrush valley walk via Widford, Swinbrook and Asthall to Minster Lovell
   • Pub lunch in Asthall
   • Minster Lovell Hall ruins

   Easier option: Walk Burford to Swinbrook, about 4 km, then ride to lunch in Asthall and meet the group at Minster Lovell.

   More active option: Start with a loop up Burford's hill and along the ridge before dropping to the river, about 3 km more.

   Free time: Evening free in Stow

   Activity: About 10.5 km and under 100 m of climb on meadow paths, 3.5 to 4 hours with stops.

   

4. Day 4: The Cotswold Way to Stanton, on to Chipping Campden

   Stow to Winchcombe by van, on foot via Hailes Abbey and Stanway to Stanton, then by van to Chipping Campden

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Chipping Campden
   Day 4 details

   Our driver loads the bags and takes us about 35 minutes west to Winchcombe, a small town under the escarpment, while the luggage goes ahead to Chipping Campden. Here we join the Cotswold Way, the waymarked national trail that runs 102 miles along the edge of the hills from Chipping Campden to Bath. It leads out over fields to the ruins of Hailes Abbey, a Cistercian abbey founded in 1246, where we stop to walk round the cloister arches. Then the path climbs to the ramparts of Beckbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort with a wide view over the Vale of Evesham, before dropping through Wood Stanway and past the gatehouse of Stanway House to Stanton. Stanton is a single street of golden stone houses, and lunch is a late pub meal at the top of it. A short drive brings us to Chipping Campden by late afternoon for three nights, and dinner together.

   Included

   • Luggage moved by our driver from Stow to Chipping Campden
   • Guided Cotswold Way walk from Winchcombe to Stanton
   • Hailes Abbey entry
   • Pub lunch in Stanton
   • Dinner in Chipping Campden

   Easier option: Walk Winchcombe to Hailes Abbey, about 4 km and almost flat, then the van brings you to lunch in Stanton.

   More active option: Before the main walk, go out and back from Winchcombe up the Cotswold Way to Belas Knap long barrow, about 6 to 7 km more and 200 m of extra climb, rejoining the group at Hailes Abbey by van.

   Activity: About 10.5 km and 250 m of climb, 4 to 4.5 hours with the abbey stop.

   

5. Day 5: Hidcote's garden rooms

   Chipping Campden on foot via Hidcote Boyce to Hidcote, then back on foot or by van

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Chipping Campden
   Day 5 details

   Today is the gentlest of the week. We walk out of Chipping Campden after breakfast on field paths and a quiet lane through the hamlet of Hidcote Boyce to Hidcote, about 5 km, to reach the garden at its morning opening. Hidcote was laid out in the early twentieth century by Lawrence Johnston as a series of outdoor rooms divided by hedges, each with its own planting: the White Garden, the Red Borders, the Long Walk, the Pillar Garden. Allow two hours or more; the National Trust runs it and our entry is included. Lunch is at the garden's cafe. Afterwards the van takes anyone who wants to rest back to Chipping Campden, and the rest walk back with the guide by a different field path. The afternoon and evening are free in Chipping Campden: the arched Market Hall of 1627, the almshouses and the wool church of St James.

   Included

   • Guided walk from Chipping Campden to Hidcote
   • Hidcote garden entry
   • Lunch at the garden cafe
   • Guided walk back, or the van

   Easier option: Ride to Hidcote in the van and back after lunch, with no walking beyond the garden paths.

   More active option: Walk back via Ebrington and the ridge above Chipping Campden, about 7 km instead of 5.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Chipping Campden

   Activity: About 5 km out and 5 km back on field paths and lanes, 100 m of climb, plus about 2 hours on foot in the garden.

6. Day 6: Dover's Hill and Broadway Tower

   Chipping Campden on foot via Dover's Hill and Broadway Tower to Broadway, then back by van

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Chipping Campden
   Day 6 details

   We start at the stone marker on Chipping Campden's High Street where the Cotswold Way begins and walk its first miles. The path climbs to Dover's Hill, a grassy spur owned by the National Trust where the Cotswold Olimpicks have been held since the seventeenth century, with the Vale of Evesham spread out below. It then follows the top of the escarpment past farmland and woods to Broadway Tower, an eighteenth-century folly on Beacon Hill at about 312 m, where entry to the tower is included and the roof gives one of the widest views in the Cotswolds. From the tower the path drops steeply over fields into Broadway and its long green and High Street. Lunch is a pub meal in Broadway, then free time to look round before the van takes us back to Chipping Campden, about 15 minutes. Farewell dinner in Chipping Campden tonight.

   Included

   • Guided Cotswold Way walk from Chipping Campden over Dover's Hill to Broadway Tower and Broadway
   • Broadway Tower entry
   • Pub lunch in Broadway
   • Farewell dinner in Chipping Campden

   Easier option: Walk to Dover's Hill and back, about 5 km, then the van brings you to Broadway Tower and lunch.

   More active option: After lunch, walk on from Broadway to Snowshill, about 4 km more, and the van brings you back to Chipping Campden.

   Free time: Free time in Broadway after lunch

   Activity: About 9.5 km and roughly 250 m or more of climb (to be measured on the recce), with a steep descent from the tower, 3.5 to 4 hours with stops.

   

7. Day 7: The Rollright Stones and back to Oxford

   Chipping Campden to the Rollright Stones, then Oxford railway station

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   After breakfast we drive about 25 minutes east to the Rollright Stones, on the ridge between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. A short walk takes in all three parts: the King's Men, a ring of weathered limestone stones about 33 m across, put up around 4,500 years ago; the Whispering Knights, the remains of an older burial chamber; and the lone King Stone across the lane. The site is cared for by a small trust and is far quieter than Stonehenge; our guide tells the legend of the king turned to stone. Then about 50 minutes south through Chipping Norton to Oxford, arriving at the railway station around 1 pm; lunch is not included, and the guide suggests a cafe or pub near the station or in the centre. Trains to London Paddington take about an hour and coaches run to Heathrow and Gatwick. If you are flying home today, book a flight from Heathrow leaving after about 6 pm, or stay on in Oxford.

   Included

   • The Rollright Stones: the King's Men, the Whispering Knights and the King Stone
   • Drop-off at Oxford railway station

   Easier option: See the King's Men circle beside the lane and skip the walk to the Whispering Knights.

   Free time: Lunch on your own in Oxford; the guide suggests places near the station

   Activity: About 1 km on foot on grass. Book a Heathrow flight leaving after about 6 pm.

   

Wildlife and weather: April and May bring lambs in the fields and bluebells in the beech woods; June and July bring the gardens at their fullest and long light evenings; September and October bring harvest and autumn colour with fewer visitors. Rain can come in any month, so the guide may swap walks between days or shorten one, and paths turn muddy after wet spells.

• Stow-on-the-Wold3 nights
• Chipping Campden3 nights