The best quiet walks in the Cotswolds – by Judy Mills

Farmland footpath leading down to the River Windrush. © Adam Long

On a warm June day I set off from Bulls Cross, near Slad, the village best known as the home of Laurie Lee. Actually, I could have started with 'As I Walked out One Midsummer Morning' but my destination isn't Spain, just a nine-mile circular walk via the edge of Painswick and the village of Slad itself. Almost immediately I am amongst dozens, hundreds of wild flowers; butterfly and common spotted orchids, catchfly, yellow rattle, sainfoin and various bedstraws to name but a few. After passing a few homes; exchanging greetings with car-washing and gardening residents I drop across fields to the Painswick Brook. I do wonder if I have done right in bypassing Painswick village, but it's still there if anyone wants to go back and have a look.

I always say, on a walk or a run, if in two minds about a route, it's bound to be the steeper uphill path, and this walk follows that rule, especially the Juniper Hill climb – but it's worth it. Today I had remembered my flask and flapjack so time for a stop at the seat at the Slad War Memorial. Sort of appropriate since this was the eightieth anniversary of D-Day.

This walk, like many, passes numerous mills, mostly modernised beyond recognition. I have mixed feelings about taking homely cottages and historic mills and turning them into million-pound residences, far out of reach of the pockets of the folk whose ancestors made this landscape what it was. But I suppose it's better than letting them fall down altogether, taking with the rubble all traces of the thriving nineteenth century woollen industry. Mill leats and some of the machinery remain if you look for it.

Slad won't let you forget Mr Lee, and there is now a Laurie Lee Wildlife Way with ten strategically placed wooden ‘poetry posts’, some of which accidentally fall within this walk.

Any one of the routes in Day Walks in the Cotswolds has so much variety that if I was asked which is the best river walk, or the best forest walk – better to say woodland walk – I would find it hard to say. Almost every walk has hilly bits and not-so-hilly bits; patches of woodland; streams to cross or meander alongside; agricultural land and ancient commons. Humans have left their marks upon the landscape over thousands of years. The book includes at least three ex-military airstrips; countless churches, sometimes several on one walk; standing stones and bronze age long barrows. There are plenty of large estates and not-quite stately homes, not to mention villages built in golden Cotswold stone and even a couple of railway crossings. 

Uley Bury. © Adam Long

A week previously I had retraced my steps over Walk 19, ‘Owlpen and Hetty Pegler's Tump’ and I was relieved to find that after eight years the only changes to the route are the removal of a massive fallen tree, and replacement of a double stile with a metal kissing gate. Owlpen Manor is one of the most photogenic houses mentioned in the book and the church with its mosaics and stained glass is as individual and charming as ever, while surely, somewhere called Hetty Pegler's Tump just has to be explored? This walk finishes with an undulating mile of woodland along the Cotswold Way.

The nature of the book means that all the walks are circular with just a couple of out-and-back sections, being the safest way to visit the Rollright Stones and the aforementioned Tump. All of the walks are fairly quiet because I am not fond of crowds. There's a quick trek down Broadway main street, as well as the option to go into Bourton on the Water. In both villages I feel smugly superior to the coach parties and other tourists: 'actually, I walked here!'. Usually (except for the Crunchie Wing-Walkers based at Rencombe and a few aeroplanes from Kemble or Fairford) the noise comes from birdsong, and running water. There may be horse-riders, and others who are fortunate enough to live and work in the Cotswolds. It's rare to meet other walkers although where routes cross or follow the Cotswold Way National Trail, becoming increasingly popular with organised walking holidays, there are more, but still small, numbers of hikers from America and Germany, and I am proud to share this beautiful, compact area with them. Especially on Route 16 where they ask where I have come from and I can answer: 'oh, I live here.'

Coome Hill. © Adam Long

But, still on the theme of avoiding the popular tourist honeypots and the crowds, Cleeve Hill, the highest point of the Cotswolds is one of those places not included in this book, however there are amazing views west from Bredon Hill as well as other places where we touch the Cotswold Edge at Uley, North Nibley and Barrow Wake.

Talking of Barrow Wake, I must mention that the long-awaited A417 Missing Link improvements to the road system around Birdlip and Crickley Hill may mean detours and road closures. The scheme, due for completion in 2027, will include a number of safer road crossings. If you want to drive or walk that way, the National Highways website has current information for travellers.

Newington Farm, Newington Bagpath. © Adam Long

If I was asked to name the best quiet walk, it might be along the valley of the Dunt Stream with the Duntisbourne villages where I was delighted to find one of my favourite flowers; the tiny, green Moschatel or Town Hall Clock, Adoxa moschatellina. (I am a lover of the small and simple, and little gives me greater joy than a sparrow or a primrose.) In the south of the Cotswolds, the delightfully named Lasborough and Ozleworth Bottom sees little footfall. Here you may hear and feel a puzzling sound almost beneath your feet: the working of a modern hydraulic ram. Just off the path is an old now disused ram house, sadly on private property. It's no surprise that the church on the nearby hillside at Lasborough was used in the filming of Lark Rise to Candleford.

If rivers are more your thing, the Cotswolds are full of streams – well, there would have to be to drive all the mills. In the west, the water runs towards the Severn while water courses in the north east make their way Thames-ward. The Cotswolds Rivers Trust is a registered charity caring for and restoring those rivers which flow into the Thames so with their help, they will continue to be a priceless amenity, full of wildlife.

Anyway, a few weeks later and I am in the north east Cotswolds, as I want to see whether the rivers are as lovely as I remembered; specifically The Leach and the Windrush, both tributaries of the Thames. I love the poetry of the name 'Windrush' although more recent press coverage reminds us of the ship named after the river which in 1948 brought over 1,000 passengers to London from Jamaica.

A church of St John the Baptist, Great Rissington. © Adam Long

When I reach the banks of the Windrush, it isn't quite how I remember. The water is less clear, perhaps due to recent heavy rain, and there are only a few places where I am completely 'riverside', or can even see the water, perhaps because the summer vegetation is so lush.  However, there is a wonderful scent: it reminds me of lime trees but these are poplar. Other flowers as well – I grab at a head of meadowsweet but the scent is disappointing. Perhaps I can smell the acres of planted borage that I have just walked through on my way down from Great Rissington.

By contrast the River Leach, where it runs through the beautiful village of Eastleach, is clear and inviting, especially where it runs beneath Keble's Bridge. I was so tempted to go and start looking under stones for small fish and invertebrates, but decided to leave them in peace. Eastleach has two churches within a stone's throw of each other: at Eastleach Martin (St Michael and St Martin) a lady was just opening-up and the open door drew me in although I hadn't planned on stopping. I was pleased to see the damage caused by a lightning strike shortly after my first visit in 2016 had been repaired. The church is maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust while its neighbour at Eastleach Turville, St Andrews, is still in regular use. I wrote that 'it can be seen across the river' – but the trees have grown over the past eight years.

Meandering footpath through Charlton Abbots. © Adam Long

Country walking can lead you into places you might not expect to normally have access. There are footpaths across the Badminton estate and paths take you very close to Sudeley Castle, following the Windrush Way. This walk suggests leaving your car in quite a remote spot but it is the main parking place for visitors to Belas Knap; a restored neolithic, chambered long barrow, which followers of Route 14 can explore shortly before the downhill finish to the walk. From the start, the downhill stretch into the village of Winchcombe has views of the church of St Peter – worth a visit although not scheduled in to the walk. If you do go there, look for the Winchcombe Imp.

It only makes sense that the views, the flowers – and, let's be honest, the amount of mud! – change with the seasons and the weather, which is why it's worth going back and doing the walks again. Even do them in reverse if you are happy to follow the directions backwards. Each time will be different. Each time will be worth it.