A grand tour on foot

The Cotswolds is famous for medieval churches and charming villages of stone, slate and thatch. This new edition is fully revised for 2025 and offers 3 circuits ranging from 4 to 8 days. The area has good rail links from London and the Midlands, and lots of welcoming pubs and B&Bs. The book explains the area's artistic and cultural history.

The Cotswolds is quintessentially English, with its rich cultural history, medieval 'wool' churches and charming domestic architecture of stone, slate and thatch. The book offers three options for walking in the heart of this wonderful area: a 94-mile (151-km) grand tour starting from Cheltenham, and two shorter circuits. These options cater for walkers who want to spend eight, six or four days.

The directions have been thoroughly revised for 2025 and the mapping improved for the second edition. The Cotswold area has good rail links from London, Oxford and Birmingham, and lots of welcoming pubs and B&Bs.

This guidebook contains all you need to plan and enjoy your trip:

• detailed route description, plus summaries with distance, terrain and food/drink stops
• 15 pages of large-scale mapping at 1:50,000
• planning information for transport and accommodation
• detail about Cotswold stone, sheep and wildlife
• the culture of the Cotswold region
• lavishly illustrated, with over 90 colour photographs
• rucksack-friendly format, printed on rainproof paper.

• The grand tour goes clockwise from Cheltenham, passing through the finest of the northern Cotswold villages of Winchcombe, Broadway, Chipping Campden, Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water. From Bourton, the grand tour continues through Northleach, Cirencester and Painswick to end at Cheltenham. However the Cheltenham circuit returns direct from Bourton via Guiting Power for a 58-mile (94-km) circuit, and the Winchcombe circuit is shorter still at 45 miles (72 km).