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A copper beech in autumn beside a stone house on the edge of a common

Carroll Pierce, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Amberley

A village of cottages on the western edge of Minchinhampton Common, looking down over the Nailsworth valley, with the Black Horse and the Amberley Inn, a community shop and café at the church, and the common's cattle at the door.

Nearest station
Stroud, about 3 miles; the 620 bus stops at Tom Long's Post, a mile away, six or seven times a day, Monday to Saturday
Parking
Small car parks by the common roads, open dawn to dusk, the National Trust says; not on the grass. The Black Horse has none, so park towards the main road
Best time
Spring for cowslips, summer evenings at the Black Horse, winter for earthworks
Toilets
None in Amberley; the nearest public toilets are in Bell Lane, Minchinhampton, opposite the church
Dogs
Welcome at the Black Horse and the café, and the Amberley Inn takes dogs to stay; the National Trust asks for a short lead near cattle and from March to August

About Amberley

Amberley is a village of cottages built along the western edge of Minchinhampton Common in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, 2 miles (3km) from Minchinhampton and looking down over the Woodchester and Nailsworth valleys. Two inns, a church built with a school in its undercroft and a community shop are what there is, and the common's turf runs up to the doors.

What to see

The common is the sight. The National Trust has owned it since 1913, local commoners still graze their cattle on it in summer, and Historic England schedules most of it as one multi-period monument: the Bulwarks, a Late Iron Age bank and ditch, a second Iron Age bank near Amberley, the medieval enclosure called Amberley Camp, a rabbit warren of pillow mounds and 22 Second World War anti-glider trenches. The long barrow of Whitfield's Tump nearby is scheduled on its own. Low light shows the earthworks best. The grassland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the Trust lists cowslips, in March and April, and early purple orchids among its spring flowers.

Holy Trinity was built in 1836 by Robert Stokes for David Ricardo, the MP at Gatcombe Park, in a plain Early English style with a school in its undercroft, and the Victoria County History says the name Amberley spread to the whole settlement from the church and school. It is listed Grade II, its chancel glass probably by Henry Payne. The Amberley Inn, recorded from 1855, stands on Culver Hill above the Woodchester valley, and the Black Horse is at Littleworth on the common's edge, with the valley below its garden.

A black cow grazing on the common above cottages, with a wide valley beyond
Cattle on the common above Amberley Photo: Carroll Pierce, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An afternoon here

Leave the car in one of the small car parks by the common roads and walk the western edge, where the ground falls away to the valleys and the Bulwarks run across the turf behind you. Drop into the village for the church and the shop and café there, which opens from 8am to 4pm every day, with a shorter Sunday, and welcomes dogs. Then the Black Horse: its west-facing terraced garden looks down the valley, and CAMRA's survey mentions the sunsets.

The common at dawn with mist lying in the valley beyond the trees
Morning mist below the common Photo: Carroll Pierce, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Watch the cattle. They wander across the open roads on the commons, and after several cows died in 2026, one hit by a car near the Bear on Rodborough Common, the parish council said in September that road safety was under review, so drive slowly and expect animals on the tarmac.

Walks

Our Minchinhampton Common and Amberley walk is a 5-mile (8km) stile-free circuit from the Market House in Minchinhampton: across the common beside the Bulwarks, past the Old Lodge to Amberley and its war memorial, down through Houndscroft to the Bear and Winstone's ice cream factory, and back by the lanes of Burleigh. The short loop round Rodborough Common and the fort crosses the same grassland to the north, and the walk round Woodchester Park, in the valley below, passes an unfinished Victorian mansion and a boathouse. The Cotswolds with a dog has more on walking among cattle.

Food and drink

The Black Horse at Littleworth has changing real ales, which CAMRA's survey says usually come from Gloucester and Stroud brewers, over 70 whiskies, a small restaurant with a wood burner, a snug and a conservatory with the view. Its own website gives the hours as midday to 10pm from Monday to Saturday and until 8pm on Sunday, with food from noon to 2.45pm and 6pm to 8.45pm, and on Sunday from noon to 3.45pm, with no roasts after 2pm. It has no car park.

The Amberley Inn is a refurbished inn with 13 en-suite rooms, a bar and a cottage garden, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, with dinner from 6pm to 9.15pm from Monday to Saturday and to 8pm on Sunday. Amberley Shop and Café, run by volunteers at Holy Trinity church, does the daytime, and Salt House Bakery sells from its forecourt on Tuesdays from 10.30 to 11.30am. On the common are the Old Lodge and the Bear of Rodborough, both with rooms. Our guide to Nailsworth has the rest.

When to come

Spring for the cowslips and early purple orchids, summer evenings for the garden at the Black Horse, and a clear winter afternoon for the earthworks, when the low sun picks out the Bulwarks and the pillow mounds. The commoners' cattle graze the common in summer, and the National Trust asks for dogs on a short lead near them and from March to August, while birds nest on the ground. Nailsworth's cafés are under ten minutes' drive down the hill when the weather turns.

A field and a footpath sign above a valley of trees and houses
From the footpath below Amberley Photo: Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Last verified 28 October 2026 by our editors

A deep green valley of houses, mills and trees seen from a grassy hillside

Part of

Stroud and the Five Valleys

The steep valleys that meet at Stroud: old cloth-mill country, with Painswick's churchyard of yews, Nailsworth's mills and the commons above Minchinhampton.

  • A stone cross on stepped plinth on a green, beside a stone house
  • A narrow lane between stone walls dropping towards a green valley
  • A white signpost on the open common beside a road
  • A single hawthorn on an open, grassy common under a grey sky
  • A stone pub beside a lawn with picnic benches on a sunny day

Things to do in Amberley

See all
A large stone mill with a tall chimney in a wooded valley

Museums and galleries · Nailsworth

Dunkirk Mill Museum

The Stroudwater Textile Trust's working mill museum near Nailsworth, where an 1855 waterwheel drives cloth-finishing machinery. Closed until spring 2027; normally open on set afternoons from April to September.

  • Rows of vines on the green slopes of a wooded Stroud valley

    Woodchester Valley Vineyard

    Tours and experiences · Nailsworth

    A vineyard and winery in the Woodchester valley near Stroud and Nailsworth, with booked tours and tastings and a cellar door shop on the A46 open seven days a week.

    Verified Nov 2026

  • Drinkers at barrel tables outside Stroud Brewery's grey-clad taproom, its folding doors open and hung with greenery

    Stroud Brewery

    Breweries and distilleries · Stroud

    An organic brewery and taproom beside the Thames and Severn Canal at Thrupp, Stroud, founded in 2006, with wood-fired pizza, monthly brewery tours and tasting sessions.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A weaver's hands working blue cloth on a handloom

    Gigg Mill Weaving Shed, Nailsworth

    Historic houses and heritage · Nailsworth

    The Stroudwater Textile Trust's weaving shed on the Old Bristol Road at Nailsworth, where guides work hand-looms and a power loom and you can try weaving.

    Family-friendly · Rainy days

    Verified Nov 2026

Where to stay in Amberley

See all
  • The stone front of the Amberley Inn at sunset

    The Amberley Inn

    Inn · Nailsworth

    An inn with 13 en-suite rooms on the hillside above the Woodchester valley at Amberley, near Nailsworth and Stroud, which describes itself as a restored 16th-century inn.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A plated dish with wine glasses on a dark table beside an open book

    The Old Lodge

    Inn · Nailsworth

    An inn with six rooms on Minchinhampton Common, about two miles by road from Nailsworth, breakfast included and food all day.

    Walker-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The garden of the Bear of Rodborough, with deckchairs and tables before the stone hotel

    The Bear of Rodborough

    Hotel · Stroud

    A seventeenth-century former coaching inn on the National Trust's Rodborough Common above Stroud, now a hotel in the Cotswold Inns and Hotels group, with dogs welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · Wedding venues

    Verified Oct 2026

Holiday cottages in and around Amberley

Where to eat and drink in Amberley

See all
  • A pub terrace with picnic tables looking out over a green valley

    The Black Horse, Amberley

    Pubs · Amberley

    A traditional pub at Littleworth on the edge of Minchinhampton Common, with a conservatory looking across the valley, over 70 whiskies and food every day; children, dogs and muddy boots welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

Walks in and around Amberley

All walks starting here
  • Open limestone grassland on Rodborough Common sloping down to trees under a spring sky

    Rodborough Common and the fort

    Walk · Starts in Stroud and the Five Valleys · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A 2-mile (3.4km) circular walk on Rodborough Common above Stroud, easy, nearly level and about 45 minutes: up to the battlemented folly of Rodborough Fort, down the open western edge, and back past the Bear and an ice-cream stop. Grassy, and grazed by cattle.

  • A small white-walled boathouse at the edge of a still, tree-fringed pond reflecting its walls

    Woodchester Park and the boathouse

    Walk · Starts in Nailsworth · 2 hrs · Circular

    A 3.75-mile (6km) circular walk without stiles from the National Trust car park at Woodchester Park, moderate and about two hours: down past the unfinished Victorian mansion, along the valley to Middle Pond, back by the boathouse on Old Pond and steadily up through the woods.

Sights in and around Amberley

All sights

  • Whitfield's Tump, Minchinhampton Common

    Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Minchinhampton

    Whitfield's Tump is a Neolithic long barrow on Minchinhampton Common, a low mound 26m long where early farmers buried their dead, named from the tradition that the preacher George Whitefield spoke from it in 1743. A scheduled monument on free National Trust land.

  • A large stone church with a truncated tower and pinnacles above a churchyard

    Holy Trinity Church, Minchinhampton

    Sight · Church · Minchinhampton

    Holy Trinity is Minchinhampton's Grade I parish church, known for its fourteenth-century tower whose spire was cut short in 1563 and crowned with a stone coronet, a south transept lit by a great rose window, and the grave of the astronomer James Bradley.

  • A green valley with a town on the far slope seen from a grassy common

    Rodborough Common

    Sight · Common or park · Stroud and the Five Valleys

    Open limestone grassland on the hill between Stroud and the Golden Valley, owned by the National Trust, known for rare pasqueflowers in spring, early purple orchids in May and over 30 kinds of butterfly, grazed by commoners’ cattle, with Rodborough Fort on its brow.

History of Amberley

Amberley grew from cottages built on the margin of the common in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and took its name from the church and school of 1836. The Amberley Inn is recorded from 1855. The common itself is older than any record: the Victoria County History describes more than 500 acres that escaped inclosure, where the tenants of the manor grazed their animals, and a lawsuit over their rights was fought as early as 1620. A tradition says Alice Hampton, who died in 1515, gave the common to the people of the town; the historians think it a useful fiction. The golf club was formed in 1889.

In 1913, after quarrying had alarmed the town, H. G. Ricardo, the lord of the manor, sold his rights in the common to the National Trust. Tom Long's Post, where the Tetbury and Cirencester roads meet, is said to mark the grave of a suicide buried at the crossroads; it is a story, not a record. In the Second World War 22 anti-glider trenches were cut across the open ground.

Questions about Amberley

Is Amberley on Minchinhampton Common?

Yes, on its western edge. The village grew from cottages built on the margin of the common in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the National Trust's grassland, with its Iron Age Bulwarks and grazing cattle, runs up to the houses.

Does the Black Horse at Amberley have parking?

No. The Black Horse at Littleworth has no car park; there are a few spaces round a small grass triangle outside, and CAMRA's survey suggests parking back towards the main road and walking. Approach by the road across the common rather than the narrow Culver Hill.

Is the Amberley Inn dog friendly?

Yes. The Amberley Inn says dogs are welcome to stay; ask which of its 13 bedrooms take them when you book. The Black Horse down the road and the community café at the church welcome dogs too. On the common, the National Trust asks for dogs on a short lead near the cattle and from March to August, when birds nest on the ground.

Can you walk from Amberley to Minchinhampton?

Yes, across the common. Our Minchinhampton Common and Amberley walk is a 5-mile stile-free circuit between the two that passes the Bulwarks, the Old Lodge, the Bear of Rodborough and Winstone's ice cream factory; the direct way from Amberley to the Market House is about 2 miles over the grass.

Are there cows on Minchinhampton Common?

Yes, in summer: local commoners graze their cattle on the commons, and the animals wander across the open roads. After several cows died in 2026, one hit by a car near the Bear on Rodborough Common, the parish council said in September that road safety was under review, so drive slowly, and keep dogs on a short lead near the herd.

Getting to Amberley

By car
From Stroud by the A46 to Woodchester and up Culver Hill, or across the common from Minchinhampton or the A419 at Brimscombe. Cattle wander on the common roads; drive slowly.
By bus
The 620 (Stagecoach West, Stroud to Bath) stops at Tom Long's Post six or seven times a day, Monday to Saturday, a mile across the grass; one journey each way also stops in Amberley, by Moor Court.
By train
Stroud, on the line from London Paddington, is 3 miles away; the Amberley Inn will arrange a taxi from the station.
Parking
There are small car parks beside the roads across the common, which the National Trust says are open from dawn to dusk; do not park on the grass. The Black Horse has no car park.

Access

The common is open grass with no made paths; CAMRA's survey notes a small step at the Black Horse's garden gate and another at the door, and the gents' toilets in a separate outdoor building

Distances from Amberley
Minchinhampton1.9 mi
Nailsworth2.2 mi
Stroud station3.1 mi
Painswick6.8 mi
Tetbury8.1 mi
Map of Amberley
© OpenStreetMap contributors

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