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The shallow ford through the River Eye below the cottages of Upper Slaughter

Andrew Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters and Naunton

A 10-mile (16.4km) circular walk from Bourton-on-the-Water, four to five hours of moderate walking with stiles and steep slopes. It follows the Wardens' Way through Lower and Upper Slaughter to Naunton, then comes home down the Windrush valley on the Windrush Way.

Distance
16.4 km (10.2 mi)
Difficulty
Moderate
Time
5 hrs
Ascent
250 m
Circular
Circular

The route

Starts at The war memorial in Bourton-on-the-Water follows the Wardens' Way and Windrush Way for a while StilesSteep sectionRoad walking Download GPX

Map of Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters and Naunton: the route drawn around its start
© OpenStreetMap contributors

Elevation Highest 217 m, lowest 129 m, climb about 250 m

Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters and Naunton

Step by step

  1. The River Eye at the edge of Lower Slaughter, with a stone house across the grass

    Step 1: Bourton to Lower Slaughter

    From the war memorial, follow the Wardens' Way signs: with your back to the river, turn left along the road towards St Lawrence's Church. Go right through the metal church gates and along a tarmac path for 400m to a major road. Turn left and follow it for 400m to the traffic lights. Cross the A429 Fosse Way and turn right along the pavement. After 200m, turn left through a pedestrian gate and follow the footpath to the road in Lower Slaughter.

  2. A mown path across a meadow between Lower and Upper Slaughter

    Step 2: Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter

    Turn left and follow the path beside the river. Cross the road at the junction and, keeping the river on your left, go on round the bend to the mill. Turn left straight after the mill and follow the path for half a mile through a series of gates and over a footbridge, up to the road. Turn left along the road to the village square in Upper Slaughter.

  3. The River Eye pooling among trees in its wooded valley above Upper Slaughter

    Step 3: Upper Slaughter to the B4068

    In the square, turn right towards the ford, and 50m before it turn left along the track by the School House and the church. Follow the track for three quarters of a mile through three gates and the woods to the B4068. Turn left along this busy road for 400m, watching for traffic from both directions.

  4. A path over open pasture with the Windrush valley falling away to Naunton

    Step 4: Over the hill to Naunton

    Turn right along the left-hand of two bridleways, past a row of cottages on your left, and climb for three quarters of a mile through three field gates to some farm buildings. Follow the track left past the buildings to a field gate at the road. Cross, go through the gate in the hedge opposite, turn right straight away and follow the field edge for half a mile through several gates to a track. Turn sharp left and follow the track downhill, keeping straight on into the woods where it bears left to the farm. Go downhill, then briefly uphill to the fields, across two fields through gaps in the hedge, and in the third field diagonally right downhill into the woods. Leave the woods through a gate and cross a field and two more gates to a lane. Turn left into Naunton, and after 100m turn right at the T-junction.

  5. Naunton's tall gabled stone dovecote standing in a green field

    Step 5: Naunton to the Windrush Way

    Follow the road through the village for 300m and take the first left, down past the dovecote. Cross the river bridge and go through the field gate, leaving the Wardens' Way, and follow the path uphill with the field boundary on your left to a field gate onto the road. Cross, with the golf course on your right, and follow the track to another field gate. Go on downhill, bearing slightly left, to a bridge over the stream.

  6. Rough grassland on the slopes of the upper Windrush valley under a grey sky

    Step 6: Down the Windrush valley

    Join the Windrush Way through the gate on your left and follow the valley bottom with the stream on your left, through two fields, over a stile and through a field gate. At the end of the third field, bear right up a slope to a gate and a lane; turn left and walk 100m downhill. Turn right over a stile, cross a large field and another stile to a field with the stream on your left, and go through two fields with stiles and gates. In the third, leave the stream and climb diagonally across the slope into the wood. At the top of the hill turn sharp right through a field gate and follow the left-hand field edge to another gate and back into the woods.

    • Stiles
  7. The long stone front of Little Aston Mill with its arched doorway

    Step 7: Little Aston Mill and back to Bourton

    Follow the path through the woods for half a mile, then turn right by a marker post to a field boundary and turn left along it. Follow the signs through two gates to a track, and turn right down the track to the road. Turn left, follow the road downhill, over the bridge and uphill past Little Aston Mill, then take the path as it bears right into the woods. Follow the edge of the woods through a gate into a field, and the right-hand field edge through two gates down to the main road. Cross the A429 Fosse Way with care and walk down Lansdowne with the river on your right. After 200m turn right down an alleyway, cross the bridge over the river and follow the bank with the river on your left, through two gates to an alleyway between houses. At the road turn left, and the war memorial is 150m ahead.

Sights on the way

The sights this walk passes, numbered as on the map.

  1. A Georgian church tower topped by a lead dome rising above a long clipped hedge

    St Lawrence's Church, Bourton-on-the-Water

    Sight · Church · Bourton-on-the-Water

    St Lawrence's is Bourton-on-the-Water's parish church on the High Street: a chancel of 1328, a Georgian tower of 1784 under a lead dome and a nave taken back to the Gothic style in 1891. Grade II*, open daily from about 10am to 4pm, step-free and dog friendly.

  2. A stone church with a slender spire framed by trees beyond a churchyard path

    St Mary's Church, Lower Slaughter

    Sight · Church · Lower Slaughter

    Lower Slaughter's church, almost entirely rebuilt in 1867 for the Whitmore family, lords of the manor, but keeping a north arcade of around 1200, with a broad spire behind a pierced parapet. Grade II*; open, with a ramp.

  3. A brick mill chimney and stone cottages reflected in a still river at golden hour

    The Old Mill, Lower Slaughter

    Sight · Historic building · Lower Slaughter

    The red-brick mill with its tall chimney and iron water wheel at the top of Lower Slaughter, on the River Eye: early nineteenth century, on a site milled since at least 1502. Grade II. The museum and shop closed in 2023, when the mill was sold; check before visiting.

  4. Upper Slaughter castle mound

    Sight · Castle or ruin · Upper Slaughter

    The motte of a small Norman castle in the middle of Upper Slaughter, on a low hill in a bend of the River Eye below St Peter's church: a flat-topped mound about 22m across, its ditch and bailey still traceable. A scheduled monument, seen from the lanes.

  5. The gabled stone front of an Elizabethan manor house between clipped hedges

    Manor House, Upper Slaughter

    Sight · Historic building · Upper Slaughter

    Upper Slaughter's Elizabethan manor house, Grade I, home of the Slaughter family until 1741: gabled Cotswold stone over a fifteenth-century vaulted basement, with a two-storey porch of the early seventeenth century covered in fretwork. A private house, seen from the lane.

  6. A stone church with a pinnacled tower at the end of a sunken path between grassy banks

    St Peter's Church, Upper Slaughter

    Sight · Church · Upper Slaughter

    Upper Slaughter's church, above the ford over the River Eye: a twelfth-century nave, a tower built from reused Norman stone, and the mortuary chapel of the diarist Francis Witts, rector here for 46 years. Grade II*; open every day.

  7. Naunton's tall gabled stone dovecote standing in a green field

    Naunton dovecote

    Sight · Historic building · Naunton

    Naunton's dovecote is a square stone pigeon house of the sixteenth century or earlier, with a gable on each face, a lantern on top and its nesting boxes still inside. Listed Grade II*, it is looked after by a charity, the Naunton Dovecote Trust.

  8. A stone slab clapper bridge beside the ford through the Windrush at Lower Harford

    Clapper bridge, Lower Harford

    Sight · Bridge · Naunton

    The clapper bridge at Lower Harford Farm near Naunton is a low bridge of limestone blocks laid flat on stone piers across the Windrush, of the eighteenth century or earlier: a rare survival here of a kind of bridge more often found in upland country. Grade II.

  9. The grassy field of the deserted village of Lower Harford, with the farm on the hillside

    Lower Harford deserted village

    Sight · Monument · Naunton

    Lower Harford is a lost medieval village by the River Windrush near Naunton: house platforms beside a hollow way, terraces and water channels in a field. Seven people were recorded here in 1086 and two in 1327, and by 1341 it was largely deserted. A scheduled monument.

  10. A stone memorial cross with poppy wreaths on a green beside stone houses and willows

    Bourton-on-the-Water war memorial

    Sight · Monument · Bourton-on-the-Water

    Bourton-on-the-Water's war memorial is a tall stone cross of 1920 on the green beside the Windrush, raised by the village for its 27 men who died in the First World War, with 12 names added after the Second. Listed Grade II; open at all times.

  11. A narrow stone footbridge across the Windrush with people sitting on the green beside it

    Narrow Bridge, Bourton-on-the-Water

    Sight · Bridge · Bourton-on-the-Water

    Narrow Bridge is the oldest dated of the low stone footbridges over the Windrush in Bourton-on-the-Water, built in 1756 with three rusticated arches and low parapets. Listed Grade II with three of its neighbours, it is crossed free at any time.

The walk in detail

The Bourton-on-the-Water, Slaughters and Naunton walk is a 10.2-mile (16.4km) circular route from the war memorial in Bourton-on-the-Water. Allow four to five hours for 250m of ups and downs, stiles and possibly steep slopes. It passes the mill at Lower Slaughter and the ford at Upper Slaughter, with pubs in Lower Slaughter and Naunton.

It is Walk 4 in the Cotswolds National Landscape's series of circular walks on the Wardens' Way and the Windrush Way. Those two paths between Bourton and Winchcombe make a loop, and this walk follows the Wardens' Way west through the Slaughters to Naunton and the Windrush Way home. The National Landscape grades it for moderate fitness, and the leaflet was last checked by its authors in June 2021.

Bourton and the Fosse Way

The first mile takes you out of Bourton by its church and across the Fosse Way. You set off from the war memorial on the green by the Windrush, a stone cross unveiled in 1920 that commemorates 27 local people who died in the First World War, with the names of 12 men from the Second added later. The Wardens' Way leaves through the gates of St Lawrence's, a church listed Grade II* that kept its fourteenth-century chancel when it was rebuilt in 1784, with a tower of that year topped by a lead dome.

A tarmac path and 400m of road bring you to the traffic lights on the A429, the Fosse Way, and a footpath on the far side leads across the fields to Lower Slaughter.

Lower Slaughter and the mill

In Lower Slaughter the walk follows the River Eye through the village to the mill. The Eye is a short stream that flows on to join the Dikler, crossed in the village by simple stone bridges. The mill is early nineteenth century, of red brick and rubble with a tall brick chimney and a large iron wheel on its south gable, and is listed with its sluice bridge; a mill is recorded here in 1502. Its museum, shop and café closed in 2023 when the family who had run it since at least 1879 sold it. A coffee kiosk at the entrance has opened from April to October, but check before you count on it.

Behind the mill the Wardens' Way takes the footpath upstream for half a mile, through gates and over a footbridge. Walkers on AllTrails report this riverside path muddy after rain and through the winter, and sheep with lambs in the fields in spring, so keep dogs on a lead there. That stretch is also our short walk from Lower to Upper Slaughter.

Upper Slaughter

The walk only touches Upper Slaughter, turning off just before the ford. The village sits on the shoulder of the valley above the Eye, which the road crosses by that ford, with a footbridge for walkers. By the turn are the School House and St Peter's church, listed Grade II*, with a twelfth-century nave and a fourteenth-century tower. Francis Edward Witts, the rector from 1808 to 1854, kept the diaries later published as The Diary of a Cotswold Parson. The manor house, of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century and listed Grade I, is private.

Lords of the Manor, the house that passed to Witts in 1808, has been a country house hotel since 1972 and stands in eight acres of lawns and gardens. Upper Slaughter is also a doubly thankful village: all 25 who went to the First World War (24 men and one woman) and all 36 who went to the Second came home.

The shallow ford across the River Eye at Upper Slaughter with houses beyond
The ford at Upper Slaughter Photo: Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Over the hill to Naunton

The walk's longest climb comes between Upper Slaughter and Naunton. A track through woods brings you to the B4068 for 400m of busy road, then a bridleway climbs for three quarters of a mile through field gates to farm buildings on the top. Field edges and a track lead down through woods and fields to Naunton.

The Black Horse, a Donnington Brewery pub, is a short way left of the route at the T-junction in the village; our story on Cotswold pubs and their breweries has more on Donnington. The walk itself turns right and goes down past the dovecote, a square sixteenth-century building with a gable on each face and a small lantern, listed Grade II* and looked after by the Naunton Dovecote Trust.

Home down the Windrush valley

The second half of the walk follows the Windrush Way down the valley back to Bourton. From Naunton the leaflet's link climbs past the golf course and drops to a stone bridge, where you join the Windrush Way. It follows the valley bottom with the stream beside you, past Lower Harford, the site of a deserted medieval village, then climbs into woods above the river. Past Little Aston Mill the path runs along a wood edge and down to the Fosse Way, and Lansdowne and the riverside bring you back to the war memorial.

If you want a shorter taste of this stretch, the 3-mile Harford Bridge walk covers the valley floor at Lower Harford without stiles.

Food and drink on the way

There are two places to stop on the way, both named by the leaflet: the Slaughters Country Inn in Lower Slaughter and the Black Horse in Naunton. The Slaughters Country Inn was bought and renamed by the Brownsword family in 2011 and runs an outdoor Field Kitchen from April to September. The Black Horse serves food, has a garden and welcomes dogs, CAMRA's survey records. Back in Bourton, the Willow is a Fuller's pub on the High Street with outside tables, and dogs and families are welcome.

Parking, buses and toilets

Park in Bourton, where the car parks charge, or come by bus. The council's Rissington Road car park is free before 10am and charged from 10am to 8pm. Pulhams' 801 bus runs about hourly every day to Bourton from Cheltenham, Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh station. We found no public toilets in either of the Slaughters; the nearest are in Bourton. To make a weekend of it, see our page on places to stay in Bourton-on-the-Water.

Paths, stiles and roads

All the stiles are on the Windrush Way half, between Naunton and Bourton. The leaflet has you over a stile in the valley bottom, over two more on either side of a large field, and through two fields with stiles and gates. The rest of the way is field gates, pedestrian gates and footbridges. The main climbs are the bridleway up from the B4068 and the slope into the wood above the Windrush.

Take care on the roads. The walk follows the B4068 for 400m, where the leaflet warns of traffic from both directions, and crosses the A429 Fosse Way twice, once at the traffic lights and once on the way home. The leaflet gives no rules for dogs, so keep them close on the roads and among the stiles.

Other walks in the series

This is the last of four circular walks on the two trails. The Guiting Power and Naunton circular is 6.3 miles, and from Bourton itself the 4-mile walk to Wyck Rissington has no stiles at all. For the Slaughters without Naunton, Bourton, Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter is a 6-mile loop.

Places on the way

  • The Slaughters Country Inn across the River Eye in Lower Slaughter

    The Slaughters Country Inn

    Inn · Lower Slaughter

    An inn in Lower Slaughter, bought and renamed by the Brownsword family in 2011, with dog rooms and a Field Kitchen from April to September.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • The honey-stone front of Lords of the Manor with garden tables on the lawn

    Lords of the Manor

    Hotel · Upper Slaughter

    A country house hotel with 25 bedrooms in eight acres of grounds in Upper Slaughter, in a house it dates to 1649, with dogs welcome.

    Dog-friendly · EV charging · Wedding venues

    Verified Oct 2026

  • The Slaughters Manor House beyond a wide lawn and magnolias in flower

    The Slaughters Manor House

    Hotel · Lower Slaughter

    A 17th-century manor house hotel with 19 bedrooms on Copsehill Road, Lower Slaughter, home of the Whitmore family until 1964, with dog rooms booked by phone.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Wedding venues

    Verified Oct 2026

  • The Willow lit up at dusk across the River Windrush in Bourton-on-the-Water

    The Willow

    Pubs · Bourton-on-the-Water

    A Fuller's pub on the High Street in Bourton-on-the-Water, open from 10am, with a garden and outside seating, food all day, and dogs and families welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • A restaurant with plank-clad walls, wooden tables and big windows

    The Croft

    Cafes and tearooms · Bourton-on-the-Water

    A café and restaurant on Riverside in Bourton-on-the-Water, by the Windrush, serving breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea daily and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The stone front of The Old New Inn, Bourton-on-the-Water, with parasols on the terrace

    The Old New Inn

    Pubs · Bourton-on-the-Water

    A Grade II listed eighteenth-century inn in Bourton-on-the-Water with nine rooms, classic British food, a beer garden and the Model Village in its grounds.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

Stay near the start

Inns, cottages and hotels within a short drive of where the walk begins, so you can set off early.

Where to stay in Bourton-on-the-Water
  • The Dial House, a stone house with a walled front garden, under a blue sky

    The Dial House

    Hotel · Bourton-on-the-Water

    A hotel with 13 rooms on Bourton-on-the-Water's High Street, five of them designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, with a restaurant, a garden and parking for guests.

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The stone Old Manse Hotel beside the River Windrush with tables outside

    Old Manse Hotel

    Inn · Bourton-on-the-Water

    A Cotswold-stone inn of 1748 on Victoria Street, Bourton-on-the-Water, with 15 rooms, three of them for dogs, and pub food all day, run by Greene King Inns.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A bedroom with a grey headboard, patterned cushions and wall lamps

    Chester House Hotel

    Hotel · Bourton-on-the-Water

    A family-owned hotel with 22 rooms on Victoria Street, Bourton-on-the-Water, with L'Anatra Italian Kitchen, a walled garden, a car park and rooms for small dogs.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

Questions about Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters and Naunton

How long does the walk from Bourton to the Slaughters and Naunton take?

The Bourton, Slaughters and Naunton walk takes four to five hours for its 10.2 miles (16.4km), with 250m of climbing and descent.

Where does the Slaughters and Naunton walk start, and where do you park?

The Bourton, Slaughters and Naunton walk starts at the war memorial in Bourton-on-the-Water. Park in Bourton, where the car parks charge; the council's Rissington Road car park is free before 10am. We found no public car park in either of the Slaughters.

Can you take a dog on the Slaughters and Naunton walk?

The leaflet for the Bourton, Slaughters and Naunton walk gives no dog rules, and there are stiles on the Windrush Way half and 400m of the B4068. Walkers on AllTrails report sheep with lambs in the riverside fields between the Slaughters in spring, so keep dogs on a lead there. The Black Horse in Naunton and the Willow in Bourton both welcome dogs.

Where can you stop for lunch between Bourton and Naunton?

The leaflet for the Bourton, Slaughters and Naunton walk names the Slaughters Country Inn in Lower Slaughter and the Black Horse in Naunton, a short way off the route, as well as many places in Bourton.

Are there stiles on the Slaughters and Naunton walk?

Yes, on the Windrush Way between Naunton and Bourton, as well as many field and pedestrian gates. The Wardens' Way half of the Bourton, Slaughters and Naunton walk has gates.

More like this

More walks to try

All walks
  • The Old Mill and cottages reflected in the River Eye at Lower Slaughter

    Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter

    Walk · Starts in Lower Slaughter · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A 2-mile (3.1km) there-and-back from Lower Slaughter, easy and almost level, in 45 minutes to an hour: on the Wardens' Way from Lower Slaughter's mill up the River Eye through riverside fields to Upper Slaughter's ford, church and manor, and back the same way.

  • A grassy track in the steep-sided Windrush valley near Naunton under a blue sky

    Harford Bridge and Naunton

    Walk · Starts in Naunton · 1 hr, 15 mins · Circular

    A 3-mile (4.8km) circular walk from Harford Bridge near Naunton, easy, stile-free and about an hour and a quarter: past the earthworks of the lost village of Lower Harford, along the Windrush Way, then into Naunton by its church, its rector's bridge and the Black Horse.

  • A track running down into the Windrush valley towards Naunton and its church tower

    Guiting Power and Naunton

    Walk · Starts in Guiting Power · 3 hrs, 30 mins · Circular

    A 6.3-mile (10.1km) circular walk from Guiting Power's green, moderate and three to three and a half hours with two stiles: south on the Windrush Way round Gazeley Wood past Aylworth, up by the golf course above Naunton, and home on the Wardens' Way.

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