Chipping Campden and Dover's Hill

The Chipping Campden and Dover's Hill walk is a 4.5-mile (7.2km) circular route from the Market Hall in Chipping Campden, up the Cotswold Way to the Olimpick hill. It takes two and a half to three and a half hours and is moderate, with steep steps in Lynches Wood. The Noel Arms is by the finish.

It is the first of the Cotswolds National Landscape's Cotswold Way Circular Walks. A shorter version of 3 miles (4.8km), which the leaflet calls easy, skips the wood and goes straight along the hilltop to the viewpoint in one and a half to two and a half hours.

The Market Hall and the start of the Cotswold Way

The walk starts at the Market Hall, beside the stone that marks the start of the Cotswold Way. Sir Baptist Hicks built the hall in 1627 to shelter traders, and its listing records it as a hall for selling dairy produce and poultry; the leaflet suggests a look up at its roof timbers before you set off. In the 1940s it was nearly sold to an American, the leaflet says, until people in the town raised the money to buy it and gave it to the National Trust. It is listed Grade I. The carved stone beside it marks the start and the end of the Cotswold Way, 102 miles (164km) from here to Bath.

The way out is Hoo Lane, which turns from a lane into an unmade track as it climbs to Kingcomb Lane. From there a footpath and a kissing gate bring you onto Dover's Hill, owned and managed by the National Trust.

Lynches Wood

Lynches Wood is the steep part of the full walk, and in May the leaflet says it has the area's finest show of bluebells. The route leaves the Cotswold Way and goes down the hillside into the wood. A boardwalk crosses the wettest part of the track. Near the bottom of the wood a long flight of steps climbs back up, and a wide grass track then runs along the side of the hill, past a small pond among trees, to the top.

Dover's Hill and the Olimpicks

Dover's Hill is the walk's high point, at 230m, and the home of the Cotswold Olimpick Games since 1612. The leaflet notes that its lower slopes show signs of Roman activity and are wooded with native trees such as sweet chestnut and larch. The stone topograph is at the top.

Robert Dover, a local lawyer, started the games here with the approval of King James, the leaflet says. They are held on the evening of the Friday after the spring bank holiday and end with a torchlight procession down into the town; in 2026 they fell on 29 May, and in 2027 they should fall on Friday 4 June, a date the organisers have still to confirm. The leaflet lists shin-kicking, morris dancing and tug-of-war, and in the past sword-fighting and horse racing, with a wooden castle, Dover Castle, built for the day and guns fired from it. The leaflet's own pages give both 1612 and 1622 for the first games; the Olimpicks' organisers give 1612.

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Food and drink

All the food and drink is in Campden, along the High Street near the start; the leaflet lists none on the hill. Bantam Tea Rooms is on the High Street; its own site gives no opening hours, so check before you go. The Noel Arms, a few steps from the Market Hall, is a Grade II listed inn with a restaurant and bar, and the Lygon Arms further along is a coaching inn that welcomes dogs.

Parking and getting there

The leaflet asks walkers to use the free parking in Back Ends, a few minutes from the start. There is also free parking along the High Street, and the National Trust's car park at Dover's Hill (GL55 6UW) charges non-members £1 an hour, £3 for half a day or £4 a day through the JustPark app; members park free. The leaflet gives the postcode GL55 6HB for the start; the National Landscape's route page gives GL55 6AJ for the Market Hall. Buses come from Broadway (Stagecoach's 1, and the Pulhams 606 from Monday to Saturday) and from Stratford-upon-Avon (Stagecoach's 1, 1A, 2 and 2A). There are public toilets in Sheep Street (50p). For a night in the town, see places to stay in Chipping Campden.

Paths, gates and dogs

There are no stiles; the National Landscape rates the walk stile free. Expect kissing gates, the boardwalk, the long flight of steps in Lynches Wood and muddy patches on the grass track along the side of the hill. Outside the town, the only stretch beside traffic is 100m along the lay-by on Kingcomb Lane, where you need to watch for traffic. The leaflet gives no rules for dogs, but the National Landscape's Walks on Wheels leaflet notes that Dover's Hill is grazed by sheep, so keep dogs close there. The National Landscape's Walks on Wheels leaflet for Dover's Hill describes a level grassy route of a quarter of a mile (0.4km) there and back from its car park to the topograph.

Longer walks from Campden

Campden is the start of longer and gentler walks as well as the Cotswold Way. The 9-mile walk from Campden to Blockley starts outside the Noel Arms and crosses the Northwick Estate, and the mostly level figure of eight from Broad Campden is 3.3 miles on field paths. The Cotswold Way goes on past Dover's Hill to Broadway, 6 miles from Campden, where the walk to Broadway Tower begins. Back in town, Court Barn on Church Street tells the story of C. R. Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft, which moved to Campden in 1902; our guide to the Arts and Crafts movement has more.