Mark Boston, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cotswold Way: Chipping Campden to Broadway
A 6-mile (9.6km) one-way walk on the first section of the Cotswold Way, from the Market Hall in Chipping Campden to Broadway, moderate and about three and a half hours: up to Dover's Hill, along the edge to Broadway Tower, then steeply down into the village.
- Distance
- 9.6 km (6.0 mi)
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time
- 3 hrs, 30 mins
- Ascent
- 173 m
- Circular
- One way
The route
Starts at The Market Hall, High Street, Chipping Campden follows the Cotswold Way for a while Steep sectionMuddy in winterLivestock in fieldsDogs on lead near sheepStilesRoad walking Download GPX
Step by step
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Step 1: Chipping Campden to Kingcomb Lane
Start at the Market Hall on the High Street, where a marker stone for the Cotswold Way is set beside the hall. Walk west along the High Street and Lower High Street, keeping ahead where the main road bends left into Sheep Street.
At the end, cross Park Road into Back Ends and after about 150m turn up Hoo Lane, climbing past the last houses. Go through the gate at the top and follow the field path uphill to Kingcomb Lane, about 1.3km from the start, and cross the lane with care.
- Steep section
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Step 2: Dover's Hill
Follow the path west along the field edge and through a kissing gate above the woods of Bold Gap and Lynches Wood, climbing gently on to the open grass of Dover's Hill.
Cross the stile and walk along the edge to the topograph, about 2.1km from the start, with the view west over the Vale of Evesham. Sheep graze the hill, so put dogs on leads.
Follow the edge south-west through a run of four gates by the National Trust car park and come out on Kingcomb Lane at its junction with Dyer's Lane. Follow the lane south-west for about 200m.
- Dogs on lead
- Stiles
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Step 3: Along the edge to Fish Hill
Leave the lane for the path south-west along the edge of Campden Wood. About 2.9km from the start, the Kiftsgate Stone stands a few metres from the path.
Cross the stile by Martin's Copse and the lane called the Narrows, and follow the acorn waymarks south-west along the top of the edge, over farmland past Tilborough Farm, crossing another stile about 4.8km from the start and Buckle Street, a quiet lane, soon after.
Go through the gate into the Fish Hill picnic place, about 5.5km from the start, where a viewpoint looks back over the vale.
Cross the A44, a fast main road, with great care, then follow the old Fish Hill road beside it for about 200m.
- Stiles
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Step 4: Fish Hill to Broadway Tower
Leave the road and follow the waymarks south beside the Limestone Trail, through a kissing gate by Broadway Quarry and a gate beyond it, into the Broadway Tower country park.
Pass the Cold War bunker and come out by Broadway Tower, about 7km from the start and, at about 300m, the highest point of the section.
- Café
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Step 5: Down into Broadway
Go through the kissing gate below the tower and head down the open slope towards Broadway. The descent drops about 200m in a little over 2km, steep at first and slippery when wet.
Pass through three field gates, each with a stile beside it, then a run of four kissing gates as the slope eases.
Go through the last gate on to the top of Broadway's High Street, about 8.9km from the start, and walk down past the milestone and the Lygon Arms to the Green and the war memorial, where the section ends.
- Steep section
- Muddy in winter
- Stiles
Sights on the way
The sights this walk passes, numbered as on the map.
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Market Hall, Chipping Campden
Sight · Historic building · Chipping Campden
The open arcade of 1627 in the middle of Chipping Campden's High Street, built by Sir Baptist Hicks as a sheltered market for butter, cheese and poultry, saved from sale to America in the 1940s and now the National Trust's. Grade I; the Cotswold Way starts beside it.
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Dover's Hill
Sight · Viewpoint · Chipping Campden
A National Trust hill on the Cotswold edge above Chipping Campden, about 230m up, with a topograph naming the view over the Vale of Evesham and a level path to it. Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpicks have been held here, on and off, since 1612.
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Kiftsgate Stone
Sight · Monument · Chipping Campden
A small holed standing stone on the Cotswold edge west of Chipping Campden, the meeting place of the hundred of Kiftsgate, where the proclamations of new monarchs were read up to William IV in 1830. A scheduled monument about 30m from the Cotswold Way.
The walk in detail
The Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to Broadway is a 6-mile (9.6km) one-way walk from the Market Hall in Chipping Campden to the Green in Broadway. It is moderate, climbs about 175m and takes about three and a half hours, with cafés at Broadway Tower near the end.
It is the first of the fifteen sections into which the National Trail divides the Cotswold Way, and the next section, Broadway to Wood Stanway, starts on the same green. The climbing comes in two pulls, up to Dover's Hill in the first 2km and up from Fish Hill to the tower. The steepest ground is the drop into Broadway at the end.
What the section is like
Most of it is high, open walking along the top of the escarpment, with the Vale of Evesham below on the right. The trail leaves Campden by Hoo Lane and climbs the fields to Dover's Hill, a National Trust spur about 230m up with a topograph that names the view. From there it follows the edge past the Kiftsgate Stone and across farmland to Fish Hill, where it crosses the A44, then climbs through the country park to the tower.
The last 2km are the hardest: a straight descent of about 200m over grass and through field gates, steep below the tower and greasy after rain. Walking it the other way, from Broadway, this is the first climb of the trail.
Dover's Hill, the Kiftsgate Stone and Broadway Tower
Three of the trail's best stories sit on this section. Robert Dover began his Cotswold Olimpick Games on Dover's Hill in 1612, and they are still held there every year on the Friday after the late May bank holiday (29 May in 2026; the 2027 date is still to be announced). Our loop from Campden to Dover's Hill comes back through Lynches Wood below the edge. The Kiftsgate Stone, a small holed standing stone, marks the meeting place, or moot, of the hundred of Kiftsgate, where proclamations of new monarchs were read up to William IV in 1830, according to its scheduling record.
Broadway Tower is the folly James Wyatt designed for the 6th Earl of Coventry, finished in 1798, where William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones later stayed. It has a museum, a red deer park, a Cold War bunker open for tours from April to October, and two cafés. Dogs are welcome on leads in the park but not in the museum, and the circuit from Broadway to the tower comes back down the same slope as the trail.
At the start, the Market Hall is the open arcade Sir Baptist Hicks built in the middle of Campden's High Street in 1627 as a market for butter, cheese and poultry. The National Trust owns it, and the trail's marker stone is set beside it.
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Where to eat and sleep in Campden and Broadway
Both ends have plenty of food and rooms. In Campden, the Bantam Tea Rooms are in the middle of the High Street (their own site gives no opening hours, so check before you go), and the Noel Arms and Cotswold House are a few steps from the start. Our page on places to stay in Chipping Campden has the rest.
In Broadway, the Lygon Arms on the High Street, which calls itself a historic coaching inn of the fourteenth century, welcomes dogs, and the Broadway Hotel faces the green where the section ends. More are on our page of places to stay in Broadway.
Getting back to Chipping Campden
The Pulhams 606 bus runs from Broadway back to Chipping Campden about every two hours, Monday to Saturday, from the stop by the Lygon Arms. There is no Sunday service, so on a Sunday book a taxi or walk back the way you came. For the train, Stagecoach 1, 1A, 2 and 2A buses link Campden with Moreton-in-Marsh station a few times a day; check the timetable, as each route runs only a few journeys a day.
If you drive, the Cotswolds National Landscape asks walkers to use the free parking in Back Ends in Campden rather than Market Square, which has 32 short-stay bays: the first 20 minutes free, then £1 for an hour or £2 for two, card or app only (Cotswold District Council, 2026). In Broadway the long-stay car parks at Milestone Ground and Shear House charge £4 for up to ten hours (Wychavon, 2026).
When to walk it
Any month: the National Trail says the Cotswold Way can be walked all year. Clear winter days give the longest views from Dover's Hill and the tower, though the descent into Broadway is muddy then. In May, Lynches Wood, just below Dover's Hill, has what the National Landscape's walk leaflet calls the area's finest show of bluebells. If you are meeting someone at Broadway Tower, its car park gates lock at 5.15pm.
Places on the way
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The Noel Arms Hotel
Inn · Chipping Campden
A Grade II listed inn with 27 rooms on Chipping Campden's High Street, with a restaurant, parking, accessible rooms and dogs by arrangement.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Cotswold House Hotel and Spa
Hotel · Chipping Campden
A Grade II listed Regency town house on Chipping Campden's Upper High Street, now a hotel and spa with the Hidcote restaurant.
Hot tubs · Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
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Bantam Tea Rooms
Cafes and tearooms · Chipping Campden
Tea rooms with rooms on the High Street in Chipping Campden, open every day from 9.30am to 5pm.
Verified Oct 2026
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Broadway Tower
Historic houses and heritage · Broadway
James Wyatt's folly of 1798 on Beacon Hill above Broadway, with a museum in the tower, a red deer park, two cafés and a Cold War nuclear bunker.
Family-friendly · Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Lygon Arms
Hotel · Broadway
A historic coaching inn on Broadway's High Street, first recorded in 1377, now a hotel with James Martin's Grill and Tavern, a spa with a pool, and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Wedding venues · EV charging
Verified Nov 2026
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The Broadway Hotel
Hotel · Broadway
A sixteenth-century inn on Broadway's green with 19 rooms and seven cottages, a brasserie with two AA Rosettes, and dogs staying free in some rooms when you book direct.
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 Chipping Campden-
The Lygon Arms, Chipping Campden
Inn · Chipping Campden
A coaching inn with ten rooms on Chipping Campden's High Street, with family rooms, bike storage, free parking at the rear and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Eight Bells Inn
Inn · Chipping Campden
A pub with six rooms on Church Street, Chipping Campden, serving lunch and dinner, on Church Street.
Verified Nov 2026
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The Seagrave Arms
Inn · Chipping Campden
A seventeenth-century coaching inn with seven rooms at Weston Subedge, about two and a half miles from Chipping Campden, renovated in 2021.
Verified Nov 2026
More like this
More walks to try
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Cotswold Way: Broadway to Wood Stanway
Walk · Starts in Broadway · 3 hrs, 15 mins · Dog-friendly
A 6.5-mile (10.5km) one-way walk on the second section of the Cotswold Way, from Broadway's green, moderate and three to three and a half hours: a long climb to Shenberrow, a steep descent into Stanton, then field paths by Stanway's church and gatehouse to Wood Stanway.
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The Cotswold Way
Walk · Dog-friendly
The Cotswold Way is a 102-mile (164km) National Trail walk from Chipping Campden to Bath along the escarpment, in 15 sections; the official guidebook suggests seven to ten days, and its frequent steep climbs make it hard going.
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Chipping Campden and Dover's Hill
Walk · Starts in Chipping Campden · 3 hrs, 30 mins · Circular
A 4.5-mile (7.2km) circular walk from the Market Hall in Chipping Campden, two and a half to three and a half hours, moderate with steep sections. It climbs the Cotswold Way to Dover's Hill, home of the Olimpicks, and drops through Lynches Wood; a 3-mile version skips the climbs.