Eat and drink · The Cotswold Edge
The Fox, Dowdeswell
A country pub and restaurant on the A40 at Lower Dowdeswell, opened in July 2026 near the reservoir where the Cotswold Way crosses the road, with food at lunch and in the evening every day.
Walker-friendly
The first pub by the trail at Dowdeswell for years, a few hundred metres from where the Cotswold Way crosses the A40. Its plates are restaurant food at restaurant prices, so it suits a proper lunch at the start or end of the day more than a quick sandwich.
- Good: A few hundred metres from the Cotswold Way and the A40 bus stops
- Good: Kitchen open at lunch and in the evening every day
- Good: Sunday lunch and a children's menu
- Good: Beers from Deya and Hawkstone
- Worth knowing: Mains about £16 to £25 (2026), steaks more
- Worth knowing: Rooms planned but not yet open (October 2026)
About
The Fox is a country pub and restaurant on London Road, the A40, at Lower Dowdeswell on the eastern edge of Cheltenham, a short way west of Dowdeswell Reservoir. It opened on 19 July 2026, and it is a few hundred metres from the start of the Cotswold Way section from Dowdeswell to Leckhampton Hill, the nearest food to the trail on this stretch of the Cotswold Edge. The building was once the Reservoir Inn, CAMRA's pub guide records, and the bus stops outside still carry that name; before the Fox it was the Indian restaurant Koloshi.
The kitchen cooks modern pub food: small plates such as scallops or beetroot with goat's curd, a beef shin and Deya ale pie, cod with mussels, and Hereford steaks, with a lunchtime menu of sandwiches and lighter plates. Mains on the autumn 2026 menu run from about £16 for the aubergine steak at lunch to £25, and the Hereford steaks cost £34 and £42. There is a Sunday lunch menu and a children's menu, and the beers come from the Deya and Hawkstone breweries.
The bar opens at noon every day and stays open to 10pm from Monday to Thursday, 11.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 8pm on Sundays. The pub says bedrooms, an outdoor space with saunas and cold plunge pools, and shepherd's huts in 2027 are to come; none of these were open when we checked in October 2026.
Opening hours and season
Closed, opens Mon 9, 12:00
| Mon | Opening | Food served |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 12:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 15:00, 17:00 to 21:00 |
| Tuesday | 12:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 15:00, 17:00 to 21:00 |
| Wednesday | 12:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 15:00, 17:00 to 21:00 |
| Thursday | 12:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 15:00, 17:00 to 21:00 |
| Friday | 12:00 to 23:30 | 12:00 to 15:00, 17:00 to 21:00 |
| Saturday | 12:00 to 23:30 | 12:00 to 15:00, 17:00 to 21:00 |
| Sunday | 12:00 to 20:00 | 12:00 to 16:30 |
Food Monday to Saturday from noon to 3pm and 5pm to 9pm, and on Sundays from noon to 4.30pm.
The details
- Food
- Modern British · Pub classics · Grill and steak
- Serving
- Lunch · Dinner · Sunday lunch
- Dietary
- Vegetarian dishes · Children's menu
- Features
- Restaurant · Bar · Real ale · Private dining
- History
- Opened July 2026
- Without a car
- Pulhams 801 (about hourly, every day) and X52 (about every two hours, twice on Sundays) from Cheltenham stop on the A40 at Lower Dowdeswell, close by.
Photos
Sunday lunch 
The bar 
The dining room 
The Fox at night
Location
Places to stay nearby
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The Rising Sun Hotel
Hotel · Cleeve Hill
A Greene King Inns hotel, pub and restaurant with 23 bedrooms near the top of Cleeve Hill, with views over five counties from its beer garden.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Cleeve Hill Hotel
B&B · Winchcombe
A 12-room bed and breakfast hotel on Cleeve Hill, about three miles south-west of Winchcombe, with views over the Severn Vale and a door onto Cleeve Common and the Cotswold Way.
Walker-friendly · Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Royal George Hotel
Pubs · The Cotswold Edge
An eighteenth-century inn in Birdlip, run by Greene King Inns, with a bar and restaurant of pub classics, a large beer garden and 34 bedrooms, where the Cotswold Way sections from Leckhampton Hill and to Painswick meet.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- The Wheatsheaf, Leckhampton 3.4 km away
- StarBistro 5.1 km away
- Cheltenham Racecourse 5.8 km away
Sights nearby
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Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common
Sight · Nature reserve · The Cotswold Edge
Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common: 60 hectares of old quarries, limestone grassland on the Cotswold Edge above Cheltenham, with an Iron Age hillfort and the Devil's Chimney. Opened to the public in 1929 after the riots of 1902; a National Nature Reserve from 2026.
-
Leckhampton Camp
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · The Cotswold Edge
Leckhampton Camp is the Iron Age hillfort on the summit of Leckhampton Hill above Cheltenham: one rampart and a rock-cut ditch, an inturned entrance with two guard chambers and, to the east, a rare round barrow inside a square enclosure. Scheduled; the trig point is on its bank.
-
The Devil's Chimney, Leckhampton
Sight · Monument · The Cotswold Edge
The Devil's Chimney is a pillar of limestone standing below the scarp edge of Leckhampton Hill above Cheltenham, most likely left isolated when quarrymen cut an incline to the top and shaped by the weather since. Folklore says the Devil built it. Climbing it is forbidden.