Cotswold Way: Dowdeswell to Leckhampton Hill

The Cotswold Way from Dowdeswell to Leckhampton Hill is a 4.7-mile (7.6km) one-way walk from Dowdeswell reservoir, by the A40 above Cheltenham, to the top of Leckhampton Hill. It is the shortest section of the trail but climbs about 275m by the National Trail's figure, so it is moderate and takes about three hours, with no café on the way.

It is the sixth of the fifteen sections of the Cotswold Way, after Cleeve Hill to Dowdeswell, and the seventh carries on from Leckhampton Hill to Birdlip. Most of the climbing comes in the first 2km, up through Lineover Wood.

What the section is like

Short but hilly. The trail drops from the reservoir to cross the A40 in the valley of the River Chelt, then climbs hard through Lineover Wood to the fields on top of the Cotswold Edge. It runs along the high ground by Ravensgate Hill and Wistley Grove, comes down to cross the main roads at Seven Springs, and finishes along Hartley Lane and over Charlton Kings Common, where the National Trail points out the view over Cheltenham and the Severn Vale.

Two crossings need care: the A40 near the start, and the junction of the A435 and A436 at Seven Springs. The rest is woodland, field paths and a quiet lane.

Lineover Wood, Seven Springs and Leckhampton Hill

Lineover Wood has belonged to the Woodland Trust since 1986, and the National Trail describes it as semi-natural broadleaf woodland with large-leaved limes and old beeches. At Seven Springs the springs that feed the River Churn rise beside the road, and some people hold them to be the source of the Thames. Our loop from Seven Springs follows the last part of this section and comes back along the foot of the common.

Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common make 67 hectares of old quarries, limestone grassland and scrub, owned by Cheltenham Borough Council and declared a National Nature Reserve in June 2026. Stone was quarried here from the late eighteenth century into the 1920s, and after riots over access in 1902 the hill was opened to the public in 1929.

The summit's Iron Age hillfort, Leckhampton Camp, and the Devil's Chimney, a pillar of limestone left below the edge by the quarrymen, are a few hundred metres on, at the start of the next section. Our walk from Daisy Bank to the Devil's Chimney climbs to both from the town side.

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Where to eat and sleep at Dowdeswell and Leckhampton

There is nowhere to eat on the line itself, so carry food and water for the day. At the start, the Fox opened in July 2026 on the A40 a few hundred metres from the trail, by the bus stops named for the old Reservoir Inn. It serves food at lunch every day and in the evening from Monday to Saturday. Its website advertises rooms but took no bookings for them when we checked in October 2026.

At the end, the Wheatsheaf on Old Bath Road in Leckhampton is about 1.2km north of the top of the hill as the crow flies; it publishes no hours, so ring first. On a weekday, StarBistro at National Star in Ullenwood, about 3km along the next section, serves breakfast and lunch until 4pm. The buses at both ends run into Cheltenham, which has hotels, pubs and cafés, and is the easiest place to stay for this section and the ones either side of it.

Getting back to Dowdeswell

From the end, walk down off Leckhampton Hill to the Leckhampton Hill bus stop at the foot of the hill, about 1km below, where the Pulhams L runs into Cheltenham about every half hour in the daytime. From Cheltenham, the Pulhams 801 (every day) and X52 (up to every two hours Monday to Saturday, twice on Sundays) stop on the A40 at Lower Dowdeswell, at the stops named for the old Reservoir Inn, by the Fox, a few hundred metres from the start. The Pulhams 801 runs about hourly, Sundays included.

To shorten the walk, Stagecoach's 51 between Cheltenham and Cirencester stops at Seven Springs, about 5km in, roughly hourly in the daytime. If you drive, the Woodland Trust's car park for Lineover Wood, opposite the reservoir, holds up to 12 cars, and Leckhampton Hill has car parks at Salterley Quarry and Brownstones Quarry off Hartley Lane, near the top, and on Daisy Bank Road below.

When to walk it

Clear days are best for the view from Charlton Kings Common. Belted Galloway cattle graze Leckhampton Hill's grassland in autumn and winter, so keep dogs on short leads then, and on open access land from 1 March to 31 July. The path through Lineover Wood is muddy after rain, so boots help for most of the year.