The Duntisbournes

What to see

St Michael's at Duntisbourne Rouse (opens in a new tab) is the reason to come. It is a church the size of a cottage on a bank above the lane, with a nave of the late eleventh or early twelfth century built in herringbone courses, a Norman chancel arch of three orders, and a saddleback tower whose inscription names the wardens who built it in 1587. Because of the slope, the chancel stands over a small tunnel-vaulted crypt, reached by a doorway at its west end. Inside are late Norman painting on the north wall, fifteenth-century misericords with grotesque heads and vine leaves in the choir stalls, a Jacobean pulpit and eighteenth-century box pews with their doors. It is Grade I, with a churchyard cross listed beside it.

St Peter's at Duntisbourne Abbots (opens in a new tab), 2 miles up the valley, is bigger and plainer: a twelfth-century nave, a thirteenth-century chancel, a fifteenth-century saddleback tower with quatrefoil grilles in its bell openings, and a round Norman font. Waller & Son restored it in 1872 and scraped the interior, which is why it looks so clean; the glass is of 1878. The lych gate to the churchyard is listed on its own, as are several of the monuments in the churchyard and many of the cottages round it.

Between the two churches the Dunt is the sight. At Duntisbourne Leer, by the seventeenth-century farmhouse, the lane meets the brook, and for a short stretch the lane and the stream are the same thing; the story goes that this was how carts got their wheels washed. At Middle Duntisbourne there is a second ford with a footbridge (opens in a new tab) of 1844, a single stone arch with a depth gauge in front of it, which tells you how high the water gets.

A morning up the valley

Park near St Michael's at Duntisbourne Rouse, see the crypt and the misericords, then walk up the lane with the brook on your left: Middle Duntisbourne and its footbridge in ten minutes, the ford at Leer in another ten, and the climb to Duntisbourne Abbots and St Peter's at the top, about 2 miles in all. Come back the same way. It is a two-hour morning with no coffee in it, so bring a flask.

Walks

The valley lane is the walk, and we have not yet written it up as a route. The nearer long walks are in Cirencester Park, a few miles south of Duntisbourne Rouse, and on the Cotswold Way above Painswick, 14 miles west by road. Pinbury Park, a listed house in Duntisbourne Rouse parish, is private.

The Cotswolds Info newsletter

Events, new places and the best of the season, about once a month. Unsubscribe at any time.

Leave this field blank

Your name

Your email address

Yes, send me the Cotswolds Info newsletter

Sign me up

Food and drink

None in the four hamlets. The Five Mile House on the old Gloucester road at the top of the parish was a pub, but CAMRA records it closed since 2016, with permission granted to turn it into a house, and Google Maps also marks it closed. Cirencester is 12 minutes by car and has the pubs, cafés and the Friday market.

When to come

Winter and spring after rain, when the Dunt is up and the ford and the footbridge make sense; in a dry summer the brook can be a trickle. The churches are open in daylight as far as we know, but a weekday is safer than a Sunday service time. The Duntisbournes are in our guide to the Cotswolds without the crowds because nothing here is built for visitors: no car park, no pub, no signs. Drive slowly, park out of the way of tractors, and leave the ford to the people who use it.