Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Guiting Power
A small stone village round a green on the Wardens' Way and the Windrush Way, a few miles from Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park, with a twelfth-century church.
- Nearest station
- Moreton-in-Marsh or Kingham, each about 12 miles, then a taxi; no bus serves the village
- Parking
- The village hall car park (GL54 5TX), 50p or £1 in the box according to the National Landscape’s 2024 walk leaflet, signed from the green; the walks start here
- Best time
- Spring and autumn for the walks; the last week of July for the music festival
- When it's busy
- Festival evenings at the end of July, and Cheltenham race meetings, when the Hollow Bottom fills up
- Toilets
- An accessible composting toilet with baby changing in St Michael's churchyard, open in daylight hours; none at the village hall car park that we know of
- Dogs
- Welcome throughout the Hollow Bottom and in its rooms for £15 a dog, up to two (2026); at the Cotswold Farm Park only in the Ox Shed, events fields and wildlife walk, and assistance dogs
About Guiting Power
Guiting Power is a small village of stone cottages around a green, in the hills between Winchcombe and Stow-on-the-Wold. Fewer than 300 people live in the parish (296 at the 2021 census), and yet it keeps a post office (on The Square, open Thursdays from 12.30pm to 4pm), a farm shop with a café, a village hall and two pubs. It is a walkers' village, on the Wardens' Way and the Windrush Way, with a Norman church and the Cotswold Farm Park a few miles off.
What to see
The church is the one building to seek out. St Michael's, up Church Lane from the green, is listed Grade II* and open every day. It was built about 1180, and its two carved Norman doorways survive; look for the capital carved as a head with its tongue out. The tower is fifteenth century, the transepts were added in 1820 and 1844, the chancel was largely rebuilt in 1903, and there are Green Men in the roof. Excavation nearby found an earlier Saxo-Norman chapel. Temple Guiting, nearby, takes its name from the Knights Templar.
Around the green are the Old Post Office and the Baptist chapel (listed Grade II), and above the village at Sheep Hill Quarry is a lime kiln of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, restored in the late twentieth century under Raymond Cochrane; the Guiting Manor Amenity Trust (opens in a new tab) says the site is now safe for visitors to view. The trust exists to conserve the character and environment of the village.
A day in Guiting Power
Leave the car at the village hall car park, signed from the green, and walk up Church Lane to the Cotswold Guy for coffee; it opens at 9am every day. Look into St Michael's on the way back down, then take the circuit to Naunton from the green, three hours or so, and finish at the Farmers Arms, which serves food from midday to 2.30pm and 6pm to 8.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and midday to 4pm on Sunday.
Walks from Guiting Power
Two of the Cotswolds National Landscape's four circular walks on the Wardens' Way and Windrush Way start here. Guiting Power and Naunton is 6.3 miles (10.1km) with 200m of climb and two stiles, from the green, out on the Hawling road and then south on the Windrush Way through Gawley Wood and past the site of the lost village of Aylworth, and home on the Wardens' Way. The Roel circular (opens in a new tab) is 8 miles (13km) with 265m of climb, three and a half to four hours, from the village hall car park, past the sites of the deserted medieval villages of Hawling and Castlett, with stiles. About 3 miles away by road, at Harford Bridge beyond Naunton, the 3-mile Harford Bridge and Naunton walk is the easy, stile-free one, into Naunton by its church and dovecote.
Food and drink
Guiting Power is well fed for its size. The Farmers Arms is the Donnington Brewery pub, with a large beer garden and a skittle alley that doubles as a function room; it serves no food on Mondays except quiz nights and closes at 8pm on Sundays. The Hollow Bottom is the racing pub, bought in 1996 by the trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies and Raymond Mould and run since 2025 by the chefs Nathan Eades and Liam Goff, with six en suite rooms, breakfast every morning and dogs welcome in every part of the pub. The Cotswold Guy is the farm shop and café. At Kineton, under 2 miles away by road, Zonda at the Halfway does pizza and Sunday roasts from Wednesday to Sunday. To stay without children or dogs, Guiting Guest House has six rooms in a seventeenth-century farmhouse. Towards Temple Guiting, the Plough Inn at Ford is a Donnington pub on the B4077, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. A weekend of pub walks in the Cotswolds is based at a pub with rooms in the village.
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The Cotswold Farm Park
Under 4 miles away by road is the Cotswold Farm Park, Adam Henson's farm, which his father Joe Henson opened in 1971 to show rare and native breeds. It keeps more than 50 of them and opens every day in season, with tickets cheaper booked ahead online and free parking. Dogs cannot go into the Farm Park itself, apart from working assistance dogs, but are welcome in the Ox Shed, the events fields and on its free 3-mile wildlife walk round the farm. In November 2026 it closes from 2 to 19 November and then opens from Friday to Sunday, 9.30am to 5pm; check its own calendar for December and the new year, and its site for prices. Our guide to the Cotswolds with children has more days out like it, and it is the first stop of our Cotswolds weekend with children.
When to come
Spring and autumn are best for the walks, when the paths are firm and the hills are quiet; the Windrush Way through the woods is muddy after winter rain. The Guiting Music Festival brings ten concerts of classical music, jazz and blues to the village at the end of July, run by volunteers for more than 55 years; in 2027 it runs from Friday 23 July to Sunday 1 August. Cheltenham's race meetings fill the Hollow Bottom, though it charges the same room rates all year, and in lambing season the Farm Park draws the families.
Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors
Part of
The North Cotswolds
The high wolds between Chipping Campden and Bourton-on-the-Water: the Fosse Way towns, the Windrush villages, the Slaughters and the escarpment at Broadway.
Things to do in Guiting Power
Family days out · Guiting Power
Cotswold Farm Park
Adam Henson's farm near Guiting Power, opened by his father Joe in 1971 to show rare and native breeds, with play barns, a restaurant and a Changing Places toilet.
Where to stay in Guiting Power
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The Hollow Bottom
Inn · Guiting Power
A racing pub with six bedrooms in Guiting Power, once Ye Olde Inn, bought in 1996 by Nigel Twiston-Davies and Raymond Mould, with dogs welcome throughout.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Cotswold Farm Park Holidays
Glamping · Guiting Power
Lodges, cabins, safari tents, glamping pods and camping pitches at Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park above Guiting Power, with entry to the farm included.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Hot tubs
Verified Oct 2026
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Temple Guiting Manor & Barns
Self-catering · Temple Guiting
A Grade I manor house and four converted farm buildings in 14.5 acres at Temple Guiting, let for exclusive-use holidays, celebrations and weddings for up to 32 guests.
Family-friendly · Hot tubs · Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
Where to eat and drink in Guiting Power
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The Cotswold Guy
Farm shops and delis · Guiting Power
A chef-run farm shop and takeaway on Church Lane, Guiting Power, with seats inside and in the garden, which also does catering and events, open every day.
Verified Oct 2026
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Zonda at the Halfway
Pubs · Guiting Power
A pizza pub at the Halfway in Kineton, about a mile from Guiting Power, with small plates, Sunday roasts and a set lunch, open Wednesday to Sunday.
Verified Oct 2026
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The Plough Inn, Ford
Pubs · Guiting Power
A Donnington Brewery pub on the B4077 at Ford, near Temple Guiting, serving food all afternoon and evening from Wednesday to Saturday and lunch on Sundays. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Verified Nov 2026
Walks in and around Guiting Power
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Hailes and Beckbury Camp
Walk · Starts in Winchcombe · 2 hrs, 15 mins · Circular
A 3.5-mile (5.6km) circular walk from Hayles Fruit Farm, moderate and about two and a quarter hours: up the monks' track to Beckbury Camp, down the edge of a wood over three stiles towards Wood Stanway, and back past Hailes church and the abbey ruins.
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Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter
Walk · Starts in Lower Slaughter · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2-mile (3.1km) there-and-back from Lower Slaughter, easy and almost level, in 45 minutes to an hour: on the Wardens' Way from Lower Slaughter's mill up the River Eye through riverside fields to Upper Slaughter's ford, church and manor, and back the same way.
Sights in and around Guiting Power
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St Michael's Church, Guiting Power
Sight · Church · Guiting Power
Guiting Power’s Norman church of about 1180, open daily, with two carved twelfth-century doorways (one capital a head with its tongue out), a fifteenth-century tower, transepts of 1820 and 1844 and Green Men in its roof. Grade II*; accessible toilet in the churchyard.
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St Andrew's Church, Naunton
Sight · Church · Naunton
St Andrew's is Naunton's parish church in the Windrush valley: largely rebuilt around 1500 on an older site, with a pinnacled tower carrying two painted sundials, a stone pulpit of about 1500, a Saxon cross and a ring of six bells. Grade II*; open daily.
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Clapper bridge, Lower Harford
Sight · Bridge · Naunton
The clapper bridge at Lower Harford Farm near Naunton is a low bridge of limestone blocks laid flat on stone piers across the Windrush, of the eighteenth century or earlier: a rare survival here of a kind of bridge more often found in upland country. Grade II.
Stories about Guiting Power
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Father Brown in the Cotswolds: Blockley as Kembleford
Story · Guides · 6 minute read
Where the BBC's Father Brown is filmed in the Cotswolds: Blockley as Kembleford, its church as St Mary's, and the railway station, villages and tower that have appeared since 2013, with how to visit each.
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Lavender and sunflower fields in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 9 minute read
Cotswold Lavender at Snowshill, the lavender farm that opens its fields to visitors, and where to find sunflowers and pick-your-own flowers in July and August: the season, tickets, harvest, best light, dogs, parking and how to photograph a working field without spoiling it.
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Templars and Hospitallers in the Cotswolds
Story · Strange Things · 5 minute read
The crusading orders held land in the Cotswolds: the Templars at Temple Guiting until their fall in 1308, and the Knights Hospitaller at Quenington until 1540.
Getting to Guiting Power
- By car
- By the lanes from the B4068 between Stow-on-the-Wold and Cheltenham, or from Winchcombe. Park at the village hall.
- Parking
- The village hall car park (GL54 5TX), signed from the green; the National Landscape’s 2024 walk leaflet gives the charge as 50p or £1. Roadside parking elsewhere is tight; the Hollow Bottom has none.
- By bus
- No regular bus serves the village. The Wardens' Way links it on foot with Naunton, the Slaughters and Bourton-on-the-Water, which the 801 does serve.
- By train
- Moreton-in-Marsh and Kingham, both on the Cotswold Line from London Paddington, are each about 12 miles away; from either, a taxi.
Access
The lanes from the car park to the green are surfaced; both circular walks have stiles and steep sections. There is an accessible toilet in St Michael's churchyard.
| Naunton | 2.5 mi |
|---|---|
| Cotswold Farm Park | 3.7 mi |
| Winchcombe | 5.6 mi |
| Stow-on-the-Wold | 7.5 mi |
| Bourton-on-the-Water | 8.7 mi |
| Moreton-in-Marsh station | 11.8 mi |
Places near Guiting Power
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NauntonA long, quiet village on the floor of the upper Windrush valley, with a sixteenth-century dovecote by the river, a Donnington pub and the Windrush Way on the hill above.
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Upper SlaughterA village of stone houses round a ford on the River Eye, about a mile above Lower Slaughter, with a twelfth-century church, a Grade I manor house and almost nothing to buy.
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WinchcombeA walkers' town below the escarpment, with Sudeley Castle and Katherine Parr's tomb, the ruins of Hailes Abbey, Belas Knap on the hill and a steam railway.
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Stow-on-the-WoldA hilltop market town on the Fosse Way, more than 230m up, with a broad Square, a church that held 1,600 prisoners after the last battle of the Civil War, and a horse fair.