Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kingham station and Bledington
A 3.5-mile (6km) car-free circular walk from Kingham station, easy and two to three hours with stiles and a boggy patch: along the River Evenlode into Gloucestershire, over the old railway and past a pond, then to Bledington's green and the King's Head, and back by the river.
- Distance
- 6.0 km (3.7 mi)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 3 hrs
- Circular
- Circular
The route
Starts at Kingham station StilesMuddy in winter Download GPX
Step by step
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Step 1: Along the Evenlode
From the station, turn right down the road, crossing the county boundary from Oxfordshire into Gloucestershire. At the small bridge, turn right down a narrow footpath along the River Evenlode, over a stile and into a field. Walk along the hedge, over another stile, and with the river on your right cross two fields. Keep to the path round the field edge to the fenced water treatment works, walk down its side along the field edge and turn right over the footbridge.
- Stiles
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Step 2: Over the old railway
Turn right and cross the field to a stile. Cross the bed of the disused railway into the next field and follow the hedge on your left. Continue ahead over a stile beside the hedge, then over the next stile or gate, past pollarded willows. Follow the hedge round to the left to the gate by the river.
- Stiles
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Step 3: Past the pond to the woods
Go through the gate and follow the field edge round past the pond. This is a wet, boggy area; to avoid it, turn right and follow the river's edge across the field. Continue past the pond to a fenced gap in the hedge, go through with the river on your right and follow the field edge to another fenced gap, then cross to a stile in the far corner by the woods.
- Muddy in winter
- Stiles
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Step 4: Over the hill to Bledington
Turn left down the track. After 20m, where the path bends right, turn left through a gateway in a hedge. Cross two fields to a stile at the top of a small hill and go on ahead, with Bledington below. After the gate, bear right downhill and cross the disused railway again. Cross the field and the small stone bridge, bear half left towards the houses between the farm buildings, cross the stream bridge and follow the path to the lane.
- Stiles
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Step 5: Bledington and back to the station
Turn right along the lane, past the village shop, to Bledington Green and the King's Head. Go up Church Street off the green to the church and bear left round to the road. Take the path opposite, down across the field to the footbridge over the Evenlode that you crossed earlier. Turn right and retrace your steps along the river to the road and the station.
Sights on the way
The sights this walk passes, numbered as on the map.
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River Evenlode
Sight · River · Kingham
The Evenlode is the river of the valley below Kingham, rising in the Cotswold limestone and flowing south-east to the Thames; near Kingham it runs beside the Cotswold Line past Bledington and Daylesford and for a stretch marks the Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire boundary.
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St Leonard's Church, Bledington
Sight · Church · Kingham
Bledington's Grade I church by the green, recorded in 1175 and rebuilt in the fifteenth century, with fifteenth-century painted glass, one panel dated 1470, a Norman tub font and a tower built inside the nave. Open daily.
The walk in detail
The Kingham station and Bledington walk is a 3.5-mile (6km) car-free circular walk from Kingham station along the River Evenlode to Bledington's green and back. It is easy, on riverside and field paths with several stiles and a boggy patch, takes two to three hours, and passes the King's Head Inn on the green.
It is Walk One in a series of car-free walks from the Cotswolds National Landscape, written so that you can arrive by train, and it crosses from Oxfordshire into Gloucestershire within a few minutes of the platform. The leaflet carries no date, and its map credit is an old one.
From the station to the river
Kingham station is on the Cotswold Line from London Paddington, about 80 minutes away by train. The walk turns right down the road from the station and, almost at once, crosses the county boundary. Beside the road where you turn off for the river stands Bledington Mill, a former mill of the late eighteenth to mid nineteenth century, now a house, with a listed bridge of two round arches over the Westcote Brook just south of it, where sluice gates once sent water to the mill wheel. The wheel was housed in a red-brick extension, and the listing records that another extension at the front is reputed to have housed the mill workers.
The narrow footpath follows the River Evenlode north. The leaflet points out ridge and furrow in the field on your left, and a hedge on your right that is mostly blackthorn, which means sloe berries for sloe gin.
Hedges, willows and the old railway
This is a walk that reads the countryside as it goes. Past the footbridge you cross the bed of a disused railway, and the leaflet asks you to notice how its embankment was built. The hedge on your left beyond it has recently been laid, the traditional way of keeping a hedge stock-proof, and near the gate by the river are traditional pollarded willows.
By the woods at the top of the loop, the leaflet shows older hedgelaying, with thick, interwoven stems at the base and newer growth on top. Before that comes the pond, in what the leaflet calls a wet, boggy area; you can skirt it by turning right along the river's edge.
Bledington and St Leonard's
From a small hill you look down on Bledington before crossing the old railway again and coming into the village past farm buildings. The lane leads past the village shop to the green and the King's Head Inn, which stands on the green with rooms in the inn and round a courtyard.
Church Street leads off the green to St Leonard's, listed Grade I, with work of the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, restored by J E K Cutts in 1881 and by F E Howard around 1923. Its listing picks out fifteenth-century painted glass, possibly by John Prudde of Westminster, in the north windows of the nave, a twelfth-century tub font, an early wrought-iron hourglass stand and a twelfth-century bellcote. Outside, look for a scratch sundial on the south-west corner of the aisle, traces of two small mass dials on the porch buttress, and a clock on the tower marked V.R. 1891.
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Food, trains and toilets
The King's Head is the only pub on the walk. Its bar opens daily from 11am, with lunch from noon every day and dinner from 6.30pm, according to the inn. Back in Kingham, the Kingham Plough on the village green opens daily from 8.30am, and the Wild Rabbit is a Daylesford pub with rooms, open daily from midday.
For a night in either village, our page on places to stay in Kingham includes the King's Head's rooms round its courtyard.
The leaflet is written for public transport, but the X8 rail-link bus it names no longer runs. When we checked in October 2026 the only buses at the station turn were the Villager community bus’s shopping runs, one or two a day on set weekdays, so plan on the train. The station has a 140-space car park, cycle storage and toilets, including an accessible toilet and a Changing Places toilet, according to National Rail. Our guide to the Cotswolds without a car has the trains and buses.
Paths, stiles and mud
There are at least six stiles, as well as gates, fenced gaps and footbridges. The paths are riverside and field edges, with two crossings of the old railway and a short stretch of road at each end. The boggy patch by the pond is the place for mud, and the leaflet gives the riverside way round it.
If you want a shorter walk, the leaflet gives a cut from the field beyond the footbridge: go to its top right corner and follow the lane straight into Bledington.
More walks from the train
From Moreton-in-Marsh station, on the same line, the 4-mile walk to Batsford and Dorn has no stiles at all. Closer to hand, the Kingham and Daylesford walk starts in Kingham village, about three quarters of a mile north of the station, and crosses Daylesford's fields to the Evenlode, and Adlestrop, Daylesford and Lower Oddington explores the far side of the valley.
Places on the way
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The King's Head Inn, Bledington
Inn · Kingham
A 16th-century inn on the green at Bledington, near Kingham, with twelve rooms in the inn and a courtyard, and EV charging.
EV charging · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Kingham Plough
Inn · Kingham
A pub with six rooms and a cottage on the green at Kingham, open daily from 8.30am, with dogs and families welcome.
Car-free · Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Wild Rabbit
Inn · Kingham
A Daylesford pub with rooms and cottages in a 17th-century house at Kingham, with three AA Rosettes and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday.
Wedding venues
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 Kingham-
The Sheiling
Glamping · Bledington
A shepherd's hut for two in the grounds of the owner's house in Bledington, a short walk from the village green and the King's Head, with a wood burner and room for one small dog.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Daylesford Stays cottages
Self-catering · Kingham
Self-catering cottages in Daylesford village and on Daylesford's organic farm near Kingham, all within two miles of the farm shop, and all of them dog-friendly.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Feathered Nest Inn
Inn · Kingham
An inn with four rooms and a cottage at Nether Westcote near Kingham, in a building that began 350 years ago as a malt house.
Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
More like this
Stories on this walk
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Day trips from London to the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 10 minute read
How to do the Cotswolds as a day trip from London: by train from Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh for Stow and Bourton, to Kingham for the Evenlode villages, to Kemble for Cirencester and Bibury or to Bath for Lacock, with worked plans, the car and parking, and tours compared.
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The best pubs with rooms in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 13 minute read
The best pubs with rooms in the Cotswolds, region by region: the Kingham Plough and the King’s Head at Bledington, the Lion at Winchcombe, the Falcon at Painswick and the Red Lion at Lacock, with the rooms, the food, the dog rules and the walk from the door.
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Where to stay in the Cotswolds: the best base
Story · Guides · 13 minute read
Where to stay in the Cotswolds, by region, by kind of place and by trip: Moreton-in-Marsh or Kingham without a car, Stow, Chipping Campden or Burford with one, Tetbury or Painswick for the quieter south, Winchcombe for walkers, and what a night costs in 2026.
More walks to try
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Moreton-in-Marsh and Batsford
Walk · Starts in Moreton-in-Marsh · 2 hrs · Circular
A 4-mile (6.4km) circular walk from Moreton-in-Marsh's war memorial, easy, stile-free and about two hours: west through field gates to Batsford, along the deer park below Batsford House, east on the watershed lane to Dorn and back past the mound of a Roman fort.
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Kingham, Daylesford and the Evenlode
Walk · Starts in Kingham · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A flat 4.4-mile (7.1km) circular walk of about an hour and a half from Kingham: north-west on bridleways across Daylesford's fields to the Evenlode, back down the river meadows and over the Cotswold Line on the level. Walkers report it wet and often flooded in winter.
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Salford and the Rollright Stones
Walk · Starts in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds · 2 hrs, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 5-mile (8km) circular walk from the green at Salford, moderate and about two and a half hours, with stiles: up bridleways and field paths to the Whispering Knights, the King Stone and the King's Men stone circle, then down through Little Rollright and back.