Saffron Blaze, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter
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.
- Distance
- 3.1 km (1.9 mi)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 45 mins
- Ascent
- 22 m
- Circular
- Circular
The route
Starts at The Slaughters Country Inn, Lower Slaughter follows the Wardens' Way for a while Muddy in winterLivestock in fieldsCafé on route Download GPX
Step by step
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Step 1: Through Lower Slaughter to the mill
From the Slaughters Country Inn, walk west along the lane beside the River Eye to the mill at the top of the village, with its tall brick chimney and water wheel.
- Café
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Step 2: Up the Eye on the Wardens' Way
Just past the mill, take the footpath on the left, signed as the Wardens' Way. It runs north-west through the riverside fields for about half a mile, through a series of gates and over a footbridge, up to the road. The ground is soft after rain.
- Muddy in winter
- Dogs on lead
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Step 3: Round Upper Slaughter
The path meets the road on the edge of Upper Slaughter; turn left into the village. Walk down to the ford and footbridge over the Eye and round by St Peter's church and the lane past Lords of the Manor, then back to the footpath where you came in.
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Step 4: Back to Lower Slaughter
Retrace your steps down the Wardens' Way beside the Eye to the mill, and follow the lane back to the start.
- Muddy in winter
Sights on the way
The sights this walk passes, numbered as on the map.
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St Mary's Church, Lower Slaughter
Sight · Church · Lower Slaughter
Lower Slaughter's church, almost entirely rebuilt in 1867 for the Whitmore family, lords of the manor, but keeping a north arcade of around 1200, with a broad spire behind a pierced parapet. Grade II*; open, with a ramp.
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The Old Mill, Lower Slaughter
Sight · Historic building · Lower Slaughter
The red-brick mill with its tall chimney and iron water wheel at the top of Lower Slaughter, on the River Eye: early nineteenth century, on a site milled since at least 1502. Grade II. The museum and shop closed in 2023, when the mill was sold; check before visiting.
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Upper Slaughter castle mound
Sight · Castle or ruin · Upper Slaughter
The motte of a small Norman castle in the middle of Upper Slaughter, on a low hill in a bend of the River Eye below St Peter's church: a flat-topped mound about 22m across, its ditch and bailey still traceable. A scheduled monument, seen from the lanes.
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Manor House, Upper Slaughter
Sight · Historic building · Upper Slaughter
Upper Slaughter's Elizabethan manor house, Grade I, home of the Slaughter family until 1741: gabled Cotswold stone over a fifteenth-century vaulted basement, with a two-storey porch of the early seventeenth century covered in fretwork. A private house, seen from the lane.
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St Peter's Church, Upper Slaughter
Sight · Church · Upper Slaughter
Upper Slaughter's church, above the ford over the River Eye: a twelfth-century nave, a tower built from reused Norman stone, and the mortuary chapel of the diarist Francis Witts, rector here for 46 years. Grade II*; open every day.
The walk in detail
The walk from Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter is a 2-mile (3.1km) there-and-back along the River Eye between Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter, almost level, in 45 minutes to an hour. It starts at the Slaughters Country Inn, passes the old mill and its coffee kiosk, and follows the Wardens' Way through riverside fields to Upper Slaughter's ford and church.
Lower Slaughter
Lower Slaughter grew round a green on the left bank of the Eye, a short stream that joins the Dikler on its way to the Windrush, crossed by several plain stone bridges. The name was first written down in 779, for a ford, and what it means is uncertain; it may have meant a muddy place. St Mary's church was rebuilt in 1867 by Benjamin Ferrey but kept its late twelfth or early thirteenth-century arcade, and the manor house, built in 1656 by the mason Valentine Strong for Richard Whitmore, is now the Slaughters Manor House hotel.
The mill at the top of the village is early nineteenth century, of red brick and stone with a tall brick chimney and a large iron water wheel on its south gable, on a site with a mill recorded in 1502. Its museum and café closed in 2023 when the family who had run it since at least 1879 sold it, and a coffee kiosk in a converted horsebox at the entrance has opened from April to October since 2024. Walkers mention stopping there for coffee. Lower Slaughter stood in for Highbury in the 2020 film of Emma, by the account of the film's location manager, and is one of the places in our guide to Cotswold film locations.
Upper Slaughter
Upper Slaughter is set out on a shoulder above the brook: the castle mound on a bend of the stream, the church above it, and the village on the slope, all of stone with stone roofs. The road crosses the Eye by a ford, with a footbridge beside it. St Peter's has a twelfth-century nave, a fourteenth-century tower and the Witts mortuary chapel of 1854, for the family of Francis Edward Witts, rector for 46 years and author of The Diary of a Cotswold Parson. A walker found history notes posted inside the entrance.
The manor house is Grade I and private. Baghots Square, a group of cottages, was remodelled from 1906 in work attributed to Lutyens. Upper Slaughter is one of the doubly thankful villages: all 25 who served in the First World War and all 36 in the Second came home. The Witts family's house, which dates from about 1649, has been Lords of the Manor, a hotel, since 1972; it takes bookings for afternoon tea, from noon Monday to Saturday and from 2.15pm on Sundays.
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What walkers report
Walkers find the path easy to follow and gentle enough for a baby carrier. Two-thirds of it is on earth paths through the riverside fields and the rest on village lanes. It is muddy after rain and through the winter, so boots help, though some found it firm even in wet weather. It gets busy and noisy at popular times, and walkers recommend arriving early. There are shallow places by the river where children and dogs paddle, and sheep with lambs in the fields in spring, so dogs need a lead there; our guide to the Cotswolds with a dog has more on walking near sheep.
Parking, buses and food
Neither village has a public car park or public toilets that we could find, and a traffic order of 1995 keeps coaches out of Lower Slaughter except for hotel drop-offs. Walkers report free street parking on Copsehill Road, opposite the Slaughters Manor House, and say spaces are hard to find at weekends; others mention the inn's car park, though the inn's own site says nothing about parking for walkers, so ask before leaving a car there. No timed bus calls at either village, but the Robin, a minibus you book ahead, stops in both, and our guide to the Cotswolds without a car explains how. The Slaughters Country Inn at the start has rooms for dogs, and walkers find the hotels' prices high.
Longer walks
For a half-day, the loop from Bourton by the two Slaughters adds the bridleways west of Bourton-on-the-Water, and the walk from Bourton to Naunton carries on along the Wardens' Way over the hill.
Places on the way
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The Slaughters Country Inn
Inn · Lower Slaughter
An inn in Lower Slaughter, bought and renamed by the Brownsword family in 2011, with dog rooms and a Field Kitchen from April to September.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Slaughters Manor House
Hotel · Lower Slaughter
A 17th-century manor house hotel with 19 bedrooms on Copsehill Road, Lower Slaughter, home of the Whitmore family until 1964, with dog rooms booked by phone.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Wedding venues
Verified Oct 2026
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Lords of the Manor
Hotel · Upper Slaughter
A country house hotel with 25 bedrooms in eight acres of grounds in Upper Slaughter, in a house it dates to 1649, with dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · EV charging · Wedding venues
Verified Oct 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 Lower Slaughter-
Holly House
B&B · Bourton-on-the-Water
An adults-only bed and breakfast for couples on Station Road, Bourton-on-the-Water, with six en-suite rooms, parking for each and a cooked-to-order breakfast.
Verified Oct 2026
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The Mousetrap Inn
Inn · Bourton-on-the-Water
A nineteenth-century inn with eleven rooms at Lansdowne, Bourton-on-the-Water, with a restaurant and bar, a small car park and dogs in its ground-floor twins.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Lansdowne Guest House
B&B · Bourton-on-the-Water
An adults-only guest house in Victorian buildings on Lansdowne Road, Bourton-on-the-Water, with 14 rooms plus cottage rooms and suites, breakfast included and free parking outside.
Verified Oct 2026
More like this
Stories on this walk
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Afternoon tea in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 10 minute read
Where to have afternoon tea in the Cotswolds: country house hotels at the Slaughters and Buckland, old inns in Woodstock, Broadway and Malmesbury, and tearooms in Chipping Campden, Stow and Bourton, with times, prices and booking.
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Free things to do in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 11 minute read
Free things to do in the Cotswolds: open commons and viewpoints, Neolithic tombs and hill forts, ruins, wool churches, free museums in Malmesbury, Stroud, Woodstock and Burford, the Cotswold Way and Blenheim's public footpaths.
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Getting to the Cotswolds without a car
Story · Guides · 12 minute read
You can see the Cotswolds without a car: trains from London Paddington reach Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury, Kemble and Stroud in 70 to 90 minutes, and buses go on to Stow, Bourton, Bibury and Chipping Campden. Every station, its bus, the fares and the limits.
More walks to try
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Bourton, Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter
Walk · Starts in Bourton-on-the-Water · 2 hrs, 15 mins · Circular
A 6-mile (9.7km) circular walk from Rissington Road in Bourton-on-the-Water, two to two and a half hours of moderate walking with a few stiles. It heads west on bridleways, up a quiet lane to Upper Slaughter, and down the River Eye to Lower Slaughter's mill.
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Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters and Naunton
Walk · Starts in Bourton-on-the-Water · 5 hrs · Circular
A 10-mile (16.4km) circular walk from Bourton-on-the-Water, four to five hours of moderate walking with stiles and steep slopes. It follows the Wardens' Way through Lower and Upper Slaughter to Naunton, then comes home down the Windrush valley on the Windrush Way.
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Bourton-on-the-Water and Wyck Rissington
Walk · Starts in Bourton-on-the-Water · 2 hrs · Circular
A 4-mile (7km) circular walk from the war memorial in Bourton-on-the-Water, about two hours, easy and without stiles but muddy at times. It passes a roundhouse on Greystones Farm, crosses the Eye and the Dikler to Wyck Rissington's church, and returns by Rissington Mill.