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Cotswolds Info
Sheep grazing a hillside above a stone village in a valley

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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.

Nearest station
Moreton-in-Marsh, on the line from London Paddington, for buses across the region
Best time
Spring and autumn, and early mornings in summer
When it's busy
Bourton-on-the-Water, Lower Slaughter and Broadway on summer weekends and bank holidays

About the North Cotswolds

The North Cotswolds are the high, open wolds on either side of the Fosse Way, from the escarpment at Broadway and Chipping Campden in the north to the Windrush valley at Bourton-on-the-Water. This is the part of the Cotswolds most people picture: wool towns of honey-coloured stone, villages on clear shallow rivers, and sheep on the hills. It is also the busiest, so it pays to know when and where to go.

Where the North Cotswolds begin and end

The region runs from the escarpment above the Vale of Evesham south to the Windrush at Bourton, with the Fosse Way, the A429, as its spine through Moreton and Stow. Most of it is Gloucestershire, but Broadway is in Worcestershire and Shipston-on-Stour and Ilmington in Warwickshire. Beyond Kingham the Oxfordshire Cotswolds begin, and south of Stanton the Cotswold Edge. Below the escarpment, the gateway towns are Evesham, the market town of the vale, Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's town 10 miles north of the edge, and Worcester, the cathedral city on the Cotswold Line.

The towns

Stow-on-the-Wold stands on its hilltop round a broad market square, and Moreton-in-Marsh, 4 miles north, has the region's railway station and a Tuesday market. Chipping Campden has a High Street of wool merchants' houses, a Market Hall of 1627 and the start of the Cotswold Way. Broadway, over the county line in Worcestershire, sits below its tower on the escarpment, and Northleach, to the south, has a wool church full of merchants' brasses. Our guide to where to stay in the Cotswolds compares them as bases. Our guide to the best towns in the Cotswolds compares them with the towns further south.

Shipston-on-Stour, 7 miles (11km) north-east of Moreton in Warwickshire, is the region's other town: its name comes from a sheep-wash by the ford, it was a sheep market for centuries, and its largely Georgian High Street keeps old coaching inns round the square. It has three free car parks.

A path over open pasture with the Windrush valley falling away to Naunton
The wolds above the Windrush valley Photo: Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The villages

Bourton-on-the-Water, with its river and low bridges, is the region's busiest village, and Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter are a short walk away across the fields. Up the Windrush, Naunton and Guiting Power are far quieter walkers' villages. In the north, Blockley has its old silk mills, Snowshill its manor of curiosities and lavender fields, and Stanton a single restored street on the Cotswold Way. For the rest, see things to do in the Cotswolds. With one day and a car, our one-day trip links Bourton, the Slaughters, Stow, Chipping Campden and Broadway Tower; with two, two days in the North Cotswolds adds Daylesford, Batsford and Hidcote from a base in Stow. Our other plans based in the region: a day trip from London by train from Moreton, a gardens weekend from Chipping Campden, a week by car from Stow, a weekend of pub walks from Guiting Power, a winter weekend from Broadway and two days of film locations with a night in Lower Slaughter.

A low arched stone footbridge over the Windrush with honey-stone houses beyond
The Windrush at Bourton-on-the-Water Photo: Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Round Stow, the Swells and the Oddingtons are the villages to walk to. Lower Swell has a Norman Tree of Life doorway at St Mary's and a war memorial by Lutyens, and Upper Swell is a hamlet up the Dikler. At Lower Oddington St Nicholas's stands alone in the woods with a fourteenth-century Doom, and the village also has the Fox, a Daylesford pub with rooms. Adlestrop keeps the sign from its lost station in the bus shelter, Longborough has a Donnington pub, the Coach and Horses, and Bourton-on-the-Hill has Bourton House Garden, open Tuesday to Friday from April to mid-October.

Below Bourton the three Rissingtons climb the valley side, Wyck Rissington first, where Gustav Holst was organist at St Laurence's. The 802 bus serves them from Monday to Saturday. Beyond Naunton, Temple Guiting keeps a Grade I church and the Templars' name. North of Campden, Mickleton has a Grade I church with a broach spire, Ebrington the Ebrington Arms and a part in the Campden Wonder of 1660, and Ilmington eleven carved mice in the pews of St Mary's.

The hamlets are quieter still. North of Moreton, Aston Magna is cut in two by the Cotswold Line, and Stretton-on-Fosse, just off the Fosse Way towards Shipston, has thatched cottages and a seventeenth-century pub. North-west of Stow, Condicote keeps a medieval cross over a spring and a henge in the fields, and Icomb, on its hill above the Evenlode, has Sir John Blaket's armoured effigy in its church. Cold Aston, 3 miles west of Bourton, sits round a green on the high wold with a Grade I Norman church. Under the escarpment near Broadway, Willersey has a long green and a duck pond, and Saintbury a Grade I church under a broach spire, with the Cotswold Way on the hill above.

Sights worth a detour

Three gardens and three houses earn a detour. Hidcote and Kiftsgate Court face each other above Mickleton, and Batsford Arboretum by Moreton is best in spring and autumn. Snowshill Manor holds Charles Wade's collections, with Cotswold Lavender in flower a field away from mid-June to early August. Sezincote is a Mughal-style house of 1805 with a water garden, and Chastleton House is where the rules of croquet were written. Seasons and prices are in Cotswold gardens.

A field of lavender in full flower stretching to a line of trees
Lavender near Snowshill in July Photo: Amanda Slater from Coventry, West Midlands, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Getting around without a car

Moreton-in-Marsh station is about 90 minutes from London Paddington. From outside it, the 801 runs to Stow, Bourton and Cheltenham roughly hourly every day, including Sundays, and Stagecoach's 1, 1A, 2 and 2A go to Blockley, Chipping Campden and Stratford a few times a day, every day. The 606 links Broadway and Campden with Winchcombe and Cheltenham, and the 855 links Bourton and Northleach with Bibury and Cirencester, both Monday to Saturday only. Our three days without a car is planned round these buses, from a base by Moreton station, with the 855 from Bourton for Bibury.

No regular bus reaches the Slaughters, Naunton, Guiting Power or Snowshill (the 803 passes Lower Slaughter once on Tuesdays): walk, or book the Robin minibus, £3 an adult single, Monday to Saturday (2026). On Sundays the 801 and Stagecoach's 1 and 2 run, but not the 606, 802 or 855. Getting here has the trains, the buses page every last bus, and the Cotswolds without a car a plan built round them.

Walking

The Cotswold Way starts at Chipping Campden and runs by Broadway and Stanton towards Winchcombe. The Wardens' Way and the Windrush Way link Bourton, the Slaughters, Naunton and Guiting Power with Winchcombe, each about 13.5 miles, and together make a loop. The field path from Bourton to Lower Slaughter makes a good short walk. Many walks here start or end at a pub; see our pub walks and the village pubs in our guide to food and drink.

For a half day, Broadway and Broadway Tower is 4 miles without stiles and Guiting Power and Naunton the quiet loop on the Windrush Way.

Eating and staying

Stow and Moreton have the most beds and both work without a car: the Porch House on Stow's Square, with the Old Butchers for dinner, and the White Hart Royal minutes from Moreton's platform. For a quiet village bed, Lords of the Manor is in Upper Slaughter, and the Farmers Arms in Guiting Power is the pub to end a Windrush walk at. See where to stay in Stow and Moreton.

When to come and where to go instead

At peak times Bourton draws around 10,000 visitors a day, the county council says, so on summer weekends and bank holidays come before 10am, or go to Naunton or Upper Slaughter instead. Chipping Campden is at its liveliest just after the late May bank holiday (expected on 4 and 5 June in 2027, still to be confirmed), for the Olimpicks and the Scuttlebrook Wake, and Stow holds its horse fair in May and October. At the end of July the Guiting Music Festival brings ten days of concerts to Guiting Power, and on a Saturday in early September the Moreton Show fills the showground on the Batsford Estate.

The quiet corners are the valleys away from the A429: the upper Windrush at Naunton and the Guitings, the Dikler at the Swells, and the villages east of Stow towards Adlestrop. The Cotswolds without the crowds takes it month by month.

Last verified 28 October 2026 by our editors

  • A stone mill and its cottages reflected in a still millpond under a blue sky
  • Stone cottages with tall chimneys at the centre of Upper Slaughter
  • Snowshill's church and stone houses in their hollow on the hills under a moody sky
  • Stone cottages behind the old cross on Stanton's High Street
  • Striped market stalls down both sides of the wide High Street on a Tuesday

Places in the North Cotswolds

  • Stone cottages with flowering shrubs beside a quiet lane

    Adlestrop

    Hamlet · The North Cotswolds

    The hamlet where Edward Thomas's train stopped in June 1914. The station has gone, but its sign and bench hang in the bus shelter, the rectory where Jane Austen visited her relations stands by the church, and the Evenlode valley walk starts from the hall.

  • A long gabled manor house behind tall iron gates and stone piers

    Aston Magna

    Hamlet · The North Cotswolds

    A hamlet in Blockley parish north of Moreton-in-Marsh, cut in two by the Cotswold Line, with a twelfth-century chapel turned cottage, a church of 1846 now a private house, and a Roman small town in the fields towards Moreton.

  • Stone houses and a village shop with a red phone box among autumn trees on a hillside

    Blockley

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A village of former silk mills along a brook in a steep valley near Moreton-in-Marsh, with a Norman chancel in its church, a spring under a raised pavement, two short walks from its lanes and Father Brown's Kembleford on screen.

  • A village street of honey-stone houses dropping steeply towards a wide vale

    Bourton-on-the-Hill

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    The village that climbs the A44 west of Moreton-in-Marsh, with a Grade I church open every day, Bourton House Garden and its tithe barn of 1570, the Horse and Groom, and Sezincote and Batsford at the foot of the hill.

  • A stone bridge over a clear river beside a sunny green

    Bourton-on-the-Water

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    The River Windrush runs shallow through the middle of the village under a run of low stone bridges. The county council puts visitors at around 10,000 a day at peak times, so arrive before ten.

  • Broadway's honey-stone houses beyond the long green at the foot of the High Street

    Broadway

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A Worcestershire village below the escarpment, an old coaching stop with a long High Street, two museums, an artists' history and Broadway Tower on the hill.

  • A long stone building beside a green on a sunny day

    Chipping Campden

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A wool town with a High Street of honey stone, a 1627 Market Hall, a great wool church and almshouses, and the start of the Cotswold Way on its doorstep.

  • A row of stone cottages behind a dry-stone wall in Cold Aston

    Cold Aston

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A village round a green on the high wold 3 miles west of Bourton-on-the-Water, also called Aston Blank, with a Grade I Norman church, a restored seventeenth-century inn with four rooms, and paths west to Notgrove and down to the Windrush.

  • A village green with a stone cross, a low wall and stone houses round it

    Condicote

    Hamlet · The North Cotswolds

    A hamlet round a green on the high wold north-west of Stow, with a twelfth-century church, a medieval cross over a spring, a Roman road for its western lane and a henge in the fields.

  • Thatched stone cottages on a bend of the lane through Ebrington

    Ebrington

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A village of thatched and stone-slated cottages on the slope east of Chipping Campden, with a Grade I church full of Fortescue and Keyt monuments, Hidcote inside its parish boundary, and the Ebrington Arms at its centre.

  • A tall pinnacled bell tower beside gardens with a church spire beyond, under a blue sky

    Evesham

    Gateway · The North Cotswolds

    The market town of the vale, 7 miles below Broadway: the Cotswold Line station with free parking, the R4 bus up Fish Hill to Broadway on weekdays, the abbey's bell tower by the Avon, asparagus from St George's Day to Midsummer, and the Cotswold edge at Broadway and Willersey.

  • The long green at Wyck Rissington with trees in autumn colour

    Great, Little and Wyck Rissington

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    Three villages on the slope east of Bourton-on-the-Water: Wyck with its green, pond and the church where Holst was organist, Little with the RAF graves of a lost airfield, and Great with the Lamb Inn and the Souls brothers' memorial.

  • Stone cottages above the sloping green at Guiting Power, with the lane running through

    Guiting Power

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    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.

  • Stone cottages round a small green with a cross in Icomb

    Icomb

    Hamlet · The North Cotswolds

    A grey stone hamlet on the slope of Icomb Hill south-east of Stow, above the Evenlode valley, with a thirteenth-century church holding Sir John Blaket's armoured effigy and the fifteenth-century manor house he probably built.

  • Ironstone cottages with white hydrangeas across a village green

    Ilmington

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A Warwickshire village of ironstone houses under the Ilmington Downs, at the northern tip of the Cotswolds, with eleven carved mice in its Norman church, a morris tradition going back centuries and two pubs on its greens.

  • Stone cottages lining the High Street at Longborough

    Longborough

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A hillside village above the Evenlode valley between Stow and Moreton, with a 500-seat opera house in a garden, a Grade I church of knights and Cockerells, a Donnington pub on the green and a community shop.

  • The old brick mill with its wheel beside the river at Lower Slaughter

    Lower Slaughter

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A small village along the River Eye, crossed by low stone footbridges, with a red brick watermill at its western end and a field path to Upper Slaughter.

  • A tall church spire among village roofs with green fields beyond

    Mickleton

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    The big village at the foot of the Cotswold edge, 3 miles north of Chipping Campden, with Hidcote and Kiftsgate on the hill above it, a Grade I church and the home of the Pudding Club.

  • The broad High Street with Redesdale Hall and its clock tower at the end

    Moreton-in-Marsh

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A market town on the Fosse Way with a station on the line from London, so the easiest place to start a car-free Cotswold trip, with Batsford Arboretum close by.

  • The River Windrush running between stone houses in Naunton

    Naunton

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A 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.

  • A great Perpendicular church with a tall tower and huge windows above a churchyard

    Northleach

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A small wool town in the Leach valley with one of the great Cotswold wool churches, its floor full of brasses to the merchants who paid for it, and a Georgian prison.

  • A church spire above a grassy slope with the edge of the hamlet

    Saintbury

    Hamlet · The North Cotswolds

    A hamlet on the scarp slope between Broadway and Chipping Campden, with a Grade I church under a broach spire, a medieval cross by the main road and the Cotswold Way on the hill above. Robert Dover of the Olimpicks lived here.

  • A street of brick and painted Georgian fronts hung with bunting under a blue sky

    Shipston-on-Stour

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A small Warwickshire market town on the Stour, named after a sheep wash, with Georgian inns round its square, a church rebuilt by G. E. Street, three free car parks, a level walk to Burmington and buses to Stratford and Moreton.

  • Snowshill's church and stone houses in their hollow on the hills under a moody sky

    Snowshill

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A tiny hill village above Broadway with Snowshill Manor, Charles Wade's house of extraordinary collections, and lavender fields that flower in midsummer.

  • Honey-stone cottages around a small green with a lantern post where two lanes meet

    Stanton

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A spring-line village on the Cotswold Way below the escarpment, restored by Sir Philip Stott from 1906, with a Grade I church and a pub at the top of the street.

  • People crossing a market square in front of tall stone buildings

    Stow-on-the-Wold

    Market town · The North Cotswolds

    A 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.

  • The Royal Shakespeare Theatre and its tower above the Avon

    Stratford-upon-Avon

    Gateway · The North Cotswolds

    Shakespeare's town on the Avon, 10 miles north of the Cotswold edge: the station from Birmingham and London, the Stagecoach buses over the hills to Chipping Campden, the 50 to Shipston, and the Monarch's Way south towards the hills.

  • A thatched stone cottage behind a garden bank with hollyhocks in front

    Stretton-on-Fosse

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A Warwickshire village just off the Fosse Way between Moreton-in-Marsh and Shipston-on-Stour, with stone and thatched cottages on looping lanes, a church rebuilt in 1841, a seventeenth-century pub and a brewery on a farm nearby.

  • A church with a pinnacled tower among parkland trees beyond a green field

    Temple Guiting

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A small village in the upper Windrush valley that takes its name from the Knights Templar, with a Grade I church open in daylight, the hamlets of Kineton, Ford and Barton around it, and the Cotswold Farm Park on its edge.

  • St Nicholas's church from the west, among the churchyard yews

    Upper and Lower Oddington

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    Two villages a quarter of a mile apart on the old Stow road, with a Grade I church in the woods whose Doom painting is among the largest in the country, a Daylesford pub with rooms, and the Evenlode walk to Adlestrop.

  • A stone bridge of several arches over a stream beside old stone cottages

    Upper and Lower Swell

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    Two villages on the River Dikler a mile west of Stow: Lower Swell with its Norman church, Lutyens war memorial, pineapple-topped spa and Donnington pub, and Upper Swell with a Grade I church and a mill beside the road.

  • Stone cottages with tall chimneys at the centre of Upper Slaughter

    Upper Slaughter

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A 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.

  • The village pond at Willersey with stone houses and gardens beyond

    Willersey

    Village · The North Cotswolds

    A village round a long green and a duck pond at the foot of Willersey Hill, 2 miles from Broadway, with a Grade I church, a Donnington pub and the weekday bus from Evesham. The quieter base for Broadway.

  • A cathedral tower above riverside trees and a quay on a sunny day

    Worcester

    Gateway · The North Cotswolds

    The cathedral city on the Severn on the Cotswold Line: Foregate Street and Shrub Hill stations, the trains through Evesham to Moreton-in-Marsh, King John's tomb and Elgar, the vale road to Broadway, and the Malverns every Cotswold viewpoint looks across to.

Things to do in the North Cotswolds

The North Cotswolds: things to do
A castellated stone folly tower in weak autumn sunshine

Historic houses and heritage · Broadway

Broadway Tower

James Wyatt's folly of 1798 on Beacon Hill above Broadway, with a museum in the tower, a red deer park, two cafés and a Cold War nuclear bunker.

  • The Jacobean front of Chastleton House at the end of a gravel path under summer clouds

    Chastleton House

    Historic houses and heritage · Moreton-in-Marsh

    A Jacobean house near Moreton-in-Marsh, built on the estate Robert Catesby sold in 1602, where rules for croquet were written.

    Verified Oct 2026

  • Low Roman walls in the grass at Chedworth, with the Victorian lodge beyond

    Chedworth Roman Villa

    Historic houses and heritage · Northleach

    A Roman villa found in woods near Northleach in 1864, with mosaics, two bath suites and a water shrine, owned by the National Trust.

    Family-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A Highland cow and her shaggy calf lying in the grass

    Cotswold Farm Park

    Family days out · Guiting Power

    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.

    Family-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

Where to stay in the North Cotswolds

The North Cotswolds: places to stay
  • A bedroom with a grey headboard, patterned cushions and wall lamps

    Chester House Hotel

    Hotel · Bourton-on-the-Water

    A family-owned hotel with 22 rooms on Victoria Street, Bourton-on-the-Water, with L'Anatra Italian Kitchen, a walled garden, a car park and rooms for small dogs.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The stone front of the Lansdowne under a blue sky, with its conservatory

    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

  • Glamping pods on a lawn around a stone fire pit with log benches

    Moreton-in-Marsh Club Campsite

    Camping · Moreton-in-Marsh

    The Caravan and Motorhome Club's site on Bourton Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, open all year, with 184 touring pitches, ten pods and a dog walk.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The honey stone front of the Noel Arms on Chipping Campden High Street

    The Noel Arms Hotel

    Inn · Chipping Campden

    A Grade II listed inn with 27 rooms on Chipping Campden's High Street, with a restaurant, parking, accessible rooms and dogs by arrangement.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • The stone front of The Porch House in Stow-on-the-Wold with its sign and a parasol

    The Porch House

    Inn · Stow-on-the-Wold

    An inn with 13 rooms on Digbeth Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, which calls itself England's oldest inn.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • Barrel-vaulted dining hall with a minstrels' gallery, chandelier and panelled walls

    The Lygon Arms

    Hotel · Broadway

    A historic coaching inn on Broadway's High Street, first recorded in 1377, now a hotel with James Martin's Grill and Tavern, a spa with a pool, and dogs welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Wedding venues · EV charging

    Verified Nov 2026

Where to eat and drink in the North Cotswolds

The North Cotswolds: eat and drink
  • Light conservatory dining room with grey chairs, laid tables and windows onto the garden

    Childswickham Inn and Brasserie

    Pubs · Broadway

    A village pub and brasserie at Childswickham, about two miles from Broadway, with cask ale and ciders, a daily specials board, a garden and a dog-friendly bar.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • Pizzas, red wine and small plates on a table before a log fire

    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

  • A stone inglenook with a log fire between settles and small tables

    The Ebrington Arms

    Pubs · Chipping Campden

    A village pub in Ebrington, about 3 miles by road from Chipping Campden, with a landscaped terrace and garden, food every day and five rooms.

    Verified Oct 2026

  • The Farmers Arms, a creeper-covered stone inn on the lane through Guiting Power

    The Farmers Arms

    Pubs · Guiting Power

    A Donnington Brewery pub in Guiting Power with a log burner, a large beer garden and a skittle alley, serving food from Tuesday to Sunday.

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The stone front of the Great Western Arms with its painted sign

    Great Western Arms

    Pubs · Blockley

    A Hook Norton Brewery pub on Station Road, Blockley, with a large patio, a car park, Hooky ales and dogs welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The Old Bakery Tearoom's dining room, with gingham tablecloths, wooden chairs and a wall of tropical floral wallpaper

    The Old Bakery Tearoom

    Cafes and tearooms · Stow-on-the-Wold

    A tearoom in Fountain Court off Digbeth Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, run by Jackie and Alan since 2005, where all the food is made on the premises and dogs come in.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

Walks in and around the North Cotswolds

All walks starting here
  • Mill Cottage and the brick-chimneyed Old Mill beside the River Eye at Lower Slaughter

    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.

  • The shallow ford through the River Eye below the cottages of Upper Slaughter

    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.

  • Batsford House among trees above its park, with the vale beyond

    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.

Sights in and around the North Cotswolds

All sights
  • A long row of gabled stone almshouses above a raised path, with the church tower beyond

    Almshouses, Chipping Campden

    Sight · Historic building · Chipping Campden

    Twelve almshouses on Church Street in Chipping Campden, built in 1612 for Sir Baptist Hicks at a cost of £1,000 on an I-shaped plan said to honour James I, and still homes for older people. Grade I; seen from the street.

  • A stone memorial cross with poppy wreaths on a green beside stone houses and willows

    Bourton-on-the-Water war memorial

    Sight · Monument · Bourton-on-the-Water

    Bourton-on-the-Water's war memorial is a tall stone cross of 1920 on the green beside the Windrush, raised by the village for its 27 men who died in the First World War, with 12 names added after the Second. Listed Grade II; open at all times.

  • A stone slab clapper bridge beside the ford through the Windrush at Lower Harford

    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.

  • A stone curfew tower with a clock and bell gable against a dark stormy sky

    Curfew Tower, Moreton-in-Marsh

    Sight · Historic building · Moreton-in-Marsh

    The Curfew Tower is a small sixteenth-century stone bell tower on the corner of Moreton-in-Marsh's High Street and Oxford Street, perhaps the town's oldest public building, with a bell of 1633, a clock of 1648 and a past as the town lock-up.

  • Green slopes of a hill falling away to a wide vale under a blue sky with clouds

    Dover's Hill

    Sight · Viewpoint · Chipping Campden

    A National Trust hill on the Cotswold edge above Chipping Campden, about 230m up, with a topograph naming the view over the Vale of Evesham and a level path to it. Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpicks have been held here, on and off, since 1612.

  • A medieval stone house with a gabled bay window on a High Street lined with parked cars

    Grevel's House, Chipping Campden

    Sight · Historic building · Chipping Campden

    A medieval house on Chipping Campden's High Street with a two-storey Perpendicular bay window under gargoyles, named after William Grevel, perhaps the richest Cotswold wool merchant of his day, who died in 1401. Grade I; a private house seen from the street.

Stories about the North Cotswolds

All stories
  • Stone cottages reflected in a calm river in golden evening light

    Cotswolds itineraries: one day to a week

    Story · Guides · 12 minute read

    Cotswolds itineraries from one day to a week: how many days you need, a day by car or by train, two days in the north, three days north to south, five days across two regions, a week with two bases or on the Cotswold Way, and themed weekends for gardens, walks, dogs and winter.

  • Lamp-lit dining room with stone walls, wooden tables and a window seat

    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.

  • Open grassland with yellow gorse on a high common looking out over a wide vale

    Where are the Cotswolds?

    Story · Guides · 11 minute read

    The Cotswolds are a range of limestone hills in south-central England, a National Landscape of 787 square miles across six counties, most of it in Gloucestershire. Here is where they are, what the boundary includes, and what makes the stone golden.

History of the North Cotswolds

The Fosse Way, the Roman road from Exeter to Lincoln, crossed these wolds in the first century and still carries the A429 through Moreton and Stow. Abbeys and wool shaped the towns: Campden had a market charter by the late twelfth century, Westminster Abbey laid out Moreton between 1222 and 1246, and Stow's fairs were granted in 1476. William Grevel of Campden, who died in 1401, was among the richest Cotswold wool merchants, and the churches at Campden and Northleach are the merchants' monuments. The last battle of the first Civil War was fought at Stow in 1646, and the prisoners were held in St Edward's church. Sir Baptist Hicks's great house at Campden had been burnt by its own garrison the year before. A horse-drawn tramway linked Moreton with Stratford from 1826 and the main-line station opened in 1853. C. R. Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft came to Campden in 1902, artists settled in Broadway at the end of the nineteenth century, and Charles Wade bought Snowshill Manor in 1919. Bourton's model village was built in 1936 and opened in 1937, and in 2026 the county and parish councils ran a review of parking and transport in the village.

Questions about the North Cotswolds

Where is the best base in the North Cotswolds without a car?

Moreton-in-Marsh, for its station, or Stow-on-the-Wold, about 20 minutes away on the 801 bus, which runs about hourly every day from outside Moreton station to Stow, Bourton and Cheltenham. The last bus back from Bourton to Stow and the station leaves at 9.15pm on weekdays, 8.15pm on Saturdays and 5.15pm on Sundays; later buses end at the Bourton depot (timetable from 3 May 2026). Both towns have hotels in the centre and walks from the door.

Which villages in the North Cotswolds are quietest?

Naunton, Guiting Power and Upper Slaughter are far quieter than Bourton-on-the-Water and Lower Slaughter, and all three are on the Wardens' Way. The Swells, the Oddingtons and Adlestrop round Stow, and Blockley near Moreton, see few coaches at any time of year. Apart from Blockley, which has a few Stagecoach buses a day, none has more than an occasional bus, which is part of the reason.

Which villages are in the North Cotswolds?

The towns are Chipping Campden, Broadway, Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh and Shipston-on-Stour. The villages are Bourton-on-the-Water, Upper and Lower Slaughter, Naunton, Guiting Power and Temple Guiting, Blockley, Snowshill, the Swells, the Oddingtons, Adlestrop, Longborough, Bourton-on-the-Hill, the three Rissingtons, Mickleton, Ebrington and Ilmington. Stanton belongs to the Cotswold Edge and Northleach to the Coln valley.

Is Broadway in the Cotswolds?

Yes. Broadway is a Cotswold village at the foot of the escarpment, inside the Cotswolds National Landscape, but it is in Worcestershire rather than Gloucestershire, so its car parks and buses follow different rules from Chipping Campden's, 5 miles away. Broadway Tower, on the hill above, is on the Cotswold Way.

What is the difference between the North and the South Cotswolds?

Stone, rivers and crowds. The North Cotswolds are the high wolds of golden limestone between Chipping Campden and Bourton, with the famous villages and most of the coaches. The South Cotswolds, towards Bath, are lower, greyer and quieter, with Tetbury, Malmesbury and Castle Combe. Between them the Cotswold Edge, the Five Valleys and the Coln valley each have a guide of their own.

How many days do you need for the North Cotswolds?

Two is comfortable: one for Stow, Bourton and the Slaughters, one for Chipping Campden, Broadway and Hidcote. With a car, our one-day trip covers Bourton, the Slaughters, Stow, Campden and Broadway Tower. Without one, three days run on the 801 and 855 buses from Moreton station.

Getting to the North Cotswolds

Map of The North Cotswolds
© OpenStreetMap contributors

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