Things to do · Northleach
Far Peak Climbing, near Northleach
An outdoor climbing centre off the Fosse Way south of Northleach, with a 15m tower, indoor and outdoor bouldering, a low ropes course and taster sessions from age 3.
Family-friendly
A rainy-day answer for climbing families and a fine-day one for everyone else: bouldering needs no booking, the low ropes course suits small children, and first-timers can book an hour's taster with an instructor.
- Good: Bouldering needs no booking
- Good: Taster sessions from age 3
- Good: Low ropes course in 4 acres of woodland
- Good: Free parking and a café next door
- Worth knowing: Everyone must register and sign a waiver first, about 15 minutes
- Worth knowing: Parents must stay on site; no dogs in the climbing areas
About
Far Peak Climbing is an outdoor climbing and bouldering centre off the Fosse Way, about a mile south of the traffic lights in Northleach, at the turning for Ablington and Bibury. It calls itself the only dedicated climbing and outdoor centre in the Cotswolds.
The main tower is 12m high with a 15m front section, four auto belays and a floodlit face, open year round when the weather allows. There are indoor bouldering walls and a bouldering cave, an outdoor bouldering wall lit for evenings, and a Moonboard. In 4 acres of woodland beside it, a low ropes course of balance beams, zip lines and rope bridges suits children from age 3.
Bouldering needs no booking, but you have to register and sign a waiver first, which takes about 15 minutes unless you do it online at home. To climb the tower you either pass a belay check or book an instructor. In 2026 a bouldering ticket cost £10 and a low ropes ticket £10 on its tickets page (£8.50 on its other pages, with supervising adults free), the two together £16.50, and an hour's taster session £15 for ages 3 to 6 and £17.50 for older children and teenagers. A private session cost £60 for two and £20 for each extra person, up to six, with kit hire and a day pass for bouldering and low ropes.
Before you go
Its website gives opening times only for the summer months, so ring before you set out; the phone is answered only in opening hours. Parents must stay on site while children climb, and the Hayloft Café next door serves coffee and lunch. Dogs can come onto the site but not into the climbing areas or the café. Allow an hour for a taster or two to three hours to boulder. Roots + Seeds, a café and kitchen in a converted barn on the Far Peak estate, opened in March 2026. Chedworth Roman Villa is a few miles west.
Opening hours and season
Its website gives opening times only for the summer months, so ring before you go. Low ropes course from April into the autumn, weather permitting, until 6pm.
Facilities
- CaféThe Hayloft Café next door
- Free parking
- RampsMatting on the gravel; baby changing
- DogsOn site and in reception, not in the climbing areas or café
The details
- Time to allow
- An hour for a taster; two or three hours to boulder
- Features
- Parking
- Parking
- Free parking beside the climbing centre and café.
Photos
Climbing among the trees 
The bouldering wall 
The tower at dusk 
The wall by the trees
Location
Places to stay nearby
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Far Peak Camping
Camping · Northleach
A seasonal campsite with tent and hook-up pitches, tipis, bell tents, shepherd huts and glamping domes beside the Far Peak climbing centre, about a mile from Northleach.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Wheatsheaf Inn
Inn · Northleach
A seventeenth-century coaching inn on West End, Northleach, with 14 bedrooms, a garden and food all day, friendly to families and dogs.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Inn at Fossebridge
Pubs · Chedworth
An inn, a hostelry since the early seventeenth century by its own account, where the Fosse Way crosses the River Coln, between Cirencester and Northleach, with 4 acres of riverside gardens, log fires and seven rooms.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- Far Peak Camping 0.0 km away
- The Old Prison Café, Northleach 2.2 km away
- Lynwood & Co, Northleach 2.2 km away
- Wheatsheaf Inn 2.2 km away
Sights nearby
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St Peter and St Paul, Northleach
Sight · Church · Northleach
St Peter and St Paul is Northleach's wool church, rebuilt in the fifteenth century with money from the town's woolmen: a tall tower, a vaulted two-storey porch and one of England's finest collections of brasses to wool merchants. Grade I; open daily.
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The Old Prison, Northleach
Sight · Historic building · Northleach
The Old Prison at Northleach is the house of correction William Blackburn designed in 1791 for Sir George Onesiphorus Paul's reform of Gloucestershire's prisons. A cell block and the Victorian courtroom survive, free to see, with a café. Grade II*.
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St George's Church, Hampnett
Sight · Church · Northleach
St George's is the small Norman church of Hampnett, a hamlet a mile from Northleach, built about 1125. Its chancel was painted around 1868 to 1871 under William Wiggin, later its rector, with stencilled flowers and stars, and survived a villagers' fund to remove it. Grade I.