Self-catering · Sheepscombe
Woody's Cottage
A National Trust holiday cottage for four in the beechwoods half a mile from Sheepscombe, built in the 19th century for the Ebworth estate, with a garden room looking down the valley.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
A stone cottage at the end of a lane into National Trust beechwoods, with a garden room looking down the valley. It suits a family or two couples who want woodland walks from the door and a pub ten minutes' walk away in Sheepscombe.
- Good: Garden room opening onto the patio, with a view down the Sheepscombe valley
- Good: Two dogs welcome
- Good: Large private garden with a ha-ha
- Worth knowing: Both bedrooms upstairs; the bath has no wall hook for the shower
- Worth knowing: Night storage heating, an induction hob and Wi-Fi the Trust warns can be patchy
- Worth knowing: No early arrivals: check-in is at 4pm
About
Woody's Cottage is a National Trust holiday cottage in a small secluded settlement near Ebworth, half a mile from Sheepscombe. It was built in the nineteenth century for the owner of the Ebworth estate. The beechwoods around it belong to the Trust, and the village is about 750m away on foot, under ten minutes' walk.
It sleeps four. Downstairs are a kitchen, an open-plan sitting and dining room with a wood burner, and a toilet; upstairs a super-king bedroom that can be made into a twin, a twin room and a bathroom. The best room is the garden room, reached from the patio, which looks over the Sheepscombe valley. The garden is large, with a lawn, outdoor furniture and a ha-ha.
Two dogs are welcome, and a cot and high chair are provided. Guests get free entry to National Trust places during their stay. Stroud is about four miles away as the crow flies, nearer seven by road, and the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way starts at Bulls Cross, about three miles south-west by road. Book on the Trust's holidays site, whose calendar ran to October 2028 when we checked in October 2026. We found it on no booking platform when we checked; it is let through the Trust.
The details
- Rooms
- 2
- Check-in
- 4pm
- Check-out
- By 10am (4pm on Sundays)
- Features
- Garden or terrace · Views · Open fire · Parking · Wi-Fi · Dogs inside
- Parking
- At the end of the lane by the front gate, or in the open garage where the lane becomes a track into the woods.
Photos
The garden room 
The sitting and dining room 
The twin bedroom 
The kitchen
Location
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- The Butchers Arms 0.7 km away
- Shepherd Huts at the Butchers Arms 0.7 km away
- Painswick Golf Club Bar and Café 2.8 km away
- St Anne's 3.1 km away
Sights nearby
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Snows Farm Nature Reserve
Sight · Nature reserve · Stroud and the Five Valleys
Snows Farm is a Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserve of 21 hectares at the head of the Slad valley: old limestone grassland, ancient beech wood and the Dillay Brook, with more than 300 kinds of plant, grazed by cattle and Dartmoor ponies, on the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way.
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Painswick Stream
Sight · River · Painswick
The Painswick Stream runs south in the valley below Painswick to the River Frome at Stroud. It drove the town's cloth trade: 25 mills stood in the parish in 1820. Footpaths follow it past Loveday's Mill, Skinners Mill and Kingsmill, old mills that are now homes.
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Quaker Meeting House, Painswick
Sight · Historic building · Painswick
Painswick's Friends Meeting House is a plain stone meeting house of 1706 off Vicarage Street, built on land given by the Loveday family and still used by Quakers every Sunday. Its walled garden, an old burial ground, is open for quiet reflection. Grade II.
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Painswick Beacon
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Painswick
Painswick Beacon is a hill north of Painswick, about 280m high, crowned by a large Iron Age hill fort with triple ramparts. Royalist troops camped here in 1643. It is open common land on the Cotswold Way, shared with a golf course, with views over the Severn Vale.