Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Things to do · Uley
Nympsfield Long Barrow
An open Neolithic chambered tomb at Coaley Peak on the Cotswold edge, its roofless chambers laid bare, free to visit, with parking alongside, picnic tables and views over the Severn vale.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Among the easiest long barrows to reach, with parking beside it and picnic tables on Coaley Peak. Roofless, so you see the whole plan at once; then walk a mile south to go inside Hetty Pegler's Tump.
- Good: Free, open in daylight
- Good: Parking beside the site
- Good: Picnic tables at Coaley Peak viewpoint
- Good: Dogs on leads welcome
- Worth knowing: Roofless: nothing to go inside
- Worth knowing: The postcode is only a guide: look for Coaley Peak off the B4066
About
Nympsfield Long Barrow is a Neolithic chambered tomb at Coaley Peak, high on the Cotswold scarp near Frocester and about 2 miles (3km) north of Uley. Its roof was taken off and the mound ploughed at some point, so the stone chambers lie open to the sky and you can read the whole plan: a forecourt and an entrance between two standing stones, then a passage to a pair of side chambers and an end chamber.
Digs in 1862, 1937 and 1974 found at least 13 people, among them a child buried in a stone cist in the north chamber, with Neolithic pottery. Later Neolithic pottery in the blocking of the entrance suggests the passage was closed before the period ended. Local stories have gathered round it, among them one that it sheltered lepers.
It is free and open in daylight, with parking beside it at Coaley Peak, where picnic tables look out over the Severn vale and the Woodland Trust's beech wood is a short stroll. Dogs on leads are welcome; smoking, barbecues and naked flames are not. Twenty minutes is enough for the barrow.
Walk a mile south along the Cotswold Way to Hetty Pegler's Tump, where you can go inside a barrow of the same family, and on to Uley Bury. Woodchester Park lies in the valley just to the east.
Opening hours and season
Open at any reasonable time in daylight, every day of the year.
Facilities
- Car parkBeside the site at Coaley Peak
- Picnic tablesAt Coaley Peak viewpoint
- Dogs on leads
The details
- Time to allow
- Twenty minutes, or longer with a picnic
- Features
- Parking · Picnic area · Views
- History
- Neolithic chambered tomb; excavated 1862, 1937 and 1974
- Parking
- Coaley Peak car park, beside the barrow, off the B4066 about half a mile north of the crossroads for Frocester and Nympsfield.
- Without a car
- Cam and Dursley station is about 4.5 miles (7km) away by road; take a taxi. The Cotswold Way passes Coaley Peak.
Photos
The chambers Photo: Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 
Standing stones in the chamber Photo: Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 
The western end of the barrow Photo: Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 
The barrow and its chamber
Location
Places to stay nearby
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Owlpen Manor Cottages
Self-catering · Uley
Nine dog-friendly holiday cottages for two to eight, and a glamping camp, on the Owlpen Manor estate in a wooded valley a mile east of Uley.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Downhouse Farm Holidays
Self-catering · Dursley
A Grade II listed farmhouse for ten and a converted granary barn for four on a working family farm at Springhill, about a mile from Dursley; dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Stonehouse Court
Hotel · Stroud
A seventeenth-century manor house hotel in six acres at Stonehouse, near Stroud, with 44 rooms, a brasserie using its own kitchen garden, and weddings.
Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- Hetty Pegler's Tump (Uley Long Barrow) 1.4 km away
- Woodchester Mansion 1.5 km away
- Uley Bury 2.6 km away
- Owlpen Manor Cottages 3.1 km away
Sights nearby
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Woodchester Park
Sight · Common or park · Nailsworth
A steep wooded valley west of Nailsworth, National Trust since 1994: a deer park walled by the Huntleys after a grant of 1564, with five lakes of the early nineteenth century, a boathouse of about 1820 and the unfinished Woodchester Mansion at its head.
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Woodchester Park boathouse
Sight · Historic building · Nailsworth
The boathouse on Old Pond in Woodchester Park is a small rustic building of about 1820, probably by John Adey Repton for the first Earl Ducie, with a boat dock below and a timber oriel over the boat opening. Grade II; seen from the path over the dam.
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All Saints' Church, Selsley
Sight · Church · Stroud and the Five Valleys
All Saints, Selsley is a Grade I church of 1862 by G F Bodley on the hillside above Stroud, with some of the first church glass made by Morris and Company: windows by Morris, Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Madox Brown and Philip Webb, among them a Creation rose window. Open in daylight.