David P Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Winchcombe, Belas Knap and Cleeve Common
A 9.2-mile (14.8km) moderate loop of four to four and a half hours from Winchcombe: up the Cotswold Way through the Sudeley estate to Belas Knap, west along the byways to the top of Cleeve Common, then down by Postlip's Norman chapel and Breakheart Plantation.
- Distance
- 14.8 km (9.2 mi)
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time
- 4 hrs, 15 mins
- Ascent
- 353 m
- Circular
- Circular
The route
Starts at Abbey Terrace, Winchcombe follows the Cotswold Way for a while Steep sectionMuddy in winterLivestock in fieldsDogs on lead near sheepCafé on route Download GPX
Step by step
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Step 1: Winchcombe to the Sudeley estate
From Abbey Terrace, walk down Vineyard Street and over Vineyard Bridge, and follow the Cotswold Way footpath south across the fields and the Sudeley estate, past the cricket pitch, to Corndean Lane, about 2.3km.
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Step 2: Up to Belas Knap
Cross Corndean Lane and keep climbing steeply on the Cotswold Way for about 1km, past Black Barn Plantation, to Belas Knap long barrow.
- Steep section
- Muddy in winter
- Dogs on lead
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Step 3: West to Cleeve Common
Leave the Cotswold Way and follow the restricted byways west for about 1.6km, past the barn at Wontley Farm, then the footpath on to Cleeve Common. Follow its main path north-west across the top, at about 325m the highest point of the walk, past the cross dyke to the golf course. The Cleeve Common Trust advises against crossing the common in fog or low cloud.
- Dogs on lead
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Step 4: Past the golf club and down to Postlip
Cross the golf course with care, watching for golfers, to the quarry car park by the clubhouse, where Flynn’s on the Hill serves food. Follow the restricted byway and footpaths down the slope, then the Cotswold Way bridleway past St James’ Chapel and Postlip Hall and over the River Isbourne.
- Café
- Steep section
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Step 5: Breakheart Plantation and back
Follow the bridleway up past Breakheart Plantation, then the footpaths east and downhill for about 2km, past Coates Mill House, to Corndean Lane. Cross the river again and follow the footpath back to Vineyard Street and Abbey Terrace.
- Muddy in winter
Sights on the way
The sights this walk passes, numbered as on the map.
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Dent's Terrace, Winchcombe
Sight · Historic building · Winchcombe
A row of ten almshouses of 1865 on Abbey Terrace, Winchcombe, by Sir George Gilbert Scott and J Drayton Wyatt for John and Emma Dent of Sudeley Castle: cream, yellow and pink stone under stepped gables. Grade II.
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St Peter's Church, Winchcombe
Sight · Church · Winchcombe
St Peter's is Winchcombe's Grade I parish church, built in one campaign in about 1458 to 1468, with some 40 carved grotesques round its walls, a fan-vaulted tower and two stone coffins tied to the St Kenelm story. Usually open daily.
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Vineyard Bridge, Winchcombe
Sight · Bridge · Winchcombe
Vineyard Bridge is the single stone arch of 1891 that carries Vineyard Street over the River Isbourne in Winchcombe, the last work in the town of the architect J. Drayton Wyatt and the way to Sudeley Castle. Listed Grade II.
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River Isbourne
Sight · River · Winchcombe
The River Isbourne rises at a spring on Cleeve Hill above Winchcombe and runs north past Postlip, Winchcombe, Toddington and Sedgeberrow to join the Avon at Evesham. A waymarked path of some 14 miles, the Isbourne Way, follows it.
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Cleeve Common
Sight · Common or park · The Cotswold Edge
Gloucestershire’s largest common: more than 400 hectares of open limestone grassland on the Cotswold Edge above Cheltenham, with the highest point of the Cotswolds at 330m, an Iron Age hillfort, a Bronze Age cross dyke and views to the Malverns and the Black Mountains.
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St James' Chapel, Postlip
Sight · Church · Winchcombe
St James' Chapel is a small Norman chapel of about 1140 beside Postlip Hall below Cleeve Common, with a chevron-carved doorway, used as a farm building for centuries and restored for Catholic worship in 1891. Grade I; seen from the Cotswold Way.
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Tithe barn, Postlip
Sight · Historic building · Winchcombe
The tithe barn at Postlip is an eight-bay stone barn, probably of the fifteenth century, below Cleeve Common near Winchcombe, with raised crucks inside, said to have dried the town's tobacco in the 1600s and home every July to the Cotswold Beer Festival.
The walk in detail
The Winchcombe, Belas Knap and Cleeve Common walk is a 9.2-mile (14.8km) loop from Abbey Terrace in Winchcombe to Belas Knap long barrow and the top of Cleeve Common. It is moderate, with about 353m of climbing, and takes four to four and a half hours. The golf club café is halfway, the White Hart at the end.
Much of it follows the Cotswold Way, out along the National Trail's section to Cleeve Hill and back down part of it on the other side, by Postlip.
Winchcombe and the Sudeley estate
The walk leaves Winchcombe down Vineyard Street and crosses the Sudeley estate on the Cotswold Way. On the way you pass St Peter's, a Grade I church built in one campaign between about 1458 and 1468, with large gargoyles on its tower. Vineyard Bridge, a single stone arch of 1891 by J. Drayton Wyatt, takes you over the stream. Sudeley Castle, where Katherine Parr is buried, is in the park below. The castle charged £24 for an adult in its 2026 season, which ends on 1 November, and dogs are not allowed in its grounds, but the footpath across the estate is open to walkers.
Belas Knap
Belas Knap is reached by the hardest climb of the day, about 170m in a kilometre and a half from the Sudeley estate. This Neolithic long barrow has a false entrance and side chambers. English Heritage says it was explored between 1863 and 1865 and again in 1928 to 1930, when its chambers were found to hold about 31 burials, and it has been restored more than once. English Heritage keeps it free to visit in daylight all year. The National Landscape's Winchcombe and Belas Knap walk is the shorter way up and back, at 5.5 miles.
Cleeve Common
Cleeve Common is the high point of the walk, at about 325m. The National Trail says that at Cleeve Hill walkers are on the highest part of the whole Cotswold Way, and the Cleeve Common Trust calls the common the highest ground in the Cotswolds. From Belas Knap the route leaves the Cotswold Way and follows byways west past Wontley Farm, whose stone barn of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century is listed Grade II. It then crosses the common by its main path, past a cross dyke and across the golf course. The Trust names Cheltenham, the Vale of Evesham, the Malverns, the Black Mountains and the Shropshire hills among the views. For a shorter walk on the common alone, see Cleeve Common and Cleeve Cloud.
Postlip and Breakheart Plantation
The way down follows the Cotswold Way in reverse, the last part of the section from Winchcombe to Cleeve Hill, past a Norman chapel at Postlip. St James' Chapel is a small two-cell Norman church of the twelfth century, now a private Roman Catholic chapel, with a chevron-carved north doorway. It is listed Grade I. The tithe barn at Postlip Hall is a scheduled monument. The route then climbs past Breakheart Plantation and drops east across the fields, past Coates Mill House, which its listing says may be a remnant of a grist mill and bakery, to the river below Winchcombe.
What walkers report
The walk crosses farmland, woods and open common. Walkers describe the first few kilometres as uphill and steep in places and the top as open and windy. In winter they report mud and pooled water. They also report sheep, cattle and lambs in spring, and walkers with dogs kept them on a lead in those fields.
The golf course is the hazard walkers mention most. They report golfers playing across the path, which in one place runs right in front of a tee. The Cleeve Common Trust asks walkers to take care on the course, and asks golfers not to endanger walkers. Walkers found the route well signed.
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Parking, buses and food
The walk starts near Back Lane car park in Winchcombe (GL54 5PZ), which costs £1.50 all day by RingGo, and walkers also report free roadside spaces near Vineyard Street. Some start from the golf club car park on Cleeve Hill instead, which the Cleeve Common Trust lists at £2 for 24 hours (by the Evology Pay app or the machine at the clubhouse, free if you spend £2 at the club). The golf club has the only toilets on the common, up steps. The 606 bus from Cheltenham reaches Winchcombe roughly hourly, Monday to Saturday, and so does Stagecoach West’s W, by Cleeve Hill. There is no Sunday bus.
Halfway round, Flynn’s on the Hill at the golf club is open to the public seven days a week for coffee, drinks, snacks and cakes, with a fuller menu from Tuesday to Sunday and dogs welcome in the bar; ring the club for its hours. In Winchcombe, the White Hart Inn on the High Street, with a restaurant and bar open to non-residents, is close to the finish. The Lion Inn on North Street welcomes dogs in the pub, and our places to stay in Winchcombe has rooms for a longer stay.
Nearby walks
The easiest walk from the same start is the 2-mile walk to Sudeley Castle, through the castle grounds and back by the River Isbourne. Our guide to the Cotswold Edge has more on the escarpment and its walks, and our guide to walking and the outdoors has more on the Cotswold Way.
Places on the way
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Sudeley Castle and Gardens
Historic houses and heritage · Winchcombe
A castle on the edge of Winchcombe where Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's last queen, is buried, with gardens, a Tudor history and the Dent family's home.
Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Belas Knap Long Barrow
Historic houses and heritage · Winchcombe
A Neolithic long barrow on the hill above Winchcombe, with a false entrance and side chambers, free to visit and on the Cotswold Way.
Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The White Hart Inn
Inn · Winchcombe
An inn with sixteen rooms on Winchcombe's High Street, with dog-friendly rooms and a restaurant and bar open all day to non-residents.
Dog-friendly · Wedding venues · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Lion Inn
Inn · Winchcombe
A restored fifteenth-century coaching inn on North Street, Winchcombe, with nine rooms, run by Butcombe.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Sudeley Castle Cottages
Self-catering · Winchcombe
Nineteen holiday cottages on the Sudeley Castle estate at Winchcombe, sleeping three to fourteen, some dog-friendly, with free castle entry in season.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 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 Winchcombe-
Elms Farm
B&B · Winchcombe
A converted freight wagon and five Caravan and Motorhome Club pitches on a working farm at Gretton, about two miles north-west of Winchcombe.
Verified Oct 2026
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North Farmcote
B&B · Winchcombe
Bed and breakfast in a farmhouse above Winchcombe, built around 1840, its owners say, as a dower house for Lord Sudeley's mother.
Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Cleeve Hill Hotel
B&B · Winchcombe
A 12-room bed and breakfast hotel on Cleeve Hill, about three miles south-west of Winchcombe, with views over the Severn Vale and a door onto Cleeve Common and the Cotswold Way.
Walker-friendly · Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
More like this
More walks to try
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The Cotswold Way
Walk · Dog-friendly
The Cotswold Way is a 102-mile (164km) National Trail walk from Chipping Campden to Bath along the escarpment, in 15 sections; the official guidebook suggests seven to ten days, and its frequent steep climbs make it hard going.
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Winchcombe and Belas Knap
Walk · Starts in Winchcombe · 2 hrs, 45 mins · Circular
A 5.5-mile (8.8km) moderate loop of two to two and three quarter hours from Winchcombe, up the Cotswold Way and through the woods to Belas Knap, the Neolithic long barrow, then home on the Winchcombe Way by Wadfield Farm and Sudeley, with two stiles and a narrow road.
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Cleeve Common and Cleeve Cloud
Walk · Starts in the Cotswold Edge · 1 hr, 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 4-mile (6.4km) moderate loop of about an hour and three quarters on the highest ground in the Cotswolds: from the main road at Cleeve Hill past the golf club, across Cleeve Common, back along the scarp by the hill fort and Cleeve Cloud, and down through Thrift Wood.