Buses in the Cotswolds

The Cotswolds have one good bus and a dozen useful ones. The good one is Pulhams' 801, which links Moreton-in-Marsh station, Stow, Bourton and Cheltenham hourly seven days a week, with a last bus back to the station after 9pm on weekdays and at 8.40pm on Saturdays. The useful ones run hourly or two-hourly from Monday to Saturday, finish by early evening and mostly do not run on Sundays, which is the single fact to plan around: there is no Sunday bus to Bibury, Winchcombe or Castle Combe. Every single fare is capped at £3 until the end of 2026. The times below are from the operators' timetables as they stood on 27 October 2026; check the day's times on Traveline before you rely on a last bus.

Fares, tickets and the £3 cap

A single on any local bus here costs £3 at most until 31 December 2026, and the government has said the cap will fall to £2 from 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK, updated 19 August 2026 (opens in a new tab)). Pulhams, Stagecoach West, Stagecoach Oxfordshire and Faresaver all take part, and the Robin caps its own adult fare at £3; the National Express coach does not. On Pulhams buses, since 26 July 2026, an adult single is paid by tapping a contactless card or phone on the reader as you board and again on the exit reader as you get off; returns, child and group tickets are still bought from the driver, by card or cash. On the other operators, pay the driver by contactless or cash, or buy in the operator's app. Day tickets are worth it from the third bus, and they are the operator's own: a Pulhams day ticket is for Pulhams buses, so a day that uses the 801 (Pulhams) and the Stagecoach 1 to Chipping Campden needs two, and the prices are in each operator's app. Over-60s and disabled people with an English concessionary pass travel free after 9.30am on weekdays and all day at weekends, as everywhere in England. Plan any connection on Traveline (opens in a new tab), which holds every operator's current timetable.

The 801: Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow, Bourton and Cheltenham

The 801 runs hourly every day between Cheltenham Royal Well bus station, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh station and Chipping Norton. On weekdays the buses towards Bourton leave Moreton station at 6.30am, 8am and 8.45am (on Saturdays the first is 8am), then at 45 minutes past each hour until 1.45pm, then 3.05pm, 3.55pm, 4.55pm, 5.35pm, 6.20pm, 7.10pm, 7.40pm, 8.40pm and 9.40pm; the 6.20pm and the buses after 7.10pm finish in Bourton, so 7.10pm is the last through to Cheltenham. They reach Stow about 19 minutes later and Bourton about 30 minutes later, then Cheltenham in about 50 more. Coming back, the last bus from Bourton to Stow and the station leaves the Pulhams depot at 9.20pm on weekdays and 8.20pm on Saturdays. On Sundays and public holidays it is hourly from Moreton station at 7.45am to 6.45pm, the last through to Cheltenham at 4.45pm; the last Sunday bus back to Stow and the station leaves Bourton at 5.15pm (Stow 5.33pm), because the later ones end at the Pulhams depot. A morning and an afternoon journey go by Northleach; the rest do not stop there. The timetable is the Pulhams 801 PDF from 3 May 2026 (opens in a new tab).

The 801 passes the Lower Slaughter turn on the A429 but has no timed stop in the Slaughters: get off in Bourton and walk the mile and a half along the Windrush, or book the Robin. The 802 is Bourton's local loop to the Rissingtons, Monday to Saturday; the 803 runs on Tuesdays only, one morning bus from Bourton by Lower Slaughter, Stow and the Oddingtons to Moreton, and neither reaches Kingham station.

The 855: Bourton, Northleach, Bibury and Cirencester

The 855 is the only bus to Bibury, and it runs from Monday to Saturday only, about hourly: from Bourton's Pulhams depot at 5.53am and then from 6.53am to 4.53pm (there is no 7.53am), through Northleach and Aldsworth to Bibury in about 37 minutes and on to Cirencester Forum about 20 minutes later. From Cirencester the buses leave about hourly from 7am to 6pm (none at 8am); the last from Bibury to Cirencester is 5.37pm and the last from Bibury back to Bourton 6.18pm. It does not go by Quenington and Coln St Aldwyns, which the Robin's Cotswolds South zone serves instead. No Sunday or evening service: build the day round it.

The X52: Oxford, Witney, Burford, Northleach and Cheltenham

Pulhams' X52 has run since 29 March 2026 in place of Stagecoach's S2, along the A40 from Oxford's Gloucester Green through Witney, Burford, Northleach and Andoversford to Cheltenham. On weekdays it leaves Oxford at 8.50am, 10.50am, 12.50pm, 2.50pm and 5.10pm, and Cheltenham at 6.27am, 8.47am, 10.47am, 12.47pm, 2.47pm and 5.07pm; Oxford to Burford takes about an hour and Burford to Cheltenham about 50 minutes. In Burford it stops at the Oxford Road layby on the A40 at the top of the hill, a walk down the hill into the town, not in the High Street. The last weekday bus from Burford that goes through to Oxford is the 3.39pm; the 5.59pm stops at Witney. From the first Sunday in May to the last Sunday in September it runs two-hourly on Sundays; the rest of the year there are two Sunday journeys each way, from Cheltenham at 8.47am and 2.47pm and from Oxford at 10.50am and 4.50pm (Pulhams' X52 page (opens in a new tab)).

Chipping Campden, Broadway and Winchcombe

Stagecoach Midlands' 1 and 2 cross from Moreton-in-Marsh station to Chipping Campden (about half an hour by Blockley on the 2, nearer 50 minutes by Broadway on the 1) and on to Stratford-upon-Avon, a few times a day each: in the timetable from late October 2026, Monday to Saturday, the 1 leaves the station at 9.23am and 12.26pm and the 2 at 10.45am and 6.45pm; on Sundays the 1 leaves at 9.30am, 12.46pm and 5.30pm and the 2 at 11am, 3.38pm and 6.45pm. The 1 also calls at Broadway, which makes it the one Sunday bus to Broadway. Pulhams' 606 is the other way to Broadway and the only bus to Winchcombe: from Cheltenham Pittville Street at 7.40am, 8.40am and then roughly hourly to 6.20pm, Monday to Saturday, reaching Winchcombe in about 48 minutes; about every other bus (8.40am, 10.55am, 12.55pm, 3.10pm and 5.20pm) continues by Toddington, the Stanton turn on the main road, Broadway and Willersey to Chipping Campden, and the 6.20pm goes as far as Broadway. The last 606 back from Campden to Cheltenham is 5.19pm. No Sunday service.

Oxford to Woodstock and Chipping Norton

Stagecoach Oxfordshire's S3 leaves Oxford railway station about hourly through the day, at 33 minutes past from Monday to Saturday (last through the day 6.33pm, then 8.03pm, 10.03pm and midnight) and at three minutes past every hour from 8.03am to 11.03pm on Sundays. It reaches Woodstock (the stop is outside Blenheim Palace) in about 35 minutes and Chipping Norton in about an hour. The S7 does Oxford, Woodstock, Hanborough station and Witney every 20 to 40 minutes through the day, which is the bus that joins the Cotswold Line to Woodstock: from Hanborough station about every half hour from Monday to Saturday, early morning to late evening, and hourly on Sundays from 8.33am to 6.31pm, about eight minutes to Woodstock. Thames Travel's X9 links Witney, Charlbury and Chipping Norton about hourly, Monday to Saturday; the Stagecoach 233 runs Witney to Burford hourly from Monday to Saturday and every two hours on Sundays.

Stroud, Painswick, the commons and Cirencester

Stagecoach West's 66 leaves Stroud Merrywalks at 6.50am, 8.40am and then about hourly to 6.05pm on weekdays (hourly from 7.30am to 5.30pm on Saturdays), and is in Painswick ten minutes later before carrying on to Cheltenham; the last back from Cheltenham is 5.55pm on weekdays and 5.35pm on Saturdays. On Sundays it runs every two hours, from Stroud at 9.35am to 5.35pm and from Cheltenham at 8.40am to 4.40pm. The 63 runs Gloucester, Stroud, Nailsworth roughly hourly Monday to Saturday and two-hourly on Sundays. The 620 climbs from Stroud to Minchinhampton and on to Tetbury, Westonbirt and Bath about four times a day, Monday to Saturday, with a few more going only as far as Tetbury. There is no all-day bus from Stroud to Cirencester: the C69 by Minchinhampton and Tetbury runs on Cirencester College days only, and Cotswold Green's 54 by Sapperton runs once or twice a day on weekdays. Cirencester's own links are the 51 to Cheltenham and Swindon (hourly, two-hourly on Sundays), the 882 to Kemble station and Tetbury (about seven a day to Kemble and five on to Tetbury, Monday to Saturday) and the 77 to Fairford and Lechlade (four or five a day, Monday to Saturday).

Castle Combe and Lacock from Chippenham

Faresaver's 95 and 95A are the buses to Castle Combe, a loop from Chippenham bus station by Yatton Keynell, Castle Combe, Burton and Grittleton: in late October 2026 the 95 left Chippenham at 10.25am, 12.25pm and 2.25pm, reaching the village centre 28 minutes later, and the 95A added 4.30pm and 5.40pm on weekdays. Saturdays have a different pattern (the 95A at 8.30am, 11.35am and 2.35pm and the 95 at 5.05pm in the same timetable), and there is nothing on Sundays. The X34 to Lacock is far better: about every 30 minutes on weekdays from Chippenham, hourly on Saturdays and nine times on Sundays, 15 minutes to the George. Biddestone has two weekday buses on the 636 and nothing at weekends.

The Robin: the bus you book

The Robin is Gloucestershire County Council's bookable minibus, and in the Cotswolds it is how you reach the villages no timetabled bus serves. Its Cotswolds North zone lists stops in Upper and Lower Slaughter, Naunton, Guiting Power, Northleach, Bourton, Stow, Moreton, Blockley, Bledington and Winchcombe; the Cotswolds South zone covers Bibury, Fairford, Lechlade, Kemble, Tetbury, Westonbirt and Cirencester, though no trip may start and end inside Cirencester. It runs from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday, bank holidays included. You book ahead (bookings run up to 14 days in advance) in the Robin app, on its website, or by phone on 0345 263 8139 (8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday), and pay the driver by card or cash, or online: £3 for an adult, £2.50 for a child of 5 to 15, under-5s free, free with an English concessionary pass (fares from 1 January 2025). Dogs travel at the driver's discretion. It is a shared bus with no Sunday service, so it is a way to get to a village in the daytime, not a late lift home (the Robin, Gloucestershire County Council (opens in a new tab)).