Cycling in the Cotswolds

The Cotswolds are good cycling country if you accept the hills. Quiet lanes cross the high wolds between the villages, four National Cycle Network routes use them, and three old railway lines give flat, traffic-free riding at the Cotswold Water Park, in the Stroud valleys and into Stratford. What the area lacks is traffic-free riding on top: almost every route shares the road, and the main roads are fast and best avoided. GWR trains carry bikes to the Cotswold stations, though you should reserve a space. The figures below are from the route pages of Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, the charity that was Sustrans until 2025, which looks after the National Cycle Network.

The National Cycle Network routes

Route 48 (opens in a new tab) is the one across the middle, from Tetbury and Cirencester through Northleach and Moreton-in-Marsh to Shipston-on-Stour and Southam, almost all of it on asphalt lanes and only about a tenth traffic-free; the trust’s figure of 74 miles (119km) for the route also counts a stretch north of Leicester. Route 442 (opens in a new tab), the Cotswold Line Cycle Route, follows the railway for 53 miles (85km) from Worcester and Evesham through Chipping Campden, Moreton, Kingham and Charlbury to Hanborough, so you can ride one way and take the train back. Route 45 (opens in a new tab) crosses the Water Park to Cirencester, then the plateau, then drops off the escarpment to Nailsworth and Stroud. Route 5 touches the Cotswolds at both ends: from Oxford it runs 8.3 miles by the canal and a cycleway beside the A44 to Woodstock and Blenheim, and to the north it becomes the Stratford Greenway.

Flat and traffic-free: the old railways

Three railway paths give the only long stretches without cars. In the Cotswold Water Park, the old Midland and South Western Junction Railway runs for about 6km (4 miles) between South Cerney and Cricklade, level and lightly wooded; the Cotswold Lakes Trust, which looks after it, suggests starting from the Bridge car park and has signed badger holes and possible surface collapse on the stretch from Cricklade to the Thames. The Stroud Valleys Trail (opens in a new tab) runs 5 miles (8km) from Stonehouse to Nailsworth on the line of the old Midland Railway, 99.5% traffic-free and part asphalt, part firm gravel. The Stratford Greenway (opens in a new tab), Route 5, runs 5.3 miles (8.5km) from Long Marston into Stratford-upon-Avon on the Honeybourne line, which opened in 1859 and closed in 1976; it is entirely traffic-free, mostly firm gravel, and a few miles from Mickleton.

The lanes and the hills, honestly

Up on the wolds the riding is rolling rather than steep, on lanes with grass in the middle and little traffic. The hard climbs are where the land drops away: the Cotswold Edge on the west, from the Vale of Evesham and the Severn vale, and the valley sides around Stroud and the Windrush. Fish Hill above Broadway and the road up to Cleeve Hill, at 330m the highest point of the Cotswold Way, are long hauls. On Route 442 the trust calls the mile-long climb out of Mickleton the steepest on the route, and the stretch from Honeybourne to Moreton hilly. Valley lanes are often gravelly and muddy after rain.

Hiring a bike

Cotswold eBikes (opens in a new tab) hires electric bikes from Abbey Home Farm outside Cirencester, home of the Organic Farm Shop: £50 for a full day from 9.30am to 4.30pm, £40 for three hours and £300 a week (2026), with trailers and a satnav for extra. Riders must be 14 or over and show photo ID. Bainton Bikes (opens in a new tab), with a shop on Walton Street in Oxford, says its self-service hire is available around the clock from hubs across the Cotswolds; check which hubs are working before you plan on one. Several other hire firms in the area did not show 2026 trading on their own websites when we checked, so we have left them out.

Bikes on the train

GWR, which runs the trains to Moreton, Kingham, Charlbury, Kemble and Stroud, has space for at least two full-size bikes (opens in a new tab) on each train. Spaces are limited and GWR recommends reserving whenever you are offered the choice; without a reservation a full-size bike may not travel into Paddington between 7.30am and 9.30am or out of it between 4pm and 7pm. Reserve when you buy the ticket, at a staffed ticket office or on 0345 7000 125 (8am to 8pm daily). Folding bikes with wheels up to about 50cm (20in, as GWR states it) go anywhere, folded. Road-legal pedal-assist e-bikes are allowed, but not spare batteries or charging on board, and no bike goes on a rail replacement bus.

The A-roads

Avoid the A-roads where you can. The A429 Fosse Way, the A40, the A44 over Fish Hill and the A417 to Birdlip carry fast traffic and lorries, with long straights that invite overtaking and little room at the edge; the A417 is a dual carriageway in places. The Highway Code (opens in a new tab) tells drivers to leave at least 1.5 metres when passing a cyclist at up to 30mph and more at higher speeds, but plan your route on the lanes and the network routes rather than counting on it. On Minchinhampton and Rodborough commons watch for the cattle, which graze the open commons and stray onto the unfenced roads.