The Cotswolds in August

August is the busiest month of the year in the famous Cotswold villages and one of the quietest in the market towns, where many of the people who live there are away. It is a shade cooler than July: on the wolds the average high is nearly 21°C and the low about 12°C, it rains on ten days, and the sun is out for about six hours a day, by the Met Office's averages for Little Rissington (opens in a new tab). The sun sets at about 9pm at the start of the month and about 8pm by the end. The school holidays run all month, and Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury and Castle Combe are full from late morning to late afternoon every day. The answer is to come early or late, or to go one valley over.

Our month-by-month guide to when to visit sets August against the rest of the year. This page is for planning the month itself.

What is in season in August

August is sunflowers, plums and the harvest. The lavender at Snowshill closes in the first week of August, and the flower fields at the Cotswold Farm Park have run a summer flower field with sunflowers in recent years; our guide to the lavender and sunflower fields has what we know of the dates.

At Hayles Fruit Farm, a short walk from the ruins of Hailes Abbey, the pick-your-own runs through plums in August and September and the first apples from August, with strawberries still in the rows. The harvest starts on the wolds, and the cornfields go from gold to stubble over the month. The colour now is in the gardens, which are at their fullest in late summer: Bourton House Garden, open Tuesday to Friday, is at its best at the end of the season, and Hidcote and Kiftsgate, close neighbours above Mickleton, are both in full summer flower.

What is on in August

August is quieter for events than July, because the big shows are over and the villages are busy enough already. The customs that do fall in the month are on the bank holiday weekend at the end of it.

The Guiting Music Festival ends its ten days on the first weekend of August, and Longborough Festival Opera finishes its season in the first week. On the August bank holiday weekend, Friday to Sunday, Big Feastival fills Alex James' farm at Kingham with music, chefs and families, many of them camping.

On the August bank holiday Monday itself, Bourton Rovers play their football match in the River Windrush at Bourton, a long-standing custom: two teams in the shallow water under the low bridges and a crowd on the banks. The club had not announced the time of the next match when we checked, so check with Bourton Rovers before you go. It is the one afternoon of the year when the crowd in Bourton is the point. Get there early, or come in by bus.

The weekly markets run all month: Cirencester's charter market on Mondays and Fridays, Moreton's on Tuesdays, Witney's on Thursdays and Saturdays and Stroud's farmers' market every Saturday.

What is open in August

Everything is open in August, and it is the last month for two of the houses with the shortest seasons. Prices and hours are on each place's page.

August is the last month that Stanway House opens, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and Rodmarton Manor has its last weeks before it closes at the end of September. Highgrove's garden tours ran from April to the end of September in 2026. The attractions made for families, the Model Village and Birdland at Bourton, the Cotswold Wildlife Park and the Farm Park, are at their busiest: book online where you can, and arrive at opening time. Our guide to the Cotswolds with children has the day-by-day of each.

The steam railway publishes its summer running days on its own timetable, so check it before you plan a day on the line.

Walks for August

August walks are best in the quiet valleys, early, when the famous villages are filling up. The paths are dry in most summers, the cattle are out in the riverside fields, and the open wolds are hot in the afternoon.

The Eastleach and River Leach walk is 4.4 miles (7.1km) up a valley almost nobody visits, past two Norman churches on either side of the river and over Keble's Bridge, a clapper bridge of flat limestone slabs, out to the Roman Akeman Street and back to the Victoria Inn on the green, which is closed on Tuesdays. Its mud is a winter problem; in a dry summer walkers find it easy going, though some paths grow over and the waymarks are patchy. The Swinbrook and Fulbrook walk is an easy 4.3 miles from the Swan, through Widford's lone church in a field and back along the Windrush to the Mitford graves; walkers report cattle, sheep and horses in the fields.

If you are staying in Bourton, the Salmonsbury and the lakes walk leaves the crowd behind in ten minutes: 2 flat miles through Greystones Farm reserve and the banks of an Iron Age camp, often wet underfoot. For a breeze on a hot day, go high. The Cleeve Common and Cleeve Cloud walk is a 4-mile loop on the highest ground in the Cotswolds, 330m at the top of Cleeve Common. Cattle graze the common all year and dogs must be on short leads around livestock, and there is no shade on the top.

Where to stay and eat in August

August suits a cottage: a week in one place with a kitchen, away from the honeypots, so the famous villages are an early morning trip rather than the view from the window. Book in the spring at the latest.

The Sudeley cottages are on the castle estate at Winchcombe, many of them dog-friendly, with free castle entry in season. The Daylesford cottages are in Daylesford village, on the organic farm and in Kingham, all within two miles of the farm. Our places to stay in Winchcombe has more on the quieter side of the north Cotswolds.

Book a table for any Saturday night a fortnight ahead. A pub garden away from the main road is the summer evening: the Golden Ball at Lower Swell, a mile from Stow, is a Donnington village pub, open Wednesday to Sunday from noon and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in winter; ring for its summer hours (01451 833886).

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School holidays and the August bank holiday

August is the school holidays from the first day to the last, and it ends with the summer bank holiday (opens in a new tab), the last Monday in August. Gloucestershire (opens in a new tab) and Oxfordshire's (opens in a new tab) schools return in the first week of September, so the final weekend is also the last of the summer for most families.

The bank holiday weekend is the busiest of the month: the river football at Bourton, Big Feastival at Kingham, and every attraction at its fullest. The famous villages are busiest from about 11am to 4pm every day of the month, weekdays included. Before 10am and after 5pm they are quiet again, even in August, and our guide to the Cotswolds without the crowds names the village to go to instead of each famous one.

If you only have a day in August

Be in Bibury or Bourton by 9am, when the streets are yours. Drive on before 11am to Eastleach for the valley walk and an early lunch at the Victoria. In the afternoon, take the plums or the sunflowers, or a cool hour inside Northleach's wool church. Come back to the famous village of the morning after 5pm, when the coaches have gone and the light is long, and eat outside.