We list more than 40 half-day walks in the Cotswolds, each 5 to 10km (3 to 6 miles), and most take two to three hours. They cover the whole region, from Broadway Tower and the Slaughters to Bibury, Burford and Blenheim, the edge above Cheltenham and Stroud, and Castle Combe in the south.
46 walksAll walks
46 walks
Walk · Starts in Shipston-on-Stour · 2 hrs, 45 mins · Circular
A 5.9-mile (9.5km) circular walk from Ilmington, moderate and about two and three quarter hours: out by Park Lane and a busy stretch of lane, across the fields up to Hidcote, then east along the ridge over Ebrington Hill, past the masts and steeply down into Ilmington.
Walk · Starts in Kingham · 3 hrs · Circular
A 3.5-mile (6km) car-free circular walk from Kingham station, easy and two to three hours with stiles and a boggy patch: along the River Evenlode into Gloucestershire, over the old railway and past a pond, then to Bledington's green and the King's Head, and back by the river.
Walk · Starts in Kingham · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A flat 4.4-mile (7.1km) circular walk of about an hour and a half from Kingham: north-west on bridleways across Daylesford's fields to the Evenlode, back down the river meadows and over the Cotswold Line on the level. Walkers report it wet and often flooded in winter.
Walk · Starts in Lechlade-on-Thames · Circular
A level 4.5-mile (7.2km) circular walk from Halfpenny Bridge, Lechlade, with three stiles and no time given: by the Thames Path meadows to Inglesham church, over to Buscot by lanes and fields, across Buscot Weir and Lock, and back by St John's Lock and the Trout Inn.
Walk · Starts in the Cotswold Edge · 2 hrs · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 4-mile (6.3km) circular walk from the Daisy Bank Road car parks above Cheltenham, about two hours and moderate, with one steep climb: round Charlton Kings Common, up onto the escarpment past the hillfort to the Devil's Chimney, and down the old quarry incline.
Walk · Starts in Chipping Campden · 2 hrs, 15 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 5-mile (8km) circular walk from Mickleton, moderate and about two and a quarter hours: up through the woods and fields to Furze Lane, along quiet lanes to Hidcote Boyce, north past Hidcote's garden and manor, then down the edge of Kiftsgate Court's grounds to Mickleton.
Walk · Starts in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 3.7-mile (6km) circular walk from the bridge at Minster Lovell, easy and about an hour and a half: over the fields to Crawley, back along the River Windrush to the ruins of Minster Lovell Hall, its dovecote and St Kenelm's church. Wet in winter.
Walk · Starts in Moreton-in-Marsh · 2 hrs · Circular
A 4-mile (6.4km) circular walk from Moreton-in-Marsh's war memorial, easy, stile-free and about two hours: west through field gates to Batsford, along the deer park below Batsford House, east on the watershed lane to Dorn and back past the mound of a Roman fort.
Walk · Starts in Northleach · 2 hrs · Circular
A 4.5-mile (7.2km) circular walk from Northleach's Market Place, easy, stile-free and about two hours: out past the Old Prison to Hampnett and its painted Norman church, south by bridleway to the old Saltway, and home past Winterwell Barn to the wool church.
Walk · Starts in Painswick · 2 hrs, 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 5-mile (8.2km) circular walk from Painswick, moderate and two and a half to three hours, with 250m of climbing: out by Butt Green and the Holcombe farms, over the B4073 and up to the Iron Age ramparts on Painswick Beacon, then down past the golf course and the Rococo Garden.
Walk · Starts in Coln St Aldwyns · 3 hrs · Circular
A 5.75-mile (9.25km) circular walk from the Keepers Arms in Quenington, moderate with several stiles, in two and a half to three hours: down the river valley and through a permitted wood to Fairford's Mill Bridge and church, and back. The permitted path is closed on Tuesdays.
Walk · Starts in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds · 2 hrs, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 5-mile (8km) circular walk from the green at Salford, moderate and about two and a half hours, with stiles: up bridleways and field paths to the Whispering Knights, the King Stone and the King's Men stone circle, then down through Little Rollright and back.
Walk · Starts in the Cotswold Edge · 2 hrs, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 5.4-mile (8.7km) circular walk from Seven Springs, about two and a half hours and moderate, with steep slopes: along the Cotswold Way over Charlton Kings Common to the hillfort on Leckhampton Hill and the Devil's Chimney, and back along the foot of the common.
Walk · Starts in Stow-on-the-Wold · 1 hr, 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 3.6-mile (5.8km) moderate loop from Stow-on-the-Wold of about an hour and three quarters, down the fields by Nether Swell to the River Dikler at Hyde Mill, up Mill Lane to Lower Swell's Norman church and Lutyens war memorial, and back to Stow beside the B4068.
Walk · Starts in Stow-on-the-Wold · 2 hrs · Circular
A 3.75-mile (5.5km) circular walk without stiles from the Cross in Stow-on-the-Wold, easy with 130m of ups and downs and about two hours: past the Porch House and Maugersbury Manor to the Fosse Way, down to Hyde Mill and back up through white gates by Nether Swell.
Walk · Starts in Stroud · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular
A 3-mile (5km) circular walk from the Subscription Rooms in Stroud, graded strenuous, of about an hour and a half: along the Frome Banks to the Capel's Mill viaduct, up over Rodborough Common past the fort, down through Butterow and back along the canal towpath.
Walk · Starts in Burford · 2 hrs · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 4.3-mile (6.9km) easy loop of about two hours from the Swan at Swinbrook: north on a lane and west over fields to Fulbrook, back by a lane, then down a wooded valley to Widford's lone church and along the Windrush to the Mitford graves at St Mary's.
Walk · Starts in Painswick · 2 hrs, 45 mins · Circular
A 5-mile (8.4km) circular walk from Bulls Cross round the Slad valley, moderate with steep climbs and three to five hours with stops: Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's loop by Longridge Wood, Snows Farm, Catswood and Swift's Hill, with ten posts carrying Laurie Lee's poems.
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.
Walk · Starts in Witney · 1 hr, 15 mins · Circular
A 3.2-mile (5.1km) easy, flat loop of about an hour and a quarter from the middle of Witney: down the Windrush through the meadows to Witney Lake, back by farm tracks and a lane to Cogges, its manor farm, café and church.
Walk · Starts in Nailsworth · 2 hrs · Circular
A 3.75-mile (6km) circular walk without stiles from the National Trust car park at Woodchester Park, moderate and about two hours: down past the unfinished Victorian mansion, along the valley to Middle Pond, back by the boathouse on Old Pond and steadily up through the woods.
Walk · Starts in Wotton-under-Edge · 1 hr, 15 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 3.5-mile (5.8km) easy ridge walk of an hour to an hour and a half from Old London Road above Wotton-under-Edge: out to the walled Jubilee Clump on Wotton Hill, through Westridge Wood past Brackenbury Ditches to the Tyndale Monument on Nibley Knoll, and back through the woods.
In Broadway, the 4-mile loop to Broadway Tower, 312m up on Beacon Hill, has no stiles and comes back down the Cotswold Way in two and a half to three hours. From Bourton-on-the-Water, the 6-mile loop by both Slaughters takes two to two and a half hours, with a mile of quiet lane in the middle.
In Chipping Campden, the Dover's Hill loop climbs the start of the Cotswold Way to the home of the Olimpicks, and the figure of eight from Broad Campden is mostly level, at 3.3 miles. From Moreton-in-Marsh, a stile-free loop passes the deer park below Batsford House and the mound of a Roman fort, and from Blockley, the walk through Batsford Park has the arboretum's café halfway round.
In Bibury, the 4-mile loop by the River Coln is one of the Cotswolds National Landscape's Miles Without Stiles routes, through woods, meadows and high pasture and back to Arlington Row in about two hours. From Burford, the 6-mile loop by Fulbrook and Widford goes out over farmland and back down the Windrush valley, which floods in winter.
From Kingham, the loop to Daylesford and the Evenlode is close to flat, with a short detour to Daylesford's farm shop and café, but walkers found its fields under water in winter. Near Woodstock, the Blenheim Park circuit from Bladon is 4.5 miles, about 2 of them on estate roads inside Blenheim's paid park, which need a Park & Gardens day ticket. In the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, the walk from Salford reaches the Rollright Stones, where the Trust asks a small fee; the Salford pub, the Black Horse, has closed, so bring food.
On the Cotswold Edge, the 4-mile loop over Cleeve Common crosses the highest ground in the Cotswolds, reaching about 320m near the hill fort, in about an hour and three quarters; walkers warn it is exposed in wind. Above Wotton-under-Edge, the ridge walk to the Tyndale Monument has only about 60m of climbing.
Above Cheltenham, the Leckhampton Hill loop climbs to an Iron Age hillfort and the Devil's Chimney. In the Five Valleys, the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way links ten posts carrying the poet's poems round the Slad valley, with about 330m of steep climbing; the Wildlife Trust says ash dieback has moved the route a little from its leaflet map. Near Nailsworth, the Woodchester Park walk passes an unfinished Victorian mansion, with no stiles, and from Painswick, the Beacon loop climbs to the Iron Age ramparts.
In the South Cotswolds, the 4.5-mile loop from Ford approaches Castle Combe on foot up the By Brook valley, the way few visitors do, mostly through woodland, in two to two and a half hours. It starts at the White Hart Inn at Ford, where walkers report free parking.
The gentlest half-day walks climb less than 60m: the loop from Witney to the lake and Cogges, with 16m, the stile-free walk to Wyck Rissington, with 37m, and Minster Lovell and Crawley, with 53m. All three are on low ground by rivers, muddy or flooded in winter.
One of these walks is one way. The Cotswold Way from Winchcombe to Cleeve Hill is 5.6 miles with about 356m of climbing, and walkers park at the golf club on Cleeve Hill and take the bus to Winchcombe to start.
Broadway Tower, the two Slaughters, a stile-free loop from Bibury and the highest ground in the Cotswolds.
All walks starting here
Walk · Starts in Broadway · 3 hrs · Circular
A 4-mile (6.5km) circular walk from the war memorial in Broadway, two and a half to three hours, moderate with steep sections and no stiles. It passes St Eadburgha's, climbs Coneygree Lane to Broadway Tower and comes back down the Cotswold Way.
Walk · Starts in Bourton-on-the-Water · 2 hrs, 15 mins · Circular
A 6-mile (9.7km) circular walk from Rissington Road in Bourton-on-the-Water, two to two and a half hours of moderate walking with a few stiles. It heads west on bridleways, up a quiet lane to Upper Slaughter, and down the River Eye to Lower Slaughter's mill.
Walk · Starts in Bibury · 2 hrs · Circular
A 4-mile (6.5km) circular walk from the bridge by the Swan in Bibury, about two hours with one climb and a muddy stretch. It crosses the Coln below Bibury Court, climbs through Oxhill Wood to the line of Akeman Street, passes a dewpond and returns by Arlington Row.
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.
What you pass on the way, from Broadway Tower to the By Brook.
Historic houses and heritage · Broadway
James Wyatt's folly of 1798 on Beacon Hill above Broadway, with a museum in the tower, a red deer park, two cafés and a Cold War nuclear bunker.
Family-friendly · Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Sight · Historic building · Bibury
Arlington Row is a terrace of stone cottages above the mill stream in Bibury, built as a wool store in the late fourteenth century and turned into weavers' homes in the seventeenth. Grade I and owned by the National Trust, the cottages are lived in and seen from the path.
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.
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · The Oxfordshire Cotswolds
The Rollright Stones are three prehistoric monuments on a ridge on the Oxfordshire and Warwickshire border, built over nearly 2,000 years: the Whispering Knights burial chamber of about 3800 BC, the King's Men circle of about 2500 BC and the King Stone. Open daily; small fee.
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.
Sight · River · Castle Combe
The By Brook is the wooded valley stream that runs through Castle Combe and south by Long Dean, Ford and Slaughterford, in north-west Wiltshire. It once had some twenty watermill sites, for corn, cloth and paper, and public footpaths follow much of it.
Pubs and inns at the start or finish of a walk on this page.
All places
Pubs · Bourton-on-the-Water
A Fuller's pub on the High Street in Bourton-on-the-Water, open from 10am, with a garden and outside seating, food all day, and dogs and families welcome.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Hotel · Broadway
A historic coaching inn on Broadway's High Street, first recorded in 1377, now a hotel with James Martin's Grill and Tavern, a spa with a pool, and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Wedding venues · EV charging
Verified Nov 2026
Pubs · Moreton-in-Marsh
A Brakspear pub with rooms on the High Street in Moreton-in-Marsh, open from 8am, with local produce and ales, a terrace and Sunday roasts.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Inn · Burford
An inn with rooms in Burford, part of Cotswold Inns and Hotels, taking bookings for rooms and tables and welcoming dogs.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Inn · Kingham
A Daylesford pub with rooms and cottages in a 17th-century house at Kingham, with three AA Rosettes and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday.
Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
Pubs · Castle Combe
A Grade II listed Wadworth pub on The Street in Castle Combe, open from 9am with pastries, with a courtyard garden, and dog friendly.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Inn · Painswick
A family-run inn with eleven rooms on New Street, Painswick, established in 1828 and under new owners since February 2026, with dogs welcome throughout.
Dog-friendly · Wedding venues
Verified Oct 2026
Inn · Northleach
A seventeenth-century coaching inn on West End, Northleach, with 14 bedrooms, a garden and food all day, friendly to families and dogs.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
New routes and what walkers report on the paths, from a morning loop to a day on the Cotswold Way, about once a month.
Most take two to three hours. Several take about an hour and a quarter, among them Blockley and Norcombe Wood and the Witney Lake loop, and the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way allows three to five hours with stops to read its poems.
Broadway to Broadway Tower, Bibury and the River Coln, Moreton-in-Marsh and Batsford, Northleach to Hampnett, Stow and Maugersbury, Bourton to Wyck Rissington and Woodchester Park. Woodchester has a steady 209m down and up, and the Broadway walk some steep slopes. The Bibury walk is a Miles Without Stiles route, but its leaflet mentions a gate or a stone stile into a meadow by one footbridge.
For part of the circuit from Bladon, yes: it leaves the public footpaths for about 2 miles of estate roads by the lake, the palace and the walled garden, inside Blenheim's paid park, which need a Park & Gardens day ticket. The longer walk from Combe keeps to the public paths and needs none.
Cleeve Common and Cleeve Cloud, on the highest ground in the Cotswolds. The loop reaches about 320m near the hill fort and climbs about 178m in short pulls. Walkers warn that the common is exposed and unpleasant in wind, and icy in winter.
Witney Lake and Cogges climbs about 16m, Kingham and Daylesford about 32m and Bourton to Wyck Rissington about 37m. All three are on low ground by rivers, and walkers report them muddy or flooded in winter.
What is on, what is new and what is in season in Cotswolds Info, in your inbox about once a month.