We list 12 short walks in the Cotswolds, each under 5km (about 3 miles), and most take an hour or less. They include town walks in Burford, Tetbury and Woodstock, river paths at the Slaughters, Lechlade and Malmesbury, and the open tops of Rodborough Common and Old Sodbury's hill fort.
14 walksAll walks
14 walks
Walk · Starts in Bourton-on-the-Water · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2-mile (3.1km) circular walk from the middle of Bourton-on-the-Water, flat and easy, in 45 minutes to an hour. It goes out along Rissington Road and back through Greystones Farm reserve, past a replica roundhouse and the banks of Salmonsbury Camp, and is often wet underfoot.
Walk · Starts in Burford · 1 hr · Circular
A 1.7-mile (2.7km) circular walk from Burford's free riverside car park, easy and about an hour, mostly on pavements and lanes. It climbs Witney Street and Barns Lane to a field west of the town, then comes back down Sheep Street and Priory Lane to the church.
Walk · Starts in Naunton · 1 hr, 15 mins · Circular
A 3-mile (4.8km) circular walk from Harford Bridge near Naunton, easy, stile-free and about an hour and a quarter: past the earthworks of the lost village of Lower Harford, along the Windrush Way, then into Naunton by its church, its rector's bridge and the Black Horse.
Walk · Starts in Lechlade-on-Thames · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A flat 3-mile (4.8km) circular walk from Lechlade's Market Place, easy and about an hour: out to the Round House where the Coln and the old canal meet the Thames, back along the meadows past Ha'penny Bridge to St John's Lock and the Trout Inn, home by Shelley's Walk.
Walk · Starts in Lower Slaughter · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2-mile (3.1km) there-and-back from Lower Slaughter, easy and almost level, in 45 minutes to an hour: on the Wardens' Way from Lower Slaughter's mill up the River Eye through riverside fields to Upper Slaughter's ford, church and manor, and back the same way.
Walk · Starts in Malmesbury · 1 hr · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2.5-mile (3.9km) circular walk from Cross Hayes in Malmesbury, easy and about an hour, mostly level with some stiles: down from the Market Cross past Daniel's Well, along the Avon by the meads and the silk mills, and back round under the abbey.
Walk · Starts in Chipping Sodbury · 2 hrs · Circular
A 2.5-mile (4km) circular walk from Old Sodbury, easy and stile-free with moderate slopes, in one and a half to two hours: up the Cotswold Way to the Norman church on the hill, over the double ramparts of Sodbury Camp, and back across the fields past medieval fish ponds.
Walk · Starts in Stroud and the Five Valleys · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2-mile (3.4km) circular walk on Rodborough Common above Stroud, easy, nearly level and about 45 minutes: up to the battlemented folly of Rodborough Fort, down the open western edge, and back past the Bear and an ice-cream stop. Grassy, and grazed by cattle.
Walk · Starts in Tetbury · 1 hr · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2.6-mile (4.2km) easy, nearly level loop of about an hour through Silk Wood at Westonbirt, the National Arboretum, from the treetop walkway out to the Waste Gate, round by Oak Avenue and the maples and back along The Link. Inside the arboretum, so entry is paid.
Walk · Starts in Snowshill · 1 hr, 15 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2.1-mile (3.4km) circular walk from Pipers Grove car park at Snowshill, short but hilly and moderate, about an hour and a quarter: across the valley to Snowswood, along a byway past Great Brockhamton Farm, back across the stream and into the village past the church.
Walk · Starts in Tetbury · 45 mins · Circular
A 1.7-mile (2.7km) easy loop round Tetbury from the Old Railyard car park, about 45 minutes on paved paths: St Saviour's and the old police court, the packhorse bridge at Cutwell, Bath Bridge, St Mary's, the Market House and back along the old railway to the Goods Shed.
Walk · Starts in Painswick · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular
A 3-mile (4.6km) circular walk from Painswick, moderate, with stiles and one steep climb, in one to one and a half hours: through the churchyard and down Vicarage Street to the Painswick Stream, along it past five old mills, and back up Knapp Lane to the stocks.
Walk · Starts in Winchcombe · 1 hr · Circular
A 2-mile (3.2km) easy circular walk of about an hour from Winchcombe, with no stiles: down Vineyard Street, along the Sudeley Castle drive by the lime avenue and the lake, and back by Rushley Lane and beside the River Isbourne or along Broadway Road.
Walk · Starts in Woodstock · Circular
A 1.1-mile (1.7km) easy heritage loop round Woodstock from the stocks in Park Street to Hawksmoor's Woodstock Gate into Blenheim, along the coaching inns of Oxford Street and Market Street to the Town Hall and the Hensington Gate, and back through the churchyard.
The flattest short walks are the Thames loop at Lechlade, with about 8m of rise and fall, the Salmonsbury loop at Bourton and Silk Wood at Westonbirt. None is marked step-free, but the Tetbury town walk comes closest: almost all paved, with no stiles, and walkers have taken an off-road pushchair round it.
At Westonbirt, near Tetbury, the treetop walkway at the start is fully accessible for wheelchairs and mobility scooters, though AllTrails' surface data puts about 40% of the loop on grass rides, and entry is paid. In Burford, walkers put about 60% of the 1.7-mile town walk on paved ground, but one walker found the first off-road stretch no good for a pushchair. The town walk round Woodstock, about 1.1 miles and the shortest on our list, enters the churchyard by a kissing gate and steps, and its leaflet gives a way round on Rectory Lane.
For the most in an hour, walk from Lower Slaughter up the River Eye to Upper Slaughter on the Wardens' Way path between the two villages, 2 miles there and back, almost level and gentle enough for a baby carrier. At Lechlade-on-Thames, the riverside loop passes Ha'penny Bridge of 1792 and St John's Lock, the highest on the Thames.
Above Stroud, the 2-mile loop on Rodborough Common passes the battlemented folly of Rodborough Fort, built in 1761, and an ice-cream stop, and walkers say it makes a good first walk for children. Near Chipping Sodbury, the 2.5-mile loop from Old Sodbury climbs the Cotswold Way to the church on the hill and over the double ramparts of Sodbury Camp, with no stiles. Near Naunton, the 3-mile walk from Harford Bridge has no stiles either, and passes the site of the lost village of Lower Harford and the Black Horse, a Donnington Brewery pub.
In Malmesbury, the 2.5-mile river walk keeps to the two branches of the Avon below the hilltop town, past the Market Cross and under the abbey. It has a few stiles, and walkers say it is not for a pushchair.
Short does not always mean easy. In Snowshill, the 2.1-mile loop by Snowswood drops into a valley and climbs out again, about 127m in all, and walkers call it a short walk with a lot of hill, slippery after rain. Several of the flat walks are wet in winter instead.
The meadows at Lechlade flood: walkers turned back in January and February 2026 with the path under water. Mud is what nearly every reviewer of the loop from Bourton-on-the-Water through Greystones Farm mentions, and in October 2026 one found a gate on the route locked and took a path about 40m to the left. On Rodborough Common, the National Trust says commoners' cattle graze the common in summer, turned out on Marking Day in May, and walkers also report donkeys and horses loose from late spring to autumn, so keep dogs on a lead or close by then.
Two villages by a stream, the highest lock on the Thames, a common with a folly and a town walk on pavements.
All walks starting here
Walk · Starts in Lower Slaughter · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2-mile (3.1km) there-and-back from Lower Slaughter, easy and almost level, in 45 minutes to an hour: on the Wardens' Way from Lower Slaughter's mill up the River Eye through riverside fields to Upper Slaughter's ford, church and manor, and back the same way.
Walk · Starts in Lechlade-on-Thames · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A flat 3-mile (4.8km) circular walk from Lechlade's Market Place, easy and about an hour: out to the Round House where the Coln and the old canal meet the Thames, back along the meadows past Ha'penny Bridge to St John's Lock and the Trout Inn, home by Shelley's Walk.
Walk · Starts in Stroud and the Five Valleys · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2-mile (3.4km) circular walk on Rodborough Common above Stroud, easy, nearly level and about 45 minutes: up to the battlemented folly of Rodborough Fort, down the open western edge, and back past the Bear and an ice-cream stop. Grassy, and grazed by cattle.
Walk · Starts in Tetbury · 45 mins · Circular
A 1.7-mile (2.7km) easy loop round Tetbury from the Old Railyard car park, about 45 minutes on paved paths: St Saviour's and the old police court, the packhorse bridge at Cutwell, Bath Bridge, St Mary's, the Market House and back along the old railway to the Goods Shed.
Bridges, forts and a lost village, each within an hour of the car park.
Sight · Historic building · Stroud and the Five Valleys
Rodborough Fort is a battlemented house on the brow of Rodborough Common above Stroud, begun as a folly for Captain Hawker in 1761 and enlarged in 1870 with a four-storey tower, turreted curtain walls and a small chapel. Grade II; a private house, seen from the common.
Sight · Bridge · Lechlade-on-Thames
The single tall stone arch that carries Thames Street over the Thames at Lechlade, built under a turnpike Act of 1792, with a little square tollhouse on its corner. Named after the halfpenny walkers paid until 1839. Grade II; free.
Sight · Monument · Lechlade-on-Thames
Raffaelle Monti's reclining river god, modelled in cement for the Crystal Palace in 1854, beside St John's Lock below Lechlade, the first lock on the Thames. He lay at the river's source from 1958 until vandals drove him here in 1974. Grade II.
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Chipping Sodbury
An Iron Age hill fort with two wide-spaced ramparts on the Cotswold edge above Old Sodbury, where Edward IV camped on his way to the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. A scheduled monument, crossed by the Cotswold Way and our stile-free circuit from the village.
Sight · Monument · Naunton
Lower Harford is a lost medieval village by the River Windrush near Naunton: house platforms beside a hollow way, terraces and water channels in a field. Seven people were recorded here in 1086 and two in 1327, and by 1341 it was largely deserted. A scheduled monument.
Sight · Historic building · Malmesbury
Malmesbury's octagonal stone market cross of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, a vaulted shelter with pinnacles, flying buttresses and a lantern of saints, built, John Leland wrote, to keep poor market folk dry. Grade I; free.
Each is at the start or finish of a walk on this page, or on the way round. Check opening hours before you rely on one.
All places
Inn · Lower Slaughter
An inn in Lower Slaughter, bought and renamed by the Brownsword family in 2011, with dog rooms and a Field Kitchen from April to September.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Pubs · Lechlade-on-Thames
A family-run pub by St John's Lock at St John's Bridge, Lechlade, recorded as an inn by 1692, with a riverside garden and fishing rights on the Thames.
Walker-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Pubs · Malmesbury
A dog-friendly pub on the Triangle in Westport, Malmesbury, with a meat-free kitchen named best vegan pub in Wiltshire by Vegan Food and Living, and music and events.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Inn · Tetbury
A late eighteenth-century pub with rooms on Cirencester Road, Tetbury, back in community hands since 2013, with dog-friendly rooms.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Inn · Woodstock
A family-run Arkell's pub with nine rooms, most of them family rooms, on Oxford Street, Woodstock, with EV charging and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · EV charging
Verified Oct 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
Pubs · Bourton-on-the-Water
A Grade II listed eighteenth-century inn in Bourton-on-the-Water with nine rooms, classic British food, a beer garden and the Model Village in its grounds.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Hotel · Stroud
A seventeenth-century former coaching inn on the National Trust's Rodborough Common above Stroud, now a hotel in the Cotswold Inns and Hotels group, with dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · Wedding venues
Verified Oct 2026
New routes and what walkers report on the paths, from an hour by the river to a day on the hills, about once a month.
The Woodstock town walk, at about 1.1 miles (1.7km). It starts at the stocks in Park Street and loops through the streets past 21 numbered stops, among them Hawksmoor's Woodstock Gate into Blenheim, ending at Fletcher's House; its leaflet gives no time.
The Harford Bridge walk at Naunton, one of the Cotswolds National Landscape's Miles Without Stiles routes, the Old Sodbury hill fort walk and the Tetbury town walk. The Malmesbury river walk and the Snowshill loop both have stiles.
The Tetbury town walk is the best choice: almost all of it is paved, with no stiles, and walkers have taken an off-road pushchair round it. Walkers say the Malmesbury river walk is not for a pushchair, and one found the first off-road stretch of the Burford town walk unsuitable.
Walkers say the Rodborough Common loop makes a good first walk for children: 2 miles, nearly level, with an ice-cream stop. The path between the Slaughters has shallow places where children paddle, and the Tetbury town walk passes a small playground.
The riverside walks. Walkers report the Lechlade path under water in November, January and February, and the Greystones Farm loop at Bourton boggy and waterlogged in autumn and winter. The Tetbury town walk is almost all paved, and one walker found no mud on it after heavy rain.
What is on, what is new and what is in season in Cotswolds Info, in your inbox about once a month.