Into the Wold: Beginning the Cotswold Way

May 13, 2022

Twenty-five years ago, in 1997, we took our young daughters on a 10-day trip to England. Lauren was six and Kristen just a few days shy of turning four years old. It was the girls’ first international trip and their positive reactions to the experience gave us the confidence to travel more extensively as a family.

One of the highlights of that journey was a day trip we took to the Cotswold area from our base in Oxford. We took a short hike between two villages with our daughters and stopped to enjoy fish and chips in between rain showers. Darren and I vowed one day to come back and explore the picturesque area more thoroughly. So it is somewhat appropriate that our first Trekking the British Isles hike was on the Cotswold Way.

Kristen and Lauren in a Cotswold Village; Carrying Kristen on the short hike

The word “wold” refers to a hilly or rolling region. The Cotswold area is a series of hills that rise from the upper Thames River to a steep slope, known as the Cotswold Edge. In the Middle Ages the wolds were full of grazing sheep, and many towns and villages in the area were built up by the wool masters. Cloth replaced wool from the 15th century on, leading to even more structures being erected.

The 102-mile Cotswold Way National Trail runs along this escarpment, which includes traversing through one of the largest Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England. Besides the trail escarpment vistas to the north and west, the Cotswold Way passes through many quaint villages and old market towns that contain buildings comprised of local white and honey-colored Cotswold stone.

Our trekking route on the Cotswold Way

Most people hike the trail north to south, from the market hall in the town of Chipping Campden to the historic Bath Abbey. Given our itinerary, it made sense for us to trek the other way, beginning in Bath. So we stood outside the abbey at the marker signifying the trail’s start / end to take a photo the day before we left. The abbey area around us was crowded with students and their families for graduation weekend.

A Variety of History and Beauty on the First Stage

We began our eight-day trek by leaving Bath at 8:00 am on a Sunday morning. Other than a few people running or walking their dogs, the streets were virtually empty as we began climbing into the hills north of the city. As we left Bath, we passed the Georgian architecture of The Circus – a ring of townhouses built between 1754 and 1768.

After hiking a few more blocks past the terraced houses comprising the Royal Crescent, we entered a park and left the city behind for good.

Soon we entered the Cotswold AONB, where 95% of the trail lies. Once on to the escarpment, we were treated to the first of many views to the north and west of us.

As we walked through a series of hills, we discovered that the trail was also designed to take us through many historic areas. Just on the first day alone, we passed a battle site between the Saxons and ancient Britons in the year 577, a 1643 civil war site featuring the Granville Monument, commemorating one of the commanders, and a 17th-century mansion and garden at Dyrham Park.

Over 80% of the AONB is farmland. We hiked through a series of farms and by the first of the hundreds of sheep that we would see over the next few days.

An official trail detour through some fields added about a mile to our distance, so we were happy to end our (now) 15.2 mile stage at a highway, where we walked an additional half-mile to our hotel. After checking in, we enjoyed a Sunday roast dinner after the eventful first day.

A High Mileage Day to a Cotswold Village

The trail detour at the end of the first stage added a mile to that distance, but it meant we would have a mile less to cover on our second day. However, we still had 16.7 miles to go, making it the longest day of our trek. After the half-mile walk from our hotel, we rejoined the trail.

To hike in between farm areas with livestock required either climbing over a stile or going through a gate. A few of these barriers required some body hoisting or twisting to get through, which were especially challenging while wearing our backpacks.

Going through gates and climbing over trail stiles

An early morning highlight of our second stage was a walk through Dodington Park, a 300-acre estate with many sheep. As was the case on our first day of hiking, we saw few other people and enjoyed having the beautiful park to ourselves.

The lambs were especially cute and were eating grass right next to the trail.

Soon we reached the small villages of Old Sodbury and Little Sodbury with a series of hills to negotiate between each place.

Just below the site of an Iron Age fort (from the year 577) at Sodbury Hill, stood a tower that was actually built in 2000. Called Horton’s Folly, it provided a nesting place for swallows and barn owls.

Back in the woods, we marveled at the carpet of white blooming flowers on both sides of the trail.

We passed near the village of Hawkesbury Upton and came across the Somerset Monument. Standing at 120 feet tall, it was built in 1846 in memory of a general who served in the battle of Waterloo.

With just a few more miles to go for the day, we continued hiking to the first market town on our route, Wotton-under-Edge.

At the edge of town we passed by a large church. That night we stayed at a pub in the town center.

A Steep and Wet Third Stage

After covering about 32 miles over the first two days, we were feeling a little tired as we began our third stage. The good news was that we had less miles (14.2) to cover, but it would be our steepest day. The trail made several major ascents to distinct hills, resulting in about 2,500 feet of elevation gain for the stage.

Leaving Wotton-under-Edge, we immediately climbed through some beautiful woods to Wotton Hill. After admiring the views from the top, we kept walking.

Ahead of us was a structure that we had seen in the distance on the day before – the 111-foot tall Tyndale Monument. It was built in 1866 in memory of William Tyndale (1484 – 1536), who translated the Bible into English.

Another climb a short time later took us through a meadow. Looking back at Darren as we hiked, I began to question if we were actually on the path. The yellow meadow flowers were very dense and came up over my head in some places. After about ten minutes of walking we finally emerged from the meadow, soaked to the skin from the damp plants and covered with flower petals. It took about five minutes to scrape the petals off our clothes and packs and a couple of hours for us to dry out. Typical of our hiking days, the weather was partly cloudy and in the 60°F range, so the exertion from our subsequent climbing actually kept us warm as we got dry.

While we trekked we had continual views from the escarpment to the west of us. Looking north, we could also see where we would be going in the hours and days to come.

At the conclusion of the stage, we turned off the trail and walked about a mile to a hotel in the town of Stonehouse. We enjoyed our stay at the 17th-century hotel. However, the inside door latch in our room, retrofitted to the old building, got stuck and would not release when we wanted to go outside to eat dinner. After several minutes of trying the fix the issue ourselves, we called the hotel front desk to rescue us and open the door. In all our travels, it was the first time we had ever been locked inside our room.

Reaching the Trail Halfway Point in the Rain

We had not taken for granted the good weather during the first three days of our trek. However, we knew that there would be days we would hike in the rain. When the rain did come on our fourth stage, we only had an 8.5-mile distance to complete. After the mile walk back to the path from our hotel, we began our trek in a light but steady rain. Having waterproof pack covers, jackets, and pants made things fairly comfortable.

 Even with the poor weather, we still had nice views as we climbed the hills.

The book I had bought for the Cotswold Way touted that this stage had some of the most beautiful forest scenery of the entire trek. Although the weather made the forest a little dark and dreary, we did enjoy our two mile hike through Standish Wood. At a parking lot at the end of the wood was a coffee and pastry truck. We stopped for a welcomed warm drink and snack and had a nice chat with the locals there.

The weather continued cold and rainy until about an hour before the end of the stage. As we dried out, we began to see our destination, the town of Painswick, in the distance. Its distinctive 174-foot high church spire could be seen on the right side of town as we approached.

Painswick was an old wool and cloth market town and its buildings had a more white or gray tone than the other villages we would be visiting in the coming days. We found the town to be delightful and it made us anticipate the upcoming Cotswold villages that much more.

That night we ate dinner at a pub right across the street from the iconic church we had seen when hiking into town.

About a half-mile before we arrived in Painswick we came upon a marker signifying roughly the halfway point of the trek. The distance from Bath (55 miles) was noted on one side and the distance to go to Chipping Campden (47 miles) was inscribed on the other.

Marker with Bath distance on one side and Chipping Campden distance on the other

During our first four days of the Cotswold Way, we greatly appreciated the trail’s beauty and views. We were also fascinated with all the history that we had discovered, dating back to the 6th century. We so enjoyed the peacefulness of the wold and were anticipating visiting more iconic Cotswold villages as we continued our trek.