Guided Walking with Sightseeing at Bourton-on-the-Water

  Up to 5 miles with some ascent

Each day’s guided walking and sightseeing will be selected from the following provisional programme.

Admission fees are not included in the cost of your holiday; please allow £30.  If you have a National Trust card, remember to bring it along.

Upper and Lower Slaughter

A gentle walk to what are probably the most visited villages in the Cotswolds – Upper and Lower Slaughter on the River Eye. The latter has simply built bridges and an old mill built in 1650 which was still in use up to the 1960s. The equally delightful Upper Slaughter, only two miles from the River Eye’s source, has one of the finest examples of Elizabethan domestic architecture in the Cotswolds with its gabled manor house and superb Lords of the Manor Hotel. From here we follow broad bridleways into the Windrush Valley near Aston Mill.

Distance: 5 miles; mainly level walking with one 360 foot ascent

Hidcote Manor Gardens and Chipping Campden

Hidcote is arguably where modern small garden design began. The horticulturist Lawrence Johnson created ‘outdoor rooms’ for different moods and lifestyles, colour coordinated and teasing to the eye. After a morning visit we walk along the North Cotswold Diamond Way. The path crosses undulating farmland and woods, dipping into valleys before reaching the butter- and honey-coloured houses of Chipping Campden, built over a period of five centuries, with the finest of the wool churches and its much-photographed almshouses.

Distance: 4 miles and 120 feet of ascent

From High Hawling to the Glove Maker’s Castle

Hawling is on the Windrush Way, a long distance footpath crossing high open country. Another high footpath takes us over to the Wardens’ Way. This path descends by woodland and valley through the grounds of Sudeley Castle and on to Winchcombe, both of which we will explore.

Distance: 5 miles

Along the Coln Valley from Bibury to Quenington

We start our walk at Bibury, described by William Morris as the most beautiful village in England, and include the cottages at Arlington Row, now owned by the National Trust. We follow riverside, wood and meadow paths to Coln St Aldwyns, continuing to the pretty village of Quenington with its church which features two rare Norman doorways. Then on to Fairford to visit the famous church which has the only complete set of medieval glass in the country.

Distance: 4½ miles and 260 feet of ascent

Stanway, Stanton, Laverton, Broadway & Batsford Arboretum

We start at Stanway with its wonderful Jacobean gate, tithe barn, church and cricket pavilion. We continue along the Cotswold Way through Stanton to Laverton then on to Broadway. Via Fish Hill we continue to Batsford Arboretum, which is home to the most extensive private collection of trees and shrubs in Britain. Batford Park also houses the Cotswold Falconry centre and a garden centre with many unusual plants and trees.

Distance: 5 miles with a few stiles and 180 feet of ascent