A Guide to the Cotswold Way - Guides Author:Richard Sale Running a hundred miles from Chipping Campden in the north to Bath in the south, the Cotswold Way follows the line of the escarpment and offers spectacular views. Unlike many long distance footpaths it travels through well-populated areas and seeks out small towns and villages, since they are some of England’s most beautiful and have... more » a wealth of local history.
The Cotswold Way is suitable for walkers of all abilities and is enjoyable at any time of year. Unlike the majority of long-distance footpaths, it has not been designated by Act of Parliament. Instead, it travels along currently existing rights of way, and owes it existence to the efforts of the Gloucestershire Ramblers’ Association. History has left its mark all along the route: there are long barrows belonging to the Neolithic Age such as Belas Knap and Hetty Pegler’s Tump, Iron Age hill forts such as Crickley Hill and Old Sodbury, Roman remains at Bath and smaller villas at Wadfield and Wilcombe; Dark Age monasteries, Norman churches, magnificent houses, churches and memorials built by rich wool merchants through the centuries; evidence of the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.« less