3 Shipton-under-Wychwood Loop via Wychwood
Route 4 Bourton-on-the-Water Loop via the Slaughters
Route 6 Bradford-on-Avon via Bath Two Tunnels
Route 7 Bourton-on-the-Water Loop via Great Barrington
Route 8 Kemble via Cotswold Water Park
Route 9 Kingham Loop via Bruern Abbey
Route 11 Stratford Greenway Loop via Mickleton
Route 12 Cirencester Loop via Ampney Crucis
Route 13 Filkins Loop via Bibury
Route 14 Fairford Loop via Bibury
Route 15 Frampton Cotterell Loop via Wickwar
Route 16 Stonehouse Loop via Slimbridge
Route 17 Stow Loop via Blockley
Route 18 Burford Loop via Northleach
Route 19 Stroud Loop via Chavenage House
Route 20 Cheltenham Loop via Cleeve Hill
Route 21 Malmesbury Loop via Tetbury
Day 1 Stroud to Winchcombe
Day 2 Winchcombe to Stow-on-the-Wold
Day 3 Stow-on-the-Wold to Cirencester
Day 4 Cirencester to Stroud
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Cycle hire and cycle shops
Appendix C Cycles and trains
Appendix D First aid for bike and rider
Appendix E Other useful information
In spring, apple blossom lines part of the bridleway near Furze Ground (Route 13)
INTRODUCTION
A typical eastern Cotswold view over ripening corn and rolling hills – near Chadlington (Route 9)
The track in front of me was smooth, dry and flat and there wasn’t another soul in sight. To my right the mirror-calm water reflected the blue skies overhead, with a few fluffy white clouds adding extra interest. Splashes of colour from brightly-painted canal boats and tall, motionless green spikes of bankside vegetation added to the tranquil scene. I was on the Stroudwater Canal near Slimbridge (Route 16) and had stopped to take some photos of the peaceful early-morning scene. A moment later I was particularly glad I hadn’t just hurtled by at speed...
A swan was snoozing quietly in the shade of tall reeds, all curled up with her sinuous head buried beneath a wing, now and again raising it drowsily at some gentle background noise. As I was about to edge past her, another early-morning cyclist arrived rather abruptly, seeing the swan (and me waving my arms) only at the last minute. He then rode carefully past this sleepy queen of the canal, keeping as far away as he could. But we needn’t have worried: she was far more concerned about catching up on her beauty sleep than hissing territorially at either of us.
On another occasion I was pedalling as fast as I could up a steep but short slope; that day I was on an off-road section of Akeman Street (Route 18), grinning from ear to ear as I overcame a challenge that looked more difficult than it was in practice.
Such is the variety of terrain in the Cotswolds, from quiet lanes and challenging tracks to thriving (and busy) villages and town centres. And unexpected wildlife encounters seem far more common when travelling by bicycle – the quiet but relatively fast approach on two wheels allowing you to get a bit closer than perhaps by any other means of transport, including feet.
Cotswold stone houses beside the River Eye in Lower Slaughter (Route 4)
The Cotswolds are deservedly one of the most popular Areas of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) in the country, and its honeypot (and honey-coloured) limestone villages and wool towns such as Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway and Bibury are the embodiment of ‘olde-worlde’ rural England. Although summer tourists can make these places very busy, the bustle can soon be left behind on the quiet lanes and tracks that criss-cross this wonderfully varied region, passing such delights as purple lavender fields and swathes of wildflowers peppering the unimproved limestone grassland.
These, and the relatively gentle terrain, really lend the Cotswolds to cycling. But make no mistake: it’s not flat! There are plenty of hills here, often gentle and rolling in nature, although some are surprisingly steep – they just don’t ascend to such lofty heights as some of the more renowned hilly areas of the UK.
The routes in this book cover between 14km (9 miles) and 64km (40 miles) in a day, leading up to a 208km (130 miles) four-day route that visits many Cotswold highlights.
Geology
In the Jurassic Period (roughly 200–145
