Читать книгу The Cotswold Way. NATIONAL TRAIL Two-way trail guide - Chipping Campden to Bath онлайн

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Day walks

The Cotswold Way is not only for end-to-end walkers. A series of short circular routes have been created that enable visitors to tackle it in ‘bite-sized chunks’. Route details can be downloaded from the national trail website (www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cotswold-way).

Which way to walk?

So, should you begin in Chipping Campden or Bath? Well, the route has been signed in such a way as to make it easy to follow in either direction, and there’s a similar amount of uphill as there is downhill effort involved, whichever way you tackle it – though if anything it’s slightly more strenuous for the northbound walker. By walking northward (starting in Bath) you’ll probably have the prevailing wind at your back, some of the finest scenery teasing ahead of you, and one of the finest of all Cotswold towns as the climax.

On the other hand, heading south from Chipping Campden means that from the very start you are launched into full Cotswold grandeur, while the pilgrimage nature of the long-distance walk (and it seems to me that all long walks take the form of a pilgrimage) culminates with the heart-stopping sight of Bath Abbey, arguably one of Britain’s finest buildings, marking journey’s end. It is also physically easier to leave Bath by public transport at the end of the walk than it is Chipping Campden. This may be a deciding factor.