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

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There are many fine examples of these hill forts along the route, the largest being at Little Sodbury, where Sodbury Hill Fort covers 11 acres (4½ hectares), enclosed by ditches and earth ramparts. Uleybury is even larger, at more than 30 acres (12 hectares), but is just off the route. Set on the escarpment above Dursley it had the additional protection of a 300ft (90m) drop down the scarp face. Other hill forts may be seen along the way on Cleeve Common, Leckhampton Hill, Crickley Hill and Painswick Beacon, among others.

The arrival of the Romans

The Roman baths, near Bath Abbey

When the Romans came in AD 43 they adopted some of these Iron Age camps for their own use. In addition they built a fortress at Cirencester and another near Gloucester, then linked the two with Ermin Street, which is met on the Cotswold Way at Birdlip. Away from the towns – and none is greater in this part of Britain than the world heritage city of Bath – agricultural estates were established and well-to-do citizens built villas for themselves, usually richly decorated with mosaics, on well-chosen sites that caught the sun. The Cotswold Way passes near two of these, one above Wadfield Farm near Winchcombe, the other at Witcombe below Cooper’s Hill.