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

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Between Crickley Hill and Cooper’s Hill the way crosses just below Birdlip, which sits astride the Roman route of the Fosse Way. Woods conceal the broadest views, but the approach to Cooper’s Hill still allows plenty to gaze at, with a soft light flooding through the trees. More woods stretch along the escarpment, but the way emerges onto Painswick Beacon, open and green, splashed with silver birch and birdsong. Down then to the whitest of all Cotswold towns. Painswick has a churchyard known far and wide for its table tombs and exquisite yews – but there’s much more besides.

From Painswick a climb leads onto Scottsquar Hill and to what many consider the finest vantage point of the whole walk, Haresfield Beacon. This is indeed a tremendous knoll from which to gaze out over the Vale of Gloucester, the River Severn and the Forest of Dean. After absorbing all you can from here it’s back to woodland for a downhill stretch into an industrial valley overlooked by Stroud.

From cloth mills on the River Frome to woodlands hanging from the steep scarp slope takes only an hour or so. Peace and serenity are restored as you regain the escarpment, where huge views look out to a pair of outliers, which soon have to be crossed. Near Hetty Pegler’s Tump the Cotswold Way plunges down the scarp, then climbs up and over Cam Long Down before swooping down once more – this time into Dursley.