Walk: Stanton – Snowshill, The Cotswold Way

It’s a sunny bank holiday and we’re not being told to stay inside. Everyone I know who isn’t at work is probably at home nursing a hangover from the weekend. As I’m lying in bed at 8 am, I have no plans. Nowhere I need to go, nothing I need to do. Brief thoughts of a trip to the Peak District are quashed by the prospect of spending 4 hours sitting in the car on a motorway in one day. Most of my local walks are now well-trodden after months of ‘staying local’.

I looked further. The Cotswolds caught my intrigue. I had been only once before when cycling to Bath, and even then I had not seen much of it thanks to a friend leaving his bike in the middle of a petrol station, to be run over by a car (the bike, not him).

I googled some walking routes trying for inspiration. This 6-mile walk stood out to me, due to the two typically English countryside villages (credit to CotswoldAONB). Small stone houses set back from the road, hidden behind layer upon layer of flower beds and ivy. That cliché escaped beyond the boundaries of the village. Walking along the rugged path out of the village I joined the Cotswold Way as I headed towards Snowshill. The path winds and rolls through the hills, wildflowers littering the grassy fields, illuminated by the midday sun.

The path climbs and climbs, each turn of a corner a false horizon until you reach the top of Shenberrow Hill. It was here that I became somewhat lost. Ill-prepared I hadn’t charged my phone, so no having to drop into power-saving mode I had no GPS or Maps to follow. I had screenshotted a picture of my route from Komoot in the hope that when I needed to look at it, it wouldn’t steal too much of the remaining battery.

Instead of continuing north of the hill, I turned west early and rounded a farmhouse and out onto the bridleway. The sweeping farmland, knee-high in corn, opened the view up before me and I could see out into the distance. A scatter of houses at the bottom of the hill looked somewhat village like so I headed towards them, following the public footpath through gate after gate until I reached the road.

Snowshill appeared more rustic and aged than Stanton, the sandy stone house greyed with age. It was however inviting, mainly because the pub was open. A quick stop for a pint of local bitter and I was away, ignoring the serious-looking lady with a clipboard asking for tickets to the local manor, I headed for the hills again.

I looped out of Snowshill north, before cutting left into a public footpath. The path downhill was bumpy and wild. The treeline ahead dotted with colours of green, brown and purple. Ancient, towering oak trees stood alone in the fields, with the backdrop of newer forests and woodland.

The path dipped down and shot back up. A quick push through some small shrubland and I found myself a small pocket of shade and a suitably low curved tree to sit on, a perfect place for a snack break.

The path continues up the hill and back onto the bridleway, further north than we had been earlier. If you wanted to cut out a couple of miles, and a big hill, you could carry on along the bridleway instead of heading into Snowshill earlier. From here the route is fairly simple and flat. The bridleway hugs the woodlands to your left and you can see out far into the distant hills to your right. All before sweeping left and heading back along the Cotswold Way until you meet numerous adjourning roads. A right turn here took me back onto a public footpath and a gentle downhill stroll would take me back to Stanton.

The path finishes outside the pub, The Mount Inn. It’s stunningly built from the same stone materials as the cottages in the village, with large beer gardens. The pub even has the brown tourist attraction road signs on the way into the village, so it must be good. I wouldn’t know though because it doesn’t open on Mondays. Seriously, what pub doesn’t open on a bank holiday?