4-Day Cotswold Way Route Itinerary — Trail Runner Pace

Sprint out of Chipping Campden, a wool town built from golden Cotswold limestone with its 17th-century Market Hall. Climb to Dover's Hill at 230m for views across the Vale of Evesham, then on to Broadway Tower, a striking folly at 312m, before descending into Broadway. Climb onto the escarpment at Shenberrow Hill, an Iron Age hill fort site dating to around 500 BCE, then drop into unspoiled Stanton and continue past Stanway House with its 91m gravity-fed fountain. Climb to Beckbury Camp, descend to Winchcombe near Sudeley Castle, then climb past the 15th-century St Peter's Church to Belas Knap, a 3800 BCE Neolithic long barrow. Continue through Breakheart Plantation and the Postlip Estate onto Cleeve Common, finishing at Cleeve Hill car park.

Climb immediately to Cleeve Hill summit at 317m, the highest point on the entire Cotswold Way, with sweeping views to the Malvern Hills and Brecon Beacons. Cross the exposed Cleeve Common grasslands past ancient quarries and Iron Age earthworks, then descend through Dowdeswell Wood to Dowdeswell Reservoir, home to rare white-clawed crayfish. Climb through Lineover Wood's 300-year-old heritage beeches to Wistley Hill, on to Seven Springs and over Leckhampton Hill at 299m past the iconic Devil's Chimney rock formation carved by Victorian quarrymen. Continue through Ullenwood and the prehistoric earthworks of Crickley Hill Country Park, then descend to Birdlip and into the majestic beech woods of Witcombe. Pass Cooper's Hill, famous for its annual cheese-rolling event, and finish in Painswick — the 'Queen of the Cotswolds' — with its 99 yew trees.

The longest and toughest day. Leave Painswick across Washbrook Valley, climb past the Edgemoor Inn and Cromwell's Stone to Haresfield Beacon at 248m, an Iron Age hill fort with views across the Severn Estuary, Forest of Dean and Welsh mountains. Traverse Standish Wood with its ancient beeches and bluebell carpets, descend to Ryeford and cross the Stroudwater Canal to King's Stanley. Climb steeply through Pen Wood and Stanley Wood to the whale-backed Cam Long Down at 218m, then descend to Dursley with its 13th-century twisted-spire church. Skirt Stinchcombe Hill — seven counties on a clear day — through North Nibley and up to the 111-foot Tyndale Monument. Descend to Wotton-under-Edge, climb to Blackquarries Hill and along Wortley Hill, then drop through Alderley and Lower Kilcott to the Somerset Monument and on to Hawkesbury Upton.

The final push to Bath. Leave Hawkesbury Upton through rolling farmland past Horton Court — a National Trust property with a 12th-century Norman hall — and Horton Camp's ancient hill fort. Pass Little Sodbury, where William Tyndale once lived, climb to Little Sodbury Fort and descend into Old Sodbury. Continue through cultivated fields to Coomb's End and the elegant Dodington Estate parkland, designed by Capability Brown and now owned by Sir James Dyson, then through Tormarton with its duck pond and the Compass Inn. Cross the M4 motorway and skirt Dyrham Park, through Dyrham Wood and Cold Ashton, then climb to Lansdown Hill — site of the 1643 English Civil War battle and Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument. From Prospect Stile, Bath spreads out below; descend past Kelston Round Hill and the Royal Crescent to finish at Bath Abbey.