Weirdly, day five of my Cotswold Way hike, which I did back at the end of April with hiking friend Fiona (start here if you’re not already up to date with my adventure journal series), is the one I think of the least when recounting the 100-mile tale. It was a beautiful day, with some interesting features and lovely views, but somehow it was the most unremarkable of the week.

It shouldn’t have been. After the first couple of miles I was on completely new ground, and so was experiencing this part of the Cotswold Way for the first time. I expect the weird vibe I get from my memories of this day is probably down to it being sandwiched between day three, the most splendid of day hikes in the Cotswolds, and day six, our final day hike into Bath. It just got overshadowed.

The thing I do remember is that I plotted a 16.3-mile day when I was doing my pre-hike planning in OS Maps, and so this was set to be a shorter day between two 20-plus milers. We actually walked 18-miles, which definitely pushed it into the ‘big’ day hike category for me. This was a conscious on-purpose decision, I should add – we decided to take a detour to a pub in the afternoon for a cold drink!

A Day of Villages

From our Bed and Breakfast at Forthay, we first walked into North Nibley to pick up the Cotswold Way. The route then took us up to the Tyndale Monument, across Brackenbury Ditches and through Westridge Wood, across and down Wotton Hill into Wotten-Under-Edge, up Blackquarries Hill and Wortley Hill, through Alderley and Lower Kilcott, through Claypit Wood, over to Hawkesbury Upton (our pub-related detour), past Horton Court, up and through two ancient hill forts – one at Horton and one at Little Sodbury – and across to Old Sodbury.

Ascent wise, we did a little over 2,500 feet, which is nowhere near flat, but felt fine. The most significant climb of the day was right at the start, getting us back on the escarpment from North Nibley, and the rest seemed a bit more spread out. I know that some people bypass the two short ups-and-downs to visit the hill forts at Horton and Little Sodbury, but these really are worth a look close-up, and I’m glad we stuck to the Cotswold Way both times.

I guess it was a day of villages, with a bit of countryside between. It was rural, for sure, but we walked past a lot of houses, and there was quite a bit of tarmac underfoot. Somehow it felt like we all the time in the world; as with day four, we took a lot of breaks – two of them indoors, and still made it to our accommodation with plenty of time to rest before dinner.

Cotswold Way Day 5

Wednesday, Forthay to Old Sodbury, 18 miles

After being too hot to sleep well the previous night, I was grateful for a decent night at Forthay Bed and Breakfast. The duvet was still too thick, but we were able to have the Velux windows open overnight which provided a nice draft through our attic room, making the room a much more comfortable temperature.

Despite sleeping well, I was definitely feeling tired and rather daunted by the thought of a 16.3-mile day (which as you already know, we turned into 18 thanks to a detour to a pub). After such a big hiking day – plus a bit extra to get to the pub and back for dinner – my body was not overly excited by another long day on my feet.

This wasn’t helped by the fact a couple of my toes were feeling a bit sore, like they could erupt into full on blister mode at any time. This was most likely caused by getting very hot and sweaty in boots that were still a bit damp after the rain on day three, causing a bit of rubbing that wouldn’t normally have been there. I used one of Fiona’s little blister plasters (I only packed out the big ones as I have just never experienced hot spots on my toes before) to cool and protect the area, and was very thankful that did the job and I had no further feet issues. Thanks Fiona.

Homemade Granola

We’d chosen breakfast on our arrival, which is always a bit of a risk as I genuinely have no clue what I might want for my first meal of the day before I’ve had dinner the night before. But I also understand that B&B hosts really could do with knowing what I want so they can do their prep before I rock up in the dining room expecting to be fed, so it’s fine, I can be decisive when necessary.

We both started with some homemade pecan and apple granola with natural yogurt, which was absolutely delicious even if it was the smallest portion known to hikers! Look, I know what we were served is considered a single portion, but you know, I just love granola, and this one was particularly good. If we hadn’t been walking the Cotswold Way, I’d have bought some of it to take home. In fact, it’s available online, so I might treat myself to a delivery once this post is live.

It’s okay, I didn’t go hungry (!), I followed my granola with scrambled egg on toast, which was equally as delicious. No complaints! It was all washed down with a glass of apple juice and a cup of coffee. Our host was kind enough to fill my flask with tea, which was again very much appreciated. A hike without tea is just that little bit less enjoyable, in my opinion.

Monument Number One

Once we were fed and packed, we started day five of our Cotswold Way adventure by walking back up the lane to North Nibley, where we picked up the National Trail once again. It was a beautifully warm and sunny morning, although clouds were already starting to gather on the horizon – it was another day when we weren’t sure if we would get wet or not.

Our first task was to climb up the steep hill to the Tyndale Monument. This 34-metre-tall monument, marked on the OS Map, was constructed in 1866 as a memorial to William Tyndale, one of the first people to translate the New Testament Bible into English. The plaque says he was born in North Nibley, but that is a local legend that hasn’t been proven (it’s probably a different Tyndale!).

Fun fact, this is the third time I’ve walked up this hill. It was actually the place I came on my first GetOutside Activity Challenge back in September 2018, when I completed 55 different outdoor activities in 48 hours. This was the ‘use a map to find something interesting’ activity – Sarah (The Urban Wanderer) and I had spotted monument marked on the map just a few miles from our campsite, so we found a suitable parking spot and went to find out what it was.

The door to the tower, which can be accessed via a 121-step spiral staircase, was open, but Fiona and I have both been up before and decided we didn’t want to add more steps to our hike on this occasion. Actually, I think the conversation was more around the fact the spiral staircase is quite short, and Fiona is very tall, making for an incredibly uncomfortable trip up and down!

Walled Trees

Anyway, we enjoyed the view from Nibley Knoll over to the two Severn crossings and well into Wales, and back north along the escarpment to Haresfield Beacon where we had our second breakfast the previous day. It’s quite the landmark; we would be able to look back at where we were stood for most of the next two days and see it clearly, such is the prominence of this tower. 

We walked along the escarpment, through Westridge Wood and across Brackenburry Ditches, another one of the Cotswold Way’s many Iron Age hill forts. It was a bit muddy here but a lovely walk, with views across the valley every now and again. After a short stretch between the woodland and crop fields, we arrived on Wotton Hill, which is crowned with a circular walled clump of trees.  

The stand of trees is called Jubilee Clump, and was originally planted in 1815 to commemorate the victory at Waterloo – a location chosen because of its visibility (the site had already been used in 1588 to house a beacon to warn of the approach of the Spanish Armada). The wall was built, and more trees planted, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s jubilee (1887), and yet more trees planted/re-planted on the accession of Queen Elizabeth (1952).

This was the point that my Cotswold Way knowledge ended. I came to this area to do a circular day hike with Allysse back in early 2019, and had a lovely day out (a walk which undeniably helped me appreciate the undulating nature of the Cotswolds!). It was all new (and very exiting…) from here.

Chocolate Scones

We continued on the Cotswold Way, very steeply down into Wotton-under-Edge. We decided a morning brew was required, and so headed into The Edge Café, where we received a lovely welcome – another café Fiona remembered from her previous attempt at this National Trail.

The cakes looked fantastic. If it had been a bit longer and we’d walked further since breakfast (only a couple of miles really), I would have had a slice of something diecious – I must go back to taste their wares another time. I still smile to myself at the conversation between a customer and the lady behind the counter… he really wanted one of the ‘chocolate scones’ on the side, and couldn’t quite grasp he was being told it wasn’t chocolate, those brown dots were sultanas… he just didn’t seem to get it. I loved that.  

I’ll say it; Wotton is much (much) nicer than Dursley. If you are walking the Cotswold Way and are choosing between which of these two places to spend some time, then Wotton is the one. And there were clear Cotswold Way signposts through the village, too. Sorry Dursley, you didn’t win this one.

The End of the Escarpment

We left Wotton-under-Edge by following an old mill stream towards Coombe, before beginning the steep climb up Blackquarries hill – first on a country lane, then through woodland on a little path, and then back on that country lane again. Yet another example of the Cotswold Way preferring the direct route up hills rather than meandering around. My legs and lungs weren’t too grateful!

We walked along the edge of the escarpment through Workham Plantation, which lacks trees these days, right on the edge of the hill with it dropping away to our right. I didn’t realise it at the time, but looking back at the map and my Cicerone Guidebook, I found this was the last edge-walk of the Cotswold Way. We weren’t done with hills by any means, but once we’d walked over Wortley Hill and made our way steeply down through woodland to skirt around Wortley village, we were pretty much done with the Cotswold escarpment. 

Apparently, Wortley was the birthplace of Stephen Hopkins, one of the Pilgrim Fathers – a nice little nod to my previous life living over in the flatlands of Boston, Lincolnshire. And Alderley, just a field or two away, had a resident who claimed to be the resurrected Christ – sent to Oxford to be executed. How’s that for a fun fact?! 

The walk over to Kilcott Mill was across a bunch of particularly undulating fields, and then the walk over to Lower Killcott was along a narrow country lane. These two stretches felt very long, and we were both hungry, so we sat on the ground by a millpond for snack. Not exactly as nice as our lunch spots the previous day, but 100% nicer than the soggy sandwich stop we had atop Cooper’s Hill on day three!

Coming Through!

Time for yet another steep uphill, this time through the woodland of Claypit Wood and up onto Clay Hill. We met a two small groups of hikers on the way up. The first were heading down the hill doing a circular walk, and the second, an older couple, were doing the same day walk in the opposite direction.

It was here we had our one and only conversation with cows on the Cotswold Way. We’d seen a lot of cows, and horses, but this was the only time I can remember we needed to politely ask them to move so we could make our way through.

I’ll be honest, we both stopped in our tracks for a second when we saw them all bunched up against the gate, I have a friend who had a particularly nasty encounter with cows and since then I’ve become much more wary of these large and very curious creatures. But it was the way we needed to go, and we just had to get on with it. It was probably one of the only times I really wished I’d brought my walking poles on this hike, as I didn’t have them to provide any kind of distance between me and the cows; if you read my day three post then you know I made a last-minute decision to leave them at home.

Anyway, the cows moved just enough to allow is passage into their field (and I mean only just!), and we were through and out the other side in no time at all.

Monument Number Two

The Somerset Monument, our next landmark, looks very similar indeed to the Tyndale Monument we visited earlier in the day. Erected in 1846 to commemorate Lord Robert Edward Somerset, who fought during the Peninsular War and the War of the Seventh Coalition and was the local MP, it’s a Grade II listed building.

This is where Fiona called a taxi during her first attempt at hiking the Cotswold Way, after injuries for both her and her husband put an end to that particular long-distance hike. Some might say her hike started here…

Once down off the hill again we took a detour into Hawkesbury Upton to visit the Beaufort Arms for a cold drink. We discovered they have a sandwich menu, despite the website suggesting they only had a full-on pub food menu – so if you are hiking the Cotswold Way this would make a great stop for lunch.

A Restful Break

We also enjoyed a long chat with the landlord, who was happy to share some tips for the rest of the day and our final day into Bath. It might seem odd to add over a mile onto an already long hike to go to the pub, but that’s part of the fun of trails like this. It’s all about doing what you can to make it as nice an experience as possible, and for us that was being drawn to a pint of lemonade!

After more fields, rapeseed crops in the main but also some sheep and cows, we walked above the impressive looking Horton Court, a National Trust property. It’s possible to stay at this Grade I listed manor house, which was the filming location for both Wolf Hall and Poldark, but it was a little out of our price range for this week away (and has a three-night minimum!!!). Apparently, it’s one of the oldest inhabited houses in the UK, built way back in 1140.

Ancient and Modern

Not long after Horton Court we zigzagged up through bluebells to the first of two more Iron Age hill forts, before heading straight back down the hill to the village of Horton. Honestly, you really do have to love the Cotswold Way at times, although the historical landmarks is well worth checking out, even if they are sometimes a bit overgrown and only obvious thanks to seeing them marked on the map!

We then passed a rather cute stone tower on our way over Horton Hill, designed to encourage nesting barn owls and swallows. Don’t let the apparent 18th Century look and feel fool you – this folly tower was built to mark the arrival of the new millennium! There is an inscription above the door which says “Swallows and owls house MM”.

My internet research doesn’t tell me anything more, though. I don’t know who built it, or why the instigators chose a folly like this to celebrate the millennium. But I do now know there is another Horton with its own folly – the other one, down in Dorset, looks very different.

Face in the Hedge

The creepiest feature we saw on the whole Cotswold Way has to be the weird face-shaped topiary in Little Sodbury. Quite disturbing, I don’t think I’ll be inspired to do similar in my own garden. After walking past another manor house, they’re two-a-penny in these parts, it was time to hike up to the second Iron Age hill fort of the afternoon.

Sodbury Hill Fort is super impressive, probably the most impressive of the whole hike. It’s huge, with ramparts still very much in situ. In fact, it was so big that the farmer who works the land here was working the field inside the hill fort as we walked across on the Cotswold Way. I’m told it’s never been fully excavated, a bit like Cam Long Down, and I like that there is still mystery surrounding this archaeological feature – stories of the world gone by yet to be discovered.

We arrived on the edge of Old Sodbury right by the Church of St John the Baptist, its tower being the original one from the thirteenth century. We could see right into Wales, making out various peaks within Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons), from the incredibly well-appointed bench just outside the churchyard.

It was here we left the Cotswold Way to walk across Old Sodbury to our digs for the night – the Cross Hands Hotel on the A46. Most Cotswold Way hikers stay at the as it’s on the route, but Fiona didn’t have a good experience there the last time she was here, so we chose to stay elsewhere.

The Cross Hands

Apparently, the late Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the Cross Hands Hotel once… She took advantage of the hotel’s renowned hospitality after being caught in a winter blizzard here in 1981. But even with that fact, I don’t think it’s bad to admit I was expecting very little from this overnight stop.

This fourteenth century posting house with period features is now a Greene King run inn – a roadside pub with a few rooms attached. I don’t know, I’m just not convinced Greene King has a brilliant reputation, they took over my local pub and I can no longer get lovely homecooked food made with local ingredients, as it’s all freezer food now. And for some reason they call this the Cross Hands Hotel Bristol – they’re getting a little vague with the geography, there!!

Anyway, while I wasn’t expecting much, the room was nice and comfortable, the shower was decent, and we had everything we needed. Our reasonably large twin room cost us £105 total (split between two), so it offered good value. My only real complaint was internet was a bit pants, but you can’t have everything.

After a long shower and a good sort out (the bag explosion in the room was real!), we took the easy option and headed into the attached pub for dinner. Knowing it was likely pre-prepared food, I chose accordingly – the scampi and chips hit the hiker hunger spot perfectly. Even better was the 20% discount we got because we were staying on site, although it was a bit of a pain the till couldn’t work out how to both apply the voucher and split the bill, but we were able to do our own maths!

Reflections on Cotswold Way Day 5

With just one day left it was fair to say we were both super tired. We were both tucked up in bed well before 9pm, drifting off to the sound of the road outside, summoning all the positive weather vibes – we were going to need those!

In my journal that evening I noted “we did well today”, and I stand by that statement. We both felt the aches in our legs and feet, but it had been a good day – 18-miles, a tea shop, a pub, decent weather, some spectacular views, and so very close to our final destination.

At the top of this post, I commented it had been an average day, maybe because it had been overshadowed by the other days on this hike, each having something big which made it stand out. This is one of the main reasons I enjoy writing and sharing these adventure journal posts so much – they are an opportunity to make sure I don’t forget the little details which make my outdoor adventures what they are.

Wanted my Guidebook

Even if the day was a bit less memorable than others, there were still a bunch of highlights. The views – particularly from the Tyndale Monument, Wotton Hill and the church above Old Sodbury – were especially spectacular. It was a bit cloudier and moodier than day four, but sometimes that makes for better views; there was good amount of drama in the sky.

Then there was the incredibly impressive Sodbury Hill Fort, which is one of the best examples I’ve ever visited, and I’m so glad we stuck to the Cotswold Way proper to go up and over it, rather than bypass it on a commonly used lower footpath.

As for my low point, as I always make sure I’m honest about the things that didn’t make me quite so happy when I’m talking about my adventures – maybe the country lane from Alderley which came at the point I really could have done with a wild wee and there was absolutely nowhere to go!!

And the fact that I had chosen to leave my Cicerone Guidebook at home was a bit of a shame, as it contained so much information about the various memorials and forts and other features we saw along the way.

It might have seemed unexceptional at first glance, but it really was an excellent day out on trail, setting us up very nicely for our final day of the Cotswold Way. You’ll have to come back to read about just how wet we got heading into Bath!!!

If you have any questions about the Cotswold Way please do let me know.