Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds

Distance 27.6km (17.1 miles) Climbing 460m (1,509ft) Time 1hr 30mins to 2hrs 30mins

Route summary A beautiful ride through picturesque countryside with lovely singletrack and pretty villages and pubs en route. There’s a bit of road and some ield crossings, but it’s well worth it

Start/ inish Bourton-on-the-Water high street parking (grid ref SP 167/208, postcode GL54 2AP)

1

Head north on the main road, cross the A429 and follow the Windrush Way bridleway. Keep ahead/left, then go left on a track. Cross the water, then go right through Aston Farm. Ride through the field and into the wood, then ahead, over another field. Go through a gate and left, downhill on singletrack.

2

Keep ahead along the valley bottom. Cross a road, stay on the Windrush Way until you reach a small bridge, and head over it. Climb steeply, ride past a golf course and over another road. Follow a track left and join a road. Go right at a T-junction, into the village, then left when the road bears right.

3

Ascend to a T-junction and go ahead, then right at the road. Soon after, turn left on the entryway to Cotswold Stone Quarries. Keep ahead, then descend to a road. Go right over the bridge then immediately left. Follow this right, and uphill, then after it levels out, make a left before Castlett Farm.

4

Ride downhill, cross the water and go left, into Guiting Power village. Turn left on the main road, past the post o ce and Farmers Arms pub, down to a T-junction. Go right, then left on the next road, signed to Naunton. Climb steeply and turn right, signed to Naunton again, but keep ahead over the crossroads (where you were earlier). 5

Ignore another road on the right, and just past a gated entrance on the left, take the rough track on the right, where the stone wall on your left ends. Join the Warden’s Way bridleway on the right, but keep ahead beside the wall, parallel to the road. At the end, cross the road on a wide track, bearing right just past a barn to cross some fields.

6

Turn left at the road, then right, back onto the Warden’s Way, after a lone house. Ride into Upper Slaughter village and go right, then right again at the wide junction with the large tree. Keep right (ignore the road on the left) and then left at the T-junction towards Lower Slaughter.

7

Ignore a road o to the right and when the road bears left, go ahead on a road towards Bourton. Ignore the left o this, but 300m after it, turn left through a small gate, down into the village. Take a left, then left again past the pub and another left at the mini grass island on the road, heading uphill.

8

Go ahead at the T-junction on the bridleway (Macmillan Way), cross the next road and the field on the Gloucestershire Way. Bear left at the far side, after the gate, down to the Windrush Way again, and turn left to retrace your steps back to the start.