Like a Christmas card sprung to life

Sarah Baxter goes on a wintry walk around the glorious Cotswolds – with the odd pit stop for a pint and a scotch egg

We appeared to have been dropped into a classic Christmas card. The lanes of Snowshill village were lined with golden cottages, all glowing in low December sun; smoke wisped from chimneypots, holly sprayed from wooden doors. The neat old church faced an even older pub. And everything – trees and hedgerows, robin-topped gateposts and steep-pitched roofs – sparkled under a fall of snow. Winter in the Cotswolds: a walker’s paradise.

Indeed, the Cotswolds – the country’s largest Area of Outstanding

Natural Beauty – is arguably best tramped in winter, when you can rosy your cheeks in the most English of English countryside, and collapse in any number of fire-warmed inns as the nights draw in. There’s a good variety of walking, too. The oolitic limestone that lies beneath these rippling hills is now abundantly visible upon them – charming hamlets of honey stone give the area architectural unity and chocolate-box good looks. But the Cotswolds also encompasses species-rich grasslands, rolling pasture, neat drystone walls, swathes of beech woodland, deep valleys and gusty ridges that look right over to Wales. There are also notable human achievements, from ancient Belas Knap long barrow to National Trust treasures such as Dyrham Park.

The big-name walking route here is the Cotswold Way, the 102-mile National Trail that extends from Chipping Campden to Bath Abbey; it celebrates its 50th year as a named walking trail in 2020 – though planned celebrations have been postponed for now. Alternatively, you can trace sections of the abandoned Cotswolds Canals (now under restoration), stride across ancient common land and follow streams that burble amid the bulbous green folds. In winter, you might even set out late in the afternoon to walk under some of the country’s darkest skies – safe in the knowledge, of course, that a cosy pub won’t be too far away.

THE WARDEN’S WAY

This Cotswold “half marathon” combines classic villages with winterwelcome shelter along the Windrush Valley. It finishes near Sudeley Castle, former home of Katherine Parr and stage for a festive Spectacle of Light (Until Dec 30).

Distance: 13.5 miles

Map: OS OL45

Route: From Bourton on the Water, amble north-west through Lower Slaughter (with its mill), Upper Slaughter (with its ford), Naunton (medieval dovecote) and Guiting Power (two good pubs), before passing Sudeley. Finish in Winchcombe.

SLAD VALLEY

Walk out with Laurie Lee: the author immortalised the countryside around Slad in Cider with Rosie. This route links four Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves, including Frith Wood, where in winter, says Lee, the beech trees “ringed us with frozen spikes”; listen for woodpeckers.

Distance: 7.5 miles

Map: OS OL179

Route: Loop north from Slad, via the four reserves – Frith Wood, Snows Farm, Laurie Lee Wood and Swift’s

Hill. Warm up in the Woolpack Inn.

CHIPPING CAMPDEN TO

CLEEVE HILL

Blow away the winter cobwebs with a weekend spent tackling the start of the Cotswold Way. This is quintessential Cotswolds – billowing hills, lovely villages, big views – with transport at both ends and places to stay in the middle (try Stanton or Wood Stanway). Distance: 24 miles

Map: OS OL45 & OL179

Route: Follow the acorn waymarks south from Chipping Campden, via Broadway Tower, walking hub Winchcombe and Belas Knap barrow; 1,082ft Cleeve Hill is the Cotswold’s highest point.

BIBURY & COLN ST ALDWYNS

William Morris declared Bibury “the most beautiful village in England”, with the cottages of Arlington Row perhaps

MINCHINHAMPTON

Managed by the National Trust, the scarp-top grassland of Minchinhampton Common is pocked with archaeological intrigue, from burial mounds to The Bulwarks, an Iron Age earthwork. There are superb views towards the Severn and down the Golden Valley, plus refreshment options including Winstones Ice Cream Factory, serving special Christmas flavours. Distance: 6 miles

Map: OS OL168

Route: Skirt the common, starting from Minchinhampton village, passing Amberley and Burleigh.

SOURCE OF THE THAMES

Winter is the only season in which you might just see water burbling from the official source of the Thames, which sits in a meadow (the site of a Roman battle), at the foot of an aged ash tree. Distance: 6.75 miles

Map: OS OL168

Route: Begin in Tarlton, following woodland tracks and quiet lanes, passing through Coates village, with an out-and-back detour to the Thames source and a stretch along the abandoned Thames & Severn Canal.