(S/E) From the front door of The Butchers Arms pub, turn left and follow the no-through road signposted to Sheepscombe Far End. After 1⁄2 mile, continue between the gateposts into Workman’s Wood.
(1) When the track forks, take the lower (right-hand) branch. Bear right when the other track rejoins from the left, then swing right with views down the valley. Bear left to a building and a pond beyond.
(2) Continue along the main track to the left of the pond. Beyond a shelter (on your left) continue up the valley, ignoring any turnings and passing a small quarry face on your left. Eventually, leave the wood through a gate and follow a track across the field ahead. Bear right through the gate between two houses.
(3) Turn right down the road (B4070), then at Foston’s Ash cross over and walk to the right of the pub, passing the swings to reach the end of the car park. Follow the footpath beyond, along a field edge. At the end of the field, go through a gap in the hedge and follow a path half-right across the next field and into the wood beyond (Climperwell Wood).
(4) Walk quite steeply down the wooded side-valley to a footbridge over the stream. On meeting the main path beyond, turn left up the valley. After 1⁄4 mile, pass a pond on the left and shortly afterwards leave the trees to meet a road.
(5) Go through the gate opposite and follow the edge of the wood, with a farm up to your left. Ignore a footpath off to the right, instead passing through a gateway and continuing up the shallow grassland valley. Go through a metal gate back into woodland (Hazel Hanger Wood). Ignoring any turnings to left or right and sticking to the valley bottom, you eventually emerge into open fields.
(6) Follow the field edge ahead to a metal gate, beyond which (ignoring a track to the right) bear left across the corner of a field to a gate into more woodland. Turn right and follow the path along the edge of the wood, ignoring paths off to the left.
Keep to the right of a property and follow a hedged bridleway (which may be muddy) until it emerges past a house and into a road.
(7) Turn left along the road, passing two houses on the right. At a T-junction, turn left and follow the road into Birdlip. Beyond the church, bear left at a T-junction and walk out to the B4070.
Keeping to the raised left-hand pavement, pass the Royal George and keep left at the junction at the top of Birdlip Hill.
(8) Cross the road and follow the driveway opposite, to the right of the lodge house. This lane descends and becomes a stony track, before the Cotswold Way joins from the right. Keep left along the descending track until you meet a crossroads, with a quarry on your left.
(9) Here keep straight on, following the Cotswold Way. A track joins from the left then, at a fork, take the left-hand turning, uphill, with the remains of a wall on the right. The track levels off then leaves the wall, bearing right at a clearing, with views opening up over the Witcombe Reservoirs to your right.
Always keeping to the track closest to the woodland edge, the Cotswold Way descends to curve right above a spring (the Tile Well).
At a fork just afterwards, take the left-hand (upper) track to continue on the Cotswold Way. The Way continues in similar fashion before passing a cottage and joining its driveway, which eventually meets the road at Cooper’s Hill.
(10) Follow the road between dwellings, ignoring footpaths to left and right until you reach a postbox. Here turn left towards the car park, then immediately right below the steep open slope of the cheese-rolling course.
(11) Beyond this, go through a gate into the wood and follow the uphill path beyond; various paths lead up to the top of Cooper’s Hill to your left, but our route continues ahead, climbing gradually and bearing left until you join a track coming up from the right.
When this track bends left, take the right-hand fork on a descending track, still following the Cotswold Way. When this emerges into fields, bear right to a gate. Turn left after the gate, still on the Cotswold Way, following the waymark posts when other paths and tracks cross.
The Way climbs to a junction, where it turns right and follows a wall to a Natural England board for Buckholt Wood. Shortly afterwards, turn right at a junction and descend to a road, with a wall to your right.
(12) Turn right and walk out to the main A46 road. Cross carefully, take a few steps to the left, then turn right into the trees on a footpath. At a gap in the wall on your right, turn left and walk out to another road. Cross over and pick up the Cotswold Way opposite (the left-hand fork beyond the interpretation panel).
(13) This path meets another road, which you follow to its end by a parking area. Take the right-hand track, below a height-restriction barrier, and follow it to the right of the golf course (ignoring Cotswold Way signs off to the left) until you approach the hillfort at Painswick Beacon.
(14) Leave the track to climb to the trig point and topograph at the highest point then, having admired the view, descend the ramparts beyond to rejoin the route of the Cotswold Way. Turn right and walk out to a road. Turn left to a triangle at the entrance to a quarry, and take a descending path on the right into the trees, signposted “Wysis Way”, which leads to the main road.
(15) Ignoring the driveway opposite, cross and turn left along the pavement past a house, before dropping right down a flight of steps. Cross the lane and take the path opposite, bearing right to skirt a wood then left (downhill) before you reach a house ahead of you.
Ford a small stream that issues from the bottom of the wood, then bear right to a gate into the trees opposite. Follow the fenced path within the wood for a few yards, then turn right over a stile. Emerging into fields, take a permitted path that leads down the slope to a footbridge.
(16) Beyond the stream turn left though a series of fields to pass handsome Damsell’s Farm and join the drive beyond.
(17) At Damsell’s Mill, turn left and follow the sunken road up the hill. Ignore a footpath on the left at the top. Opposite the entrance to Painswick Lodge, turn left up a narrow lane with a grassy centre. At a T-junction, take a permitted path opposite, over a stile, and walk up the field edge.
Beyond the property on the right, turn right through a series of gates to pass an outbuilding and join a hedged path beyond.
(18) Follow this path to reach woodland, where you turn right to a gate. The narrow path beyond winds along the woodland edge until it meets a larger path joining from the left. Ignore a path off to the right, emerging eventually at the bottom of the grassy slopes of Sheepscombe Common.
(19) Turn right into the trees on a track that descends to a gate. Beyond the gate, continue downhill to meet a metalled lane; walk on down the lane to emerge opposite the Old Vicarage, just above The Butchers Arms.
