Saturday 9th October 2021
Four months had passed since I had last done a section of the Cotswold Way before I finally returned to Barrow Wake to continue my trek. Having to work on a Saturday prevented me from being able to do any lengthy walks throughout the summer and even into the autumn it seemed as if I had fallen out of the habit of doing a long walk on a Saturday. Eventually good weather roused me into making the effort to go for a walk despite still having to work. Once I had impatiently finished work I rushed off down the motorway to return to Barrow Wake, a vantage point on the Cotswold escarpment that looks out over the Vale of Gloucester, where I reached on my previous stage of the trail back in June. Leaving the car park I headed off along the Cotswold Way immediately enjoying the morning sunshine, but soon I disappeared under trees that would be the norm for much of this stage of the Cotswold Way. Wide tracks led my way throughout the woodland, which provided me with very relaxing, if slightly dull, walking as I strolled along the footpath, though there was a significant amount of undulation that meant I still had to put in quite a bit of effort.
Dappled sunlight coming through the trees produced some lovely scenes that made the walk a pleasure and carried me along, but it wasn’t too long before the trail turned westwards and sunk further below the top of the escarpment leaving me in shadow on the northern slopes of Witcombe Wood. However, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather and the undulating path I had soon stripped down to a tee shirt and was enjoying the walk as the miles slowly passed by until on reaching a road at the foot of Cooper’s Hill I came out of the woodland. Soon, I came off the road and onto a path that took me steeply up the hill to where the view north was revealed over Brockworth on the outskirts of Gloucester. This was a rare break in the tedium of endless woodland but was soon over as I plunged into Brockworth Wood and from there I continued into Upton Wood and Buckholt Wood, which is part of the vast Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods National Nature Reserve, which I would be seeing more of later in my walk.
When I eventually passed out of the Nature Reserve I came out of the trees and onto the open grassland of Painswick Golf Course. This was slightly annoying as it was not the first time on the Cotswold Way that I had encountered an open common where I should have had freedom to roam, but in practice I didn’t because it is a golf course where I had to be careful to ensure I wasn’t hit by a golf ball. Keeping to the waymarked path as much as possible I missed the top of Painswick Beacon and followed a track that took me onto the road that divides the course in half. The trail continues beyond there through woodland that lines the edge of the golf course and eventually brought me to the club house, but when I checked my map I discovered that I had missed a turning somewhere and was no longer on the Cotswold Way. After studying my map I decided to keep to the road heading from the club house, passing a cemetery on my right until the Cotswold Way merged with the road that I was already on and led me all the way into the town of Painswick where I had my lunch.
I was now almost half way along the Cotswold Way and I had reached the end of the trail for this day, so now I needed to find my own way back to Barrow Wake. Leaving the town I took a path down into the Painswick Valley where I found a pretty, little stream before climbing out of the valley onto a road that led me into the quaint little village of Sheepscombe. At the end of the road out of the village I plunged once more into woodland that is part of the Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods National Nature Reserve for a prolonged walk through the vast wood that must look spectacular if only a good vantage point could be found, but I never found one. With nothing to see except the trees, I made my way slowly along the bridleway gradually climbing higher into the valley until I eventually reached the top of the path out of Workman’s Wood and onto a road. At a pub I turned onto a bridlepath that took me down into the smaller Climberwell Wood, but not for long before continued north into Hazel Hanger Wood until eventually I reached the woodland at the top of the escarpment that I had passed through earlier.
A steep, slippery descent brought me back onto the Cotswold Way, which I followed retracing my steps all the way back to the car park. Due to the many undulations in the path, this was a very exhausting but satisfying walk. It was fantastic to get out again and do a long walk, enjoying the warm weather and a great relief to finally return to the Cotswold Way, which I had been putting off for too many months over the summer. Unfortunately, I was getting further and further away from my home so I was now on the edge of how far one can reasonably drive there and back in one day. Whenever I do return to the Cotswold Way I know I will enjoy it as this had so far been a pleasing series of walks and I look forward to continuing my trek along the western escarpment of the Cotswolds.
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