FIELDWAYS

Boutique  Bed & Breakfast

BLACK HORSE CIRCULAR WALK

A FULL DAY’S WALK ACROSS THE HILLSIDES, THROUGH WOODS AND WATER MEADOWS, TAKING IN LUNCH AT THE BLACK HORSE INN AT NAUNTON, AND VISITING UPPER AND LOWER SLAUGHTER

Drive down to Bourton-on-the-Water, park your car and walk out of the village along Lansdown Road to the junction with the Fosse Way (A429).  Cross over to the gate by the River Windrush and follow the blue arrow across the meadow and into the field through a narrow gate.  Walk along with the fence on your left and ahead into woodland.

Here it can be muddy.  When you emerge at Aston’s Mill follow the lane downhill past cottages and through the gate on the right to Aston Farm.  Walk ahead between the barns and out onto a well-marked track across the field and into woodland.  The path runs through the woods for about a mile, leading to a gate into a field;  walk along with woodland on your right to the arrow taking you downhill through scrub and gorse into the river valley again.  Follow the path across the meadows with the river on your right hand until you arrive at a stile into a lane.

Cross over and follow arrows through two fields and across a stone slab bridge.  Uphill to a stile onto the Golf Course, following the track to the main road (B4068).  Cross over and walk 50 yards to the right, join the path leading downhill with the wall on your left hand side, to a gate that leads between cottages.  Cross over the River Windrush and there is THE BLACK HORSE on your right in the centre of NAUNTON .

(One and a half hours).

After a rest and refreshment turn right from the pub, and passing the village pump in the wall, turn right and follow the lane uphill to the kissing gate on the right.

Set off diagonally through trees and emerge on high ground.  Follow the well-marked path until you reach a farm road/track.  Turn right onto the track and walk along, following the blue arrows until a gate on the left leads onto a wide lane (Buckle Street).  Cross straight over through the metal gate and follow the track to the barn on the right, where the path slants to the right downhill through three fields to Eyford Cottages on the Swell road (B4068).  Turn left, walking along the verge for 100 yards to the Lodge, where you cross to the driveway to Swill Farm.  Follow the track uphill through a narrow gate and cross two fields to UPPER SLAUGHTER.

Admire this chocolate box village with its famous ford below the castle mound.  From the ford walk along the street to the T junction and turn right; after 50 yards take the footpath on the left beneath the trees, which winds to a kissing gate into meadows.

Follow the well-trodden path through meadows alongside the river Eye to arrive at LOWER SLAUGHTER.  Turn right into the village, admire the mill and walk along the narrow pavement on the river’s edge round to the left.  Follow the riverside path, past the Hotel, until a wide gravelled path leads off to the right.  Cross two fields on a hard path to the Fosse Way.  Turn right, crossing to the footpath when you can, and return a few hundred yards to turn by the bridge where you began.