Following the limestone escarpment on the Western edge of the Cotswolds, the 102 miles of the Cotswold Way take the walker through a quintessentially English landscape as varied as it is beautiful. Starting and finishing among the golden Cotswold stone of Chipping Camden and Bath, and affording stunning prospects of the Malvern Hills, the Forest of Dean and even the Black Mountains in Wales, it winds through rolling farmland, magnificent beech woodlands, and up over the austerely beautiful Cleeve Hill with its panoramic views out over Cheltenham and far beyond. With a wealth of historic interest, from Neolithic burial mounds to Roman villas and country houses, this is genuinely a walk through the heart of England.
Anthony Burton is the author of a number of books in the National Trail Guides series for Aurum, including The West Highland Way, Hadrian's Wall Path, The Cotswold Way and The Ridgeway, as well as a biography of Richard Trevithick and Thomas Telford and numerous other works of industrial history. He lives in Stroud.