Walks from Bibury: to Winson via a Cotswolds microcosm
The author with Otto outside St Michael’s churchyard in Winson.
One of the great pleasures of this part of the Cotswolds is the wonderful walks. However, some are not as well-known as they deserve to be, such as this walk to Winson that takes you through a landscape that packs in just about every aspect of the Cotswolds…
This walk has everything that you’d want to experience in the Cotswolds, and to a very high standard: the valleys and downs, the river, the villages with their fine big houses and charming churches. They’re all some of the nicest you will find in these hills. And it’s all packed into quite a walkable walk - not a short stroll but certainly not a yomp and with an easy route back along a quiet country road.
The villages strung out along the Coln Valley are worth a detour, as the Michelin guide would have it. This walk takes you up river from Bibury through two of them. You could go further if you want to see more but this is a good distance to cover before lunch, perhaps back at Bibury’s Catherine Wheel.
To Winson via Ablington Downs
First, exit the farm drive and turn right towards Ablington. When you get to the bottom of the hill turn right towards the centre of the village. You’ll soon cross the Coln and once over what is a lovely little bridge turn left down a track that glories in the name of Potlickers Lane. This takes you parallel to the river into a broad valley until you go through a gate into a winding dry river valley that stretches away on your right. Cross straight over (in the winter, when it gets a bit wet, you may have to walk up it a bit in order to find a dry crossing) and climb up the opposite bank to a gate and stile at the top.
Once over, you’ll now find youself emerging onto Ablington Downs, a rolling stretch of highland where you feel literally on top of the world. It’s a place that always blows my cobwebs away and leaves me feeling somehow inspired. You will see the village of Winson below you on your left with the classically handsome Winson Manor sitting in its midst.
Soon you can leave the downs to pick up a footpath that takes you alongside the wood that runs alongside the village. It’s not easy to find this but the main thing is to ensure you don’t start walking past the village: the footpath starts around in line with the downstream edge of Winson. Alternatively, you can continue along the downs and past the village until you hit the road that drops down into Winson from the northern, upstream direction.
Once you’ve found the footpath, follow it as it runs alongside the wood and then turns towards the village before bridging the river via a little wooden footbridge. You then walk up onto one of Winson’s back lanes. Here I would turn right in order to go through the centre of the village, bearing left past Winson Manor, and then paying a visit to Winson church. It’s a small but perfectly formed medieval chapel with striking Arts and Crafts-inspired curling vines and twining honeysuckle painted on the walls of the chancel.
From here head along the road downstream in the direction you have come from. It will be signposted Ablington and Bibury. This is a quiet road with decent verges and so is quite fine to walk on. You’ll see the river and marshy reed beds on your left and woods and fields sloping upwards on your right. Before long you’ll find yourself back in Ablington and heading up the hill to Arlington Pike and the campsite.