The glorious Cotswolds
If there’s any corner of England more beautiful than the Cotswolds, or more quintessentially English, then it must be very special indeed.
The Cotswolds covers an area of almost 800 square miles in the upper southwest region of England. Although not designated as one of the UK’s National Parks, the Cotswolds is, nevertheless, England’s largest designated area of outstanding natural beauty. And it’ not hard to see why. When people talk of green rolling countryside they often have the Cotswolds in mind as an ideal.
There are plenty things to see and do here – you could keep coming back for years and still find hidden corners you hadn’t seen before. There are several hundred guided walks, for example, and if you’re feeling more ambitious still, you may decide to tackle the Cotswold Way; a beautiful path stretching over 100 miles from Chipping Camden in the north to Bath in the south and taking in some breath-taking views along the way. Just make sure you leave enough time to do the whole walk if you ever decide to do it as you can guarantee you’ll spend half your time agape at the scenery, whatever time of year you come.
There are also riding and cycling ways in abundance and the whole area is still dominated by farming – with the main crops today being barley, wheat and oilseed rape. But what you’ll still see a lot of are sheep. The Cotswolds is famous for its sheep and sheep-rearing remains an important activity here which helps lend the whole area its unique pastoral charm.
The beautiful town of Cheltenham is a sort of “capital” of the Cotswolds, even though it lies right on the edge of the designated area. Cheltenham became a spa town following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716 and has been attracting visitors of all kinds ever since.
Today, this is a smart and bustling town of good size with smart shops and it forms the ideal “gateway” to the Cotswolds. But of course, Cheltenham is also famous throughout the National Hunt racing world for the Cheltenham Festival. This four-day race meeting held in mid-March each year is the pinnacle of the world jump and hurdle racing calendar which sees hundreds of thousands of visitors from both sides of the Irish sea coming to the old spa town each year in a celebration of all that is great about National Hunt racing.
So if you’re coming to the Cotswolds for peace and tranquillity – it may be best to avoid mid-March. The whole area is popular with tourists year-round, but particularly during the April to October period. Although the resident population of the whole area is only around 160,000 – there are, nevertheless, a further two million people living within a 20 minute drive.
Most people come to the Cotswolds famous towns and villages, however, and they do so at weekends and during high summer. In other words, it’s always easy to find quiet if you come at the off-peak times and if you walk out into the countryside on any of the area’s many well-marked footpaths.
If, on the other hand, it’s culture and life you’re after, then the Cotswolds has a full events programme with food and drink festivals, music festivals, vintage car shows, market days, antiques fairs and endless other attractions. So it’s always worth keeping a close eye on the What’s On section of the Cotswolds’ official website.
Whatever you decide to see and do here – the glorious scenery will certainly not let you down; enjoy!
