Circular via Kilcott (Cotswold Gateway Hawkesbury Upton Walk 1)

Walk towards the war memorial (1) bearing left at the war memorial down Back Street and signposted Starveall. Follow Back Street (passing St Johns Street on left). The road bears left down to a to a T-junction. Cross straight over through the hedge and go down the “stony alley” footpath which was once the village rubbish dump! (2).

Go through the metal kissing gate into the field and continue down diagonally through the Coombes and across two further fields. Follow the yellow waymarked post to a bridge that takes you over the small brook and to a stile / gate into the woods” (3).

Continue through the woods along Small Coombe with the brook still on your right
until the path opens up into a wide clearing (used for pheasant shooting by the Badminton Estate).

Continue along this coombe, taking the grassy walk down towards the right following the brook (often dry in summer) and ignoring the farm tracks on the right and left. Stay on this route all the way until you reach the Kilcott Road, crossing the brook just before you reach the gate (4).

Go through gate and turn left along the Kilcott Road. Pass a water-pumping station on your left (this supplies all the water for Hawkesbury) and a road to the right.

When you reach Kilcott with its mill and cottages, look out for the Cotswold Way sign on the left-hand side (5).

This takes you up a sunken track, the top part of which is quite steep. Continue upwards, following the Cotswold Way right back to Hawkesbury – look out for
the signs.

At the top of the hill (when you have had a rest!) go through a gate and bear right
into a field, keeping the hedge / trees on your left hand side (6). You will have good views over to the right – and may be lucky enough to see buzzards circling over the opposite hills.

Follow the track into the woods. When you reach a wooden kissing gate next to a large field gate (7) turn left up the hill to meet a stone track running along the ridge (8).

Turn right and follow this track along to the Hawkesbury monument (9). As you walk, look over to the distant hill and you will see Newark Park (National Trust) the
16th century hunting lodge of the Poyntz family of Iron Acton.

There is also the village of Tresham at the top of the hill and further along a view of
Wotton-under-Edge nestling below the Cotswold escarpment.

The monument was erected in 1846 by public subscription to commemorate Lord Somerset, a member of the Beaufort family and the part he played in the Napoleonic wars.

Before the end of the track, by Monument Cottage, take the permissive footpath through a gate on the left, walking round the edge of the field and joining the road into the village through another gate. Follow the road back into the village where you started at the Fox Inn.

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