Selsley Common: Toots to Teashop - Miles without Stiles

Enjoy panoramic views from the common then walk through woodland on clearly marked tracks. There are several ups and downs, bluebells in spring, and colourful autumn trees.

Distance

4 miles / 6.44 km

Duration

2.5 hours

Difficulty

Unsurfaced paths, basic fitness

Mobility aid rating

Stile free

Shape

Circular

Start

Address

Woodchester Turn, Stroud GL5 5LL, UK
View start on Google Maps

OS Grid Ref

SO828026

What3Words

informer.copies.blueberry

Refreshments

Giuseppe’s Gourmet café at the Gliding Club midway through the walk or the Bell Inn, Selsley.

Travel Info

Selsley Common (near Stroud) Walk from any of the small parking areas alongside the B4066 above Selsley. Or come on the Number 14 bus.

Navigation

From the chosen car park, with your back to the road walk across the common to the highest point, the long barrow of Toots and the topograph alongside it 1. Several tracks (including the Cotswold Way, with waymark posts) lead to the Toots so once it is in view, walk towards it.

Enjoy the view then follow the Cotswold Way into the woods via a kissing gate below Jackdaw Quarry. At the bottom of a slope turn left along the edge of the wood 2.

Continue along the Cotswold Way for one mile, using a signpost towards Coaley Peak to guide you up some steps 3. (Ignore the Cotswold Way signs to the right going downhill to Middleyard at Penn Lane).

Just before the piglets’ paddock 4 look for a Woodland Trust signpost indicating an “alternative stile-free footpath to Coaley Peak”. Turn left here and follow a footpath uphill. Here you look down onto a stiled section of the Cotswold Way as it passes through a cattle pasture. The footpath becomes a broad track and turns uphill steeply to join a permissive bridleway 5.

At the bridleway, turn right and soon turn left to cross the road and into the Gliding Club entrance for Giuseppe’s Gourmet café (closed Monday & Tuesday).

Cross the road and return to the bridleway, turn right, and follow it towards Selsley Common. The bridleway remains close to the road all the way and crosses three broad tracks. Each is offset for safety.

At 6 bear right and don’t follow the track going downhill.

At the gravel drive 7 for the Penn Wood Scout Centre turn left then almost immediately right.

At the drive with the “Beechwood Cottage” sign 8, continue across the tarmac and onward past Selsley Gulley to a gate by the cattle grid onto Selsley Common. Cross the Common to return to your car park.