(S/E) From the front door of the Bathurst Arms, walk out to the main road (Dark Lane), cross over and turn left. The church is obvious away to your right.
(1) After 250 yards along the pavement, cross back over and walk between two houses, crossing the River Churn to a gate. Beyond the gate, turn right and walk parallel to the river along the bottom of several fields until you reach Perrott’s Brook Farm.
(2) Beyond the farmhouse, walk out to the road along the metalled drive, passing various farm buildings on the way. Turn right along the public road and walk down to the main road, crossing the River Churn en route.
(3) Cross the main road (A435) and then climb a stile to the right of a wooden bench, onto a footpath. Walk diagonally across the field to a stile in a barbed-wire fence, then continue to a gate into a lane (Cutham Lane). Follow the narrow lane opposite, signposted to Bagendon and marked “Unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles”.
(4) At the phone-box at the entry to Bagendon village, take the narrow lane on the left (though the church is well worth a visit first). Ignoring a no-through road off to the left, follow the lane past the old school on the right. The lane passes below a wood (ignore footpaths to the left) and then descends to the cottages of Upper End.
(5) When the road bends sharp right in the valley bottom, go through a gate on the left and turn right along the bottom of the field. The path leads pleasantly along the bottom of the valley, then enters woodland and turns left to climb a track through the trees.
(6) When you reach a gravel track by a house, ignore the downhill ride to the right and take the waymarked track that continues uphill in the same direction as before. At the top, turn left and follow the track above the property until you meet the driveway.
Turn right and leave the wood, following the stony drive out to a minor road. Turn right and follow the road for a little over half a mile.
(7) Just before the road passes under the A417 dual carriageway, turn right onto a concrete driveway with a sign for Dartley Farm. At a crossroads by a house, turn right, signposted Stancombe House.
At a five-point junction, take the “second exit”, continuing straight ahead along a stony track between hedges. The track descends to the valley bottom, latterly with woods on the right-hand side, before curving to cross the stream.
(8) The path climbs in similar fashion before reaching a track alongside another wood. Turn right and follow the track up to Moor Wood Farm, joining a metalled drive that bends right and left between the farm buildings and passes in front of the main house.
Beyond a further large cottage, do not follow the obvious exit along the tarmac drive, but turn left then immediately right onto an indistinct path that follows a hollow way up through the wood. This passes behind the lodge house and emerges in the road in Woodmancote.
(9) Turn left and walk up through the village, keeping right at the phone-box and ignoring further minor turnings to left and right. At the end of the village turn right, passing under pylons and then past a house on the left. Follow the road for half a mile passing through woodland and descending to the main road (A435).
(10) Cross over, turn right then left, signposted to “Rendcomb & College”. Walk down the road to cross the River Churn, then continue up to Rendcomb village, ignoring a drive on the right and passing under an ornamental bridge.
Turn right at the entrance to Rendcomb College and walk past the French Renaissance-style stables. Beyond the post office and phone-box, turn right, signposted to Chedworth.
(11) Opposite the last house on the left, take a footpath on the right. This leads along a fence then follows a mature hedgerow before descending towards the bottom of the valley at the far end of the field. Beyond a kissing gate, cross a driveway onto a path which bears left into woodland.
(12) Follow the path along the bottom edge of the wood, crossing a footbridge, until a kissing gate on the right leads out into a riverside field. Turn left and walk below the woodland edge to a step stile. Turn right towards a bridge, but then immediately left through the trees to a gate into fields (ignore paths on the left).
(13) Follow the path along the bottom of the bank with the river close on your right. Ignore a footbridge and go through a metal gate. The path departs from the river slightly to reach a field gate in the wall on the left, ahead of a wooded bank in a bend in the river. Go through the gate and bear right, up the hill, to pass behind the wood. Continue above the wood to a gate, which leads into a grassy driveway.
On reaching the main street in North Cerney village, turn right and walk downhill to the Bathurst Arms. (S/E)
