(S) From the front door of the Bathurst Arms, cross the River Churn to the main road (A435). Cross quickly but carefully and follow the lane opposite, signposted to Bagendon.
(1) Follow the road around the church and then round to the right, uphill. Bear left at the entrance to Cerney House, continuing along the public road. After a further 600 yards, cross a staggered junction and follow the road opposite until it descends towards Bagendon village.
(2) At the war memorial, bear left downhill and past Bagendon church. Turn right at the phone box beyond the church and, ignoring a no-through road off to the left, follow the narrow 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.
(3) When the road bends sharp right in the valley bottom, go through a gate on the left (South-West) and turn right (West) 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.
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.
(4) At the top of the wood, turn left (Sand 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.
(5) Bear left, under the twin bridges of the A417 dual carriageway. Walk uphill until the road narrows, then turn sharp left through a gate, and turn left along a metalled track, back towards the main road and then alongside it.
Before a gate, turn right and follow the field edge. Pass through the hedge on your left at a gate, and continue along the right-hand side of the next couple of fields. At the bottom of the field, join a sunken bridleway at the right-hand side of a wood, which leads down to the ford at Duntisbourne Rouse.
(6) Cross the footbridge to the left of the ford and walk past the first house on your right. Turn right up some steps and follow a narrow path to the church of St Michael. Beyond the church, cross a wall with steps and follow a path through the trees with gardens to your left and the slope down to the stream on your right.
At the end of the wood, cross a stile and walk obliquely down the hillside to another stile in the far right-hand corner beside the stream.
(7) Leave the stream and cross the hillside to a gate and stile either side of a strip of game cover, then bear left to descend a steep slope behind and to the left of some barns. Cross a stile into the road by the ford in Middle Duntisbourne.
Turn left, away from the stream, between two cottages and then at a left-hand bend in the road, take a track on the right, below a driveway. Follow the track parallel to the stream, with views over a lake to Manor Farm on your right.
(8) When the track enters a field on your left, continue ahead along a narrower path between hedges to emerge on a country lane opposite a farm entrance. Turn right and follow the lane for 2⁄3 mile, passing the entrance to Nutbeam Farm on the right as you approach Duntisbourne Leer.
(9) Keep on to a triangle at the top of the village, where you turn right and descend towards the stream. Take a left-hand turn signposted “UNSUITABLE FOR MOTOR VEHICLES”. Follow this lane uphill, then bear right to descend to a long ford; follow the footpath to the left of the stream.
(10) Beyond the ford, follow the lane ahead to the phone box and spring at the foot of the village green in Duntisbourne Abbots. Follow the road and path up the slope opposite, then turn left past a postbox.
Enter the churchyard via the lychgate and exit by the gate to the left of the church tower. Turn right to the triangular road junction and turn left (signposted to Duntisbourne Leer and Daglingworth).
(11) When the road bends left at another triangle, take the road on the right, again signposted “UNSUITABLE FOR MOTOR VEHICLES”. At the end of the triangle, follow the unmade track to the left of a house. Follow this track for half a mile until you meet a road.
Cross straight over and follow a similar track opposite, then continue along the left-hand of a field. Go through a gateway into woodland and follow the track as it descends to the left; ignore a track joining from the right.
(12) Keep right at a junction of tracks by a telegraph pole. Leave the trees at a gate into grassland. Just before you meet a road at the bottom of the slope, turn left and descend to a gate, with a stream to your right. Follow the path beyond to a waymark post, where you turn right to cross rushy ground to a footbridge by the corner of a wood.
(13) Turn right up the edge of the wood; go through a gate and follow the fence behind a farm building. At a wooden stile, turn right into the wood and turn left along an indistinct path through the trees along the bottom of a valley above the fence, now on your left.
After a short distance, turn right up the steep valley side, with a straggly barbed-wire fence on your left. At the top of the wood, cross a stile and walk along the left-hand side of two fields separated by a further stile. Join a track and follow it past a field-gate and stile along the bottom edge of a field to your left.
(14) On meeting a narrow belt of woodland, continue through the trees and follow the track beyond until you meet a road. Cross and follow the metalled road opposite, signposted “Unsuitable for long vehicles”. Follow the lane round to the right past some farm buildings then turn right at a junction, signposted to “All Cottages Farm”. Continue along this lane as it bends left past a series of houses, to a farm entrance.
(15) When a path joins from the left, before the farm buildings, leave the farm track to pass to the right of the barns. A gate leads into a narrow field to the right of a mound, and in the far right-hand corner a stile marks the continuation of the path along the top of a field with a dry-stone wall on your right.
A stile beside a gate at the end of this field leads into woodland; follow the path through the trees to a crossing path. Go through a gap in the wall opposite and walk across to follow a curving belt of trees on your left. This leads to a hand-gate, beyond which you cross the field and follow a hedge on your right-hand side to a gate into a stony farm track.
(16) Turn left and follow the track as it curves down to pretty Honeycombe Farm. Climb the road beyond the stone barns to a house, where you climb a flight of steps in a concrete retaining wall. Turn left and right in the corner of the garden alongside the wall of a silage pit to reach a track at the rear of the property.
Turn left through a metal gate into a concrete yard, then right along a hedgerow climbing the hillside. Follow this field, past footpaths to right and left, until you reach a gate into a lane.
(17) Take a few steps to the left, then turn right over a stile with a footpath sign. Cross an area of grassland (planted with young trees) to a stile into another road, opposite the car park for the Butterfly Conservation reserve of Rough Bank.
Go through the metal gate to the left of the car park entrance and walk down the track across the rushy field. At the bottom of the field, don’t go through the wooden gate into the reserve, but drop down left through a metal field-gate into a superb sunken way through the trees.
Follow the path down the bottom of the valley for a while, then bear left up a gently ascending track through the trees. Join a wider track at the top of the hill and follow it ahead until it curves left and an isolated house comes into view.
(18) Turn right onto a steeply descending permitted path, which shortly meets a contouring footpath at a T-junction. Turn right and then drop down left to a stile into open fields. Bear right down the slope to meet a track where two valleys meet.
Turn left over the stream at the bottom, and bear left up a track until it meets the main track down the valley to Dillay Farm. Cross this track and climb the steep bank to a stile into the woods. Climb very steeply through the trees, crossing two larger tracks (the second with a few steps above and below).
As you approach a field corner at the top of the wood, bear right with a dry-stone wall on your left. Pass though a gap in the wall (indicated by an arrow painted on a tree) and continue uphill along the woodland edge between fence and wall until you meet the drive to Dillay Farm.
(19) Follow the driveway ahead; at a junction by farm buildings, bear right. At the next junction, turn right and walk out to the B4070 Birdlip–Stroud road. Take a few steps to the left then turn right into a woodland track. Before a Natural England board for Blackstable Wood National Nature Reserve, turn right at a waymark post onto a path angling down through the trees.
Cross two contouring tracks at an angle (the second by another information panel) to emerge on the road above Sheepscombe.
(20) Turn right to the junction and then left (signposted to the Butchers Arms). Turn right at a footpath sign and then left over a stile into a field and descend towards the village. Cross a stile at the bottom and turn left to a driveway; turn right towards Clissold Farm.
Just before the farm, a gap in the beech hedge on the left gives access to a path that turns right through a hand-gate and passes in front of the farmhouse. Ignore a path to the left and descend steeply to a stile in a field corner.
Walk down the slope with a wooded stream valley to your right, aiming to the left of the rightmost house, with a glass conservatory.
(21) A gate leads between the buildings to a driveway, where you turn left in front of a house with Gothick windows. Pass between gateposts and follow the drive to the end of School Lane. Bear left out to the main village street in Sheepscombe. Turn right and climb the hill to the Butchers Arms. (E)
