(S/E) Walk up Hammonds Farm entrance drive, to Painswick Old Road. Cross over and follow the track opposite (with a sign for Keepers Cottage). When the drive turns right, keep straight on up the stony track. Pass a stile on the right and continue uphill.
At the top of the wood when the track turns left through a padlocked gate, take the footpath through a second gate on the right.
(1) Follow the woodland edge on your left to the top of the hill, then follow the hedge downhill to join a track that leads shortly to Folly Lane. Turn left and follow the lane to Worgan’s Farm.
(2) Beyond the farm, continue along the track, now unmetalled. At a crossing track, turn left for a couple of steps and then take a path on the right, continuing in the same direction as before.
Enter Frith Wood and follow the obvious path along the top of the woodland. Beyond a bench on the left, continue as the path starts to descend. Ignore various turn-offs to left and right, including the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way, which joins from the right, marked by a special post at the junction.
(3) As you approach the road at Bulls Cross, between two gates, turn left down a hollow way that descends through the trees to a junction of lanes. Turn left down the lane and follow it to the folly-like Red Stable opposite Greenhouse Court.
(4) Continue past the Stable until the last of the buildings on the right, where you turn right down a rough track before the “Single Track Road” sign (between a driveway on the right and a gated entrance to the left). Cross a stile and continue downhill along a paddock fence with views ahead to Painswick. The path narrows to a metal squeeze stile and continues beyond between hedges.
(5) When you meet a wider path at a T-junction, turn right. At a junction by a metal field gate (to your right), turn left, downhill, down a track to Painswick Mill. Turn left and pass the mill and millpond. At a T-junction, cross the road and follow the footpath opposite that cuts the corner to meet Knapp Lane on a bend.
Follow the lane uphill past Knapp Cottage (on the right). Keep straight on (Kemps Lane) at the junction with Orchard Mead. Pass The Painswick hotel, spa and restaurant on the left as you approach the town centre.
(6) Follow Kemps Lane round to the right to meet Tibbiwell Lane, where you turn left. By Cardynham House turn left into St Mary’s Street (the lettering over the door on the Old Bath House, on the corner, is by the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill, the originator of the Gill Sans typeface in which these route directions are printed). If you wish to visit Painswick House, turn right here then left and left again to the main road (Friday and Bisley Streets); then follow Gloucester Road opposite for half a mile to the entrance.
(7) Go straight on (no-through road) at the end of Victoria Street, then through the gateposts into the churchyard. Walk to the left of the church, then bear right to exit via the half-timbered lychgate. To visit The Falcon, turn right, otherwise turn left along Stroud Road.
After a car park on the left, turn left into Stamage’s Lane, continuing straight on down the hill beyond the car park entrance. The lane winds its way downhill and crosses Kingsmill Lane by a Victorian postbox to become Stepping Stone Lane.
(8) At the bottom of the valley, immediately after the bridge, turn right into a narrow streamside path that initially passes through gardens. On emerging into a field, follow the stream to a stile in the far corner, which leads to a footbridge over a sluice and weir.
Turn left and follow the driveway behind King’s Mill. Recross the stream and follow the fenced driveway uphill to a metalled drive. Turn right and follow it to The Sheephouse. Continue straight ahead between the buildings and go through a gate into a field.
(9) At the end of this field bear slightly left, descending to cross a stream via a wooden footbridge. Head right up the back and walk up the field to a stile in the corner. Cross the next field, aiming for the stone cottages in Pincot Lane.
Cross the lane and head down the track opposite, between the buildings. This leads shortly to a bridge over another stream. Cross the next field, eventually meeting the hedge that approaches from the left. Beyond a metal kissing gate you continue in similar vein along the top of the next field to meet Wades Lane.
(10) Turn left for a short distance to a pull-off, where you take the path on the right over a stile with a carved owl. Follow the right-hand edge of the next field to another owl-adorned stile and pass through a small triangle of trees. Exit over another stile and follow the field edge ahead back to Hammonds Farm. (S/E)
