Today we have the steady climb to one of the most important hill forts in the country. But there are a few dips and ascents to contend with first.

Day Four: Dowdeswell to Birdlip. 9.5 miles/15km

After a decent brekkie, another fry up, we were outside in good time for our 9.00 pick-up. After yesterday’s pleasant and chatty driver, our surly driver today was the other side of the coin. Thankfully it was a brief trip. Our taxi returned us to the place we were picked up yesterday and our walk continued.

It is straight into a one in five climb, fortunately only for a kilometre, then we emerged from the shady path to sun splashed orchid besplattered grass meadows.

This led us into Lineover Wood, an extensive woodland hanging to the edge of the escarpment. It is named after ‘Lind ofer’- the lime tree hill. The successor to a forest mentioned in the ninth century. It was shady and yesterday’s rain had caused the paths to turn to mud. It took some time to carefully work our way through this rooty, slippery route without coming a cropper. It is a lovely path however and views through the trees occasionally opened up. The path dried up, our pace quickened, life was good.

We exited the wood, the views opened up. We could see The Malverns, The Black Mountains and Brecons beyond. The rain set in again. It got cold from the wind racing up from the valley floor and waterproofs were required. Having followed the trail round the contours we had to drop down to cross the A435 then follow a short stretch of tarmac up the far side. At each end of this road we had to squeeze past contractors vehicles, the work crew sitting inside each. Taking time out from carrying out some of the most pathetic repairs to pot holes I have ever seen.

Leaving the road we began the stunning walk up and round Hartley Hill and on to Leckhampton Hill. The name is derived from ‘Leac ham Tun’- a homestead where garlic is grown. We passed the trig point, perched on part of the single semi-circle rampart of the hill fort once found here. Money has been spent. The newly surfaced path couldn’t be any better. The rain went off elsewhere, it brightened up and it steadily became ever warmer for much of the remainder of our day. There is a transitional section of a few miles following this of less interest. A few farmers’ fields to circumnavigate cows, horses, sheep, each viewing us over the fences. Then past the National Star College that does good work for students with disabilities, and its frankly ugly specialist residences, the architects coombes:everitt have a lot to answer for.

An obvious feature of this part of the country are the many dry stone walls. You see them everywhere. Built from thin pieces of that lovely honey coloured stone. Climbing up toward Crickley through the beech woodlands that cling to the escarpment edge, we were fortunate to run into a small team from a local company both building and repairing long sections of the walls here. We stood for a while chatting about their work. They had more work than they could handle, which is no bad thing. A more expensive task in these quarters than other parts of the country due to the high demand for the stone, in addition to it being painfully slow and highly skilled work. A ton of rock can cost in excess of £200 in itself, and that is before anything has even been done with it. The three were working hard, but there was supposed to be a group of volunteers working with them. We met the group of eight slowly sauntering back from their coffee break in the café a kilometre away.

Despite only being a couple of hours from our end to the day, we stopped in at the café for pots of tea and cheese and onion pasties. Also visiting the poor visitor centre next door. The hill fort some 250m further on down the trail was fairly clear to see but difficult to interpret.

We shall never know the true story of Crickley Hill Fort but it was obviously something important in Neolithic days. Evidence supports a large and thriving community, however something happened in the 6th century. The fort was burned and largely abandoned, though the Romans settled there for a period around AD420. Over 400 arrowheads were found at it’s entrance. What was the great battle that occurred there. Why did it happen and who were the combatants? A series of archaeological excavations were held from 1969 to 1993 and while it was established that this site is of international importance, the full story remains undiscovered. Much of the excavation archive can be seen here.

It was gorgeous walking here. The undulating path follows the grassy slopes for some distance. I was hoping to see basking adders or grass snakes as it is an ideal environment, but suppose other walkers must have caused any to move on to somewhere else. The noise from the A417 below us built and the mature beech woods we dropped down through were anything but quiet. It is a dodgy crossing of the busy road but a lorry driver saw our plight, halted his vehicle, blocking all traffic, and waved us over. There is some very expensive road building taking place here  that will take years to complete, intended to relieve congestion in the vehicular bottleneck. We could see just a little of it when we climbed the valley side to Barrow Wake beyond.

Eventually our thin path through the grass, herbs and orchids led us back into hanging woodlands and we descended again, coming out on to the busy road where we left the trail and carefully followed the dodgy pathless road up to Birdlip.

We are staying at the eighteenth century Royal George hotel tonight. This is in the centre of Birdlip (the curious name simply means ‘steep place’) a natural end to this section. Mrs TPOTC has a sore knee from the climbs and drops, so I volunteered to immediately visit the bar to get ice. It seemed only polite to have a pint of Green King IPA while I was there. There is no need for us to venture out again for an evening meal as the hotel has a decent menu, so we had pre-booked a table for 19.45

• Cotswold Way- National Trail
  • Cotswold Way: Chipping Campden to Stanton
  • Cotswold Way: Stanton to Winchcombe
  • Cotswold Way: Winchcombe to Dowdeswell
  • Cotswold Way: Birdlip to Painswick
  • Cotswold Way: Painswick to King’s Stanley
  • Cotswold Way: King’s Stanley to Dursley
  • Cotswold Way: Dursley to Wotton-under-Edge
  • Cotswold Way: Wotton-under-Edge to Old Sodbury
  • Cotswold Way: Old Sodbury to Cold Ashton (Pennsylvania)
  • Cotswold Way: Cold Ashton to Bath