OK, you mentioned walking in the north Cotswolds, but if you venture a little further south there are also some really good walks.

I just posted on goddesstogo's Cotswold thread, and paste what I wrote here...

<<<Now, about the south Cotswolds:

Here the country side is no longer rolling hills and bucolic vistas. The hillsides are steep and the valleys deep and narrow with tumbling streams and grey stone cottages clinging to the steep slopes, the villages being built to no pattern but randomly placed in clusters.

The views are tremendous, across the Severn valley to the Welsh mountains - on a clear day you can see the Sugar Loaf Mountain at Abergavenny. And south you can see to the Marlborough Downs, north to the Malverns, Abberley hills and very occasionally to Clee Hill which towers above Ludlow in Shropshire.

Some of the villages are really lovely, the Duntisbournes, Sapperton (really nice walk through Siccaridge Woods along the old canal banks), Chalford (the canal walk again along the Golden Valley), and up on the hill is Chalford Hill and then Bisley. From Bisley you can walk the Toadsmoor Valley which is absolutely gorgeous). On the other side of the valley are Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons - 13,000 acres of National Trust land. In the summer months this is open for grazing, but the cattle will be in now. This is a wonderful place to walk, with stunning views.

Then travelling further west there are pretty villages like Uley with the ancient manor of Owlpen, Nympsfield, Ozleworth, Alderley and Tresham, then dropping off the Cotswold escarpment there's Berkeley Castle down in the Severn Vale.

Email me at [email protected] if you want to come to this part of the Cotswolds, and we could maybe arrange for me to pick you up after a walk and take you back to the start where you left your car, or I can suggest some pubs, etc. >>>

Frankly, I rarely see people walking around here with the sort of hiking poles you seem to be talking about, except when it's really wet and muddy underfoot. But it's no big deal if you want them and they could be well handy when/if tackling the steep hills.

a call to flannerUK...

Thanks so much for all the wonderful information you've provided.

I wonder if you had any additional walks to recommend? I will definitely look into your reccos for the circular walk from Swinbrook to Widford, and the circular walk from Longborough to Bourton on the Hill.

Do you have any experience with walks that include the Westonbirt Arboretum (near Leighterton/Tetbury) or a circular walk from Barnsley (to Winson, around Ablington, to Bibury, around Arlington)?

These two are among the Times "100 favorite" walks.

As you know, almost any walk can be done in gazillions of permutations, so these comments refer to my walkng experience round them, not necessarily The Times' description.

Tetbury and Winson/Barnsley are prime weekender territory (every single house in Winson is normally unoccupied, except by housekeepers, from early Mon to late Fri): this doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them, but that they probably got into your list because these lists are compiled by idle tosser journos who only know about the two or three areas round their more successful fellow-undergraduates' country cottages. They're rarely as good as their inexpert compilers think.

The Tetbury-Westonbirt one is interesting for skirting Highgrove, with its trespasser-repelling signs (Highgrove is one of the few estates in Britain where trespassing is a criminal offence and that has lads and lasses with machine guns to catch you if you try it), the passage through the arboretum and the view of Tetbury on the home stretch, followed by a delightful little bit UNDER the bridge going into Tetbury. In between I thought there was an awful lot of dull, flat walking over unexciting countryside, including a huge but uber-dull racehorse training farm owned by one of the Al-Makhtoums. Tetbury church is interesting for being extraordinarily unEnglish: it's a New England Prod clapboard interior inside what looks like a proper Perpendicular exterior that's actually a modern (well, 1777) copy.

If you're interested in trees, Westonbirt's great. But personally, I'd be inclined to make it a half-dayer, walk to and from Westonbirt from Tetbury (remembering, if you really visit Westonbirt, that they expect you to put their admission fee in their honesty box. Obviously not if you're just passing through)then mooch round the area between Tebury church and the fields on the other side of the valley to get the view. Nicest in the evening light.

If you think of Barnsley, Winson and Bibury as a triangle, the area round Bibury's nice, and the bit on to Winson's OK. I've not walked the other two sides to and from Barnsley, but it's never struck me as that interesting when driving. Personaly, I'd be more interested in combining the circular walk between Winson, Bibury and Coln St Aldwyns with the circular walk between Winson, Coln St Denis and Chedworth. But that's because there's lot of Roman stuff along the route: it's mostly quite close to the River Coln so there's limited upping and downing. If you want a fair amount of striding across hillier stuff, the route down to Barnsley's probably more your cup of tea.

Gosh, I love this board.
flanneruk: to me, you're an absolute treasure. Thanks so much -- I can't tell you how I appreciate your taking to time to post. I'm going to work out my routes taking into account all this information.
I only wish I could return the favor... but would despair for anyone leaving the English countryside to come to manic Chicago.
Thanks again, flanneruk!

I wonder which absolutely delightful poster started this whole thing off anyway? <G>