We will be spending 4 nights in Morton is Marsh. We would like to spend 1/2 day taking a typical cotswold walk. Time only allows us 1/2 day. Can anyone recommend a nice shorter walking path in this region?

The Cotswolds Way is a wonderful path through this area. Check out http://www.cotswold-way.co.uk/ and click on the route map. Then select a town in the Cotswolds in the box to the left of the map and it will give you the distance and time needed for different portions of this walk!!! Hope this helps!!!

There are sooooooo many good walks in teh Cotswolds. Everyone will have adifferent favorite.

One you might enjoy is a 5 or 6 mile loop starting/ending in the village of Upper Tysoe. This is between Moreton-in-Marsh and Banbury. Yoy would go over Windmill Hill and by Compton Wynates which .

Or, Along the River Windrush and to Minster Lovell

or, a great walk is Woodstock, through Blenheim Park, to the village of Combe and back to Woodstock. Part of this route would be along the Oxfordshire Way.

But honestly - there are probably 200 really fine walks in the Cotswolds. What I would do is wait and check at the Tourist Information Center in Stow-in-the-Wold or Chipping Campden or at the village hall in Moreton. There wil be notices posted about local walks. Frequent walks are arranged by the Ramblers Association and other groups. A group walk is a great way to meet locals and learn a lot about the area.

Have a look at www.walkingbritain.co.uk - lots of circular walks you can print out and follow.
M

Don't waste time with the Cotswold way. It's miles away from Moreton, and not that easy to make into a circular walk. And you've presumably got the gumption to walk round Cotswold countryside without waiting for the Ramblers' Associatioon to organise it for you.

Moreton's not terribly well located for decent walks, and getting the best out of the local countryside depends on how mobile you are.

If you havent't got a car, either get the bus to Broadway and do the basic Broadway circle, or to Chipping Campden and do the 3.5 mile Ch. Campden/Broad Campden circle. Or rearrange your travels, get the train to Charlbury, walk the 7 miles through Stonesfield (where the world's first dinosaur was discovered) along the Roman road, Akeman Street, to Blenheim and do the tedious visit round Britain's most overrated, pompous and self-satisfied stately home at the same time (they do this kind of OTT baroque junk much better in Austria, and Britain's got millions of proper British buildings to look at). Lunch in Woodstock. bus back to Charlbury from, short walk to the station and back to Moreton.

Closer to Moreton, if you've got a car, is the 4.5 mile walk round Blockley and Norcombe Wood. Or the 5.5 mile walk round Longbrough (check to see if the opera's on while while you're there, and whether you can get tickets)

Hey flanneruk..Tell us about the "opera at Longbrough" that you mentioned with your info to Marbie? Good venue?

Azwurth:

I've only just seen your question, and I misspelt Longborough, so you may not have been able to google it. Other posts from you imply you've not got here yet.

Longborough (www.longboroughopera.com) is on from June 17 to July 30. Quality is high for what really is someone's hobby that's just grown out of control.

The photos on the web site imply there's a dinner jacket dress code. Not the case: look carefully and you'll see you can wear pretty much what you like, though most dress smart. If you've only packed jeans and T shirts, you'll neither be turned away nor scorned.

There are a couple of grotesquely ill-informed web sites (like www.venue.co.uk) that claim this is some lah-di-dah do for toffs. They're talking out of the wrong orifice, and you should assume any other observations
these sites make are just as bigoted and unfounded.

Longborough food is mediocre, and most people picnic - some spectacularly: one crowd seem to have a perpetual Raj-era India tent, complete with carpet, servants and sconces on the tent side. Others bring their horse boxes (Gloucestershire people often give their horses higher standards of food and comfort than they give themselves). Others just pop into Tesco at Stow (if normal) or Daylesford Farm (if possessed of more money than sense) and buy take-away picnics.