BLACK HORSE CIRCULAR WALK
A FULL DAY’S WALK ACROSS THE HILLSIDES, THROUGH WOODS AND WATER MEADOWS, TAKING IN
LUNCH AT THE BLACK HORSE INN AT NAUNTON, AND VISITING UPPER AND LOWER SLAUGHTER
Drive down to Bourton-on-the-Water, park your car and walk out of the village along
Lansdown Road to the junction with the Fosse Way (A429). Cross over to the gate
by the River Windrush and follow the blue arrow across the meadow and into the field
through a narrow gate. Walk along with the fence on your left and ahead into woodland.
Here it can be muddy. When you emerge at Aston’s Mill follow the lane downhill past
cottages and through the gate on the right to Aston Farm. Walk ahead between the
barns and out onto a well-marked track across the field and into woodland. The path
runs through the woods for about a mile, leading to a gate into a field; walk along
with woodland on your right to the arrow taking you downhill through scrub and gorse
into the river valley again. Follow the path across the meadows with the river on
your right hand until you arrive at a stile into a lane.
Cross over and follow arrows through two fields and across a stone slab bridge. Uphill
to a stile onto the Golf Course, following the track to the main road (B4068). Cross
over and walk 50 yards to the right, join the path leading downhill with the wall
on your left hand side, to a gate that leads between cottages. Cross over the River
Windrush and there is THE BLACK HORSE on your right in the centre of NAUNTON .
(One and a half hours).
After a rest and refreshment turn right from the pub, and passing the village pump
in the wall, turn right and follow the lane uphill to the kissing gate on the right.
Set off diagonally through trees and emerge on high ground. Follow the well-marked
path until you reach a farm road/track. Turn right onto the track and walk along,
following the blue arrows until a gate on the left leads onto a wide lane (Buckle
Street). Cross straight over through the metal gate and follow the track to the
barn on the right, where the path slants to the right downhill through three fields
to Eyford Cottages on the Swell road (B4068). Turn left, walking along the verge
for 100 yards to the Lodge, where you cross to the driveway to Swill Farm. Follow
the track uphill through a narrow gate and cross two fields to UPPER SLAUGHTER.
Admire this chocolate box village with its famous ford below the castle mound. From
the ford walk along the street to the T junction and turn right; after 50 yards take
the footpath on the left beneath the trees, which winds to a kissing gate into meadows.
Follow the well-trodden path through meadows alongside the river Eye to arrive at
LOWER SLAUGHTER. Turn right into the village, admire the mill and walk along the
narrow pavement on the river’s edge round to the left. Follow the riverside path,
past the Hotel, until a wide gravelled path leads off to the right. Cross two fields
on a hard path to the Fosse Way. Turn right, crossing to the footpath when you can,
and return a few hundred yards to turn by the bridge where you began.
