73. Broadway Tower walk, Cotswolds

Date of walk: Sunday 2nd September 2018
Distance: 4.2 miles / 6.7 km
Time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Link to the walk details

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Our first walk!

We had a printed OS map but didn’t honestly need it – the Cotswold Way national trail is well signposted. We forgot to check which way the route was meant to be :p but we walked it in a clockwise direction and there were people walking in both directions. We later found out that the official walk is meant to be done anti-clockwise, but I’m glad we did it the way we did.

This seemed a good choice for our first official walk as it was just 35 miles from home and a short circular. We left on a warm Sunday, and drove to Broadway. There were several car parks that were well signposted, and we paid £3 for 4 hours parking (which turned out to be only just enough). All ready to go!

We recently did a Wild Camping course with the fabulous Two Blondes Walking. This included a session on navigation, so we decided to use this opportunity to put our lessons into practice with our trusty compass.

If you take the clockwise route (as we did) you will walk the steepest part uphill, and then have a lovely steady meander downhill. I really dislike steep downhill walking, so was happy (!) to tackle the steep bit first and then chill for the rest of the walk. We did have to stop fairly often – I’m pretty fat so needed to stop and catch my breath fairly regularly. But we made it to Broadway Tower with minimal grumbling, and enjoyed some cracking views.

We treated ourselves to a cheeky ice cream at the top and had great fun with the dog agility area. The dogs however were on the cusp of calling the RSPCA at the indignity of being encouraged to perform like circus animals.

We had a gentle walk down and back to the car, and drove to the Inn & Brasserie at Childswickham for a delicious but not-cheap pub lunch (is it still lunch if you eat at 4pm?!). The girls were utterly pooped and slept through the meal.

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Our Verdict: A really pleasant walk, easy to navigate, and with easy parking. It began and ended in the beautiful village of Broadway, which we would have explored more if we hadn’t had the dogs with us. The only issue we had is that although we admittedly took our time and paused regularly, the walk took us 4 hours rather than the suggested 1 hour 43 mins. Also, it was rated as Easy by OS Get Outside, but Medium by ViewRanger. We agreed with the Easy rating because although there are some steep sections, it is fairly short.