Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SECTION 1
Bath to Cold Ashton
Distance
10 miles (16km)
Maps
Harvey's Cotswold Way 1:40,000
OS Landranger 172 Bristol, Bath & Surrounding
Area 1:50,000
OS Explorer 155 Bristol & Bath 1:25,000
Accommodation
Cold Ashton
Refreshments
Weston and Cold Ashton
From the glorious abbey in the heart of Roman Bath to a small village gazing south
onto a quiet agricultural landscape, this first stage of the walk offers a variety of scenic
pleasures. There are broad panoramas, secretive dales and sites of historic interest to
set you in your stride, and once the built-up areas of Bath and Weston have been left
behind, waymarking is very good and remains so (with one or two minor exceptions),
not only as far as Cold Ashton, but on every section of the walk to Chipping Campden.
The architectural delights of Regency Bath lead to workaday Weston, and from there
on a long, and at times, steepish haul to the lip of the escarpment where, if you pause
to gaze back, a wonderful view rewards your efforts. Over an Iron Age hill fort, round
the perimeter of a golf course and along the scarp edge, the way leads on to the Gran-
ville Monument in an area known as the Battlefields, the site of the Civil War's 1643
Battle of Lansdown. Then it's down into a bowl of meadows and fields, followed by
hedge-lined Greenway Lane which takes you up the other side, eventually to reach
Cold Ashton glowing in its lovely southerly aspect. This final part of the walk, from
the Battlefields to Cold Ashton, virtually follows the route taken by Sir Bevil Granville's
men when they brought their mortally wounded leader from the hilltop bloodbath to
Cold Ashton Manor.
Please see map,
Southbound, Section 13.
The walk begins by the west door of
Bath
's finest building, the abbey,
which is conveniently reached from Bath Spa railway station. With your
back to the abbey, and the Roman baths and Pump Room to the left, walk
a few paces to find Stall Street and then Burton Street. Turn left to go
from Burton Street to Quiet Street, then straight ahead into Wood Street.
This leads directly to Queen Square. Head to the right now and walk up
Gay Street, which will take you into the Circus, a classic amphitheatre of
tightly packed houses all of a style and built around 1754.
