Dog Walks in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire straddles the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean, two very different landscapes that give the county a split personality in the best possible way. The Cotswold escarpment runs down the eastern edge with its honey-stone villages, rolling wold pasture and long Cotswold Way views, while the ancient Forest of Dean in the west is a completely different world of oak woodland, old coal workings and the Wye Valley's dramatic gorge.

For dog owners, the combination is gold. You can do a quintessentially English village walk in the morning and disappear into deep forest in the afternoon, all within one county. It's a gentle, photogenic kind of walking that suits most ages and abilities.

Top Areas for Dog Walks in Gloucestershire

Bourton-on-the-Water (2 walks) is the classic Cotswolds base, with meadow walks along the River Windrush and circular routes into the surrounding wolds. Cirencester (1) adds Roman history, a huge walled park and access to the Thames headwaters. Cheltenham (1) puts you on the doorstep of Cleeve Hill, the highest point of the Cotswolds, and Painswick (1) sits on the western scarp above the Slad Valley with some of the best views in the county.

What to Expect

Cotswold walking is mostly gentle — grassy pasture, limestone tracks and well-maintained stiles — with the scarp edge providing the only real climbs. Expect plenty of livestock in the fields, which means leads on through most farmland. The Forest of Dean is softer underfoot and mostly off-lead friendly on the main forestry tracks, but wild boar are present and should be given a wide berth (they can and do attack dogs that approach too close). Ticks are common in bracken from April onwards.

Planning Your Trip

Few counties do dog-welcoming hospitality better than Gloucestershire. Bourton, Stow, Chipping Campden, Painswick and Cirencester all have multiple pubs and tearooms that cheerfully welcome dogs indoors, and there's a vast supply of dog-friendly Gloucestershire cottages across both the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean. The mainline through Cheltenham and Kemble makes car-free dog walks in Gloucestershire practical from London and Bristol. Pair a morning on the Cotswold Way with an afternoon tea in a village tearoom and a sleepy dog under the table is essentially guaranteed.