Monarch's Way Walk 2022

  The walk from Bourton on the Water to Northleach was to have been our busiest to date, as twelve people had put their names down for this one. But a variety of circumstances beyond their control meant that several people had to drop out, and so Alison and Deborah’s nephew Carl was our only visitor. So Rod, Di, Alison and Deborah with Lily the dog left a car at The Old Prison at Northleach, and drove to Bourton, where we met up with Carl.  After the obligatory photo at the start  we set off across a number of fields until we came to a field with horses. Lily was put on the lead, but studiously ignored the horses, as we climbed the first of  today’s hills. We were glad of our waterproofs as a brief shower passed over,  but by the time we reached Clapton-on-the-Hill the rain had stopped. We decided not to explore Clapton and pressed on, past Goms Hole (apparently Gom may havebeen a hermit who lived nearby, or alternatively he was a sheep stealer who was hanged here, along with two highw

We enjoyed glorious weather for this walk. There were six of us, and Lily the dog. The regulars, Di and Rod and Deborah and Ali were joined by Steven and Vanessa.  We started earlier as the weather was forecast to rise to 25 degrees mid-afternoon. Meeting at the Fox Inn in Broadwell, we climbed steadily on the road out of the village, passing the gates to some parkland on the left. At the top we took a cool tree-lined lane which ended in a tarmac access road.  Following this road brought us to two wells, the first one small, but the second a large rectangular structure, full of water. This Stow Well was built in Roman times - it's said it's never since failed to produce water. Lily didn't need any second invites, she was in like a shot cooling off. We continued up the access road into Stow-on-the-Wold where we walked down the busy A429 until we came to a footpath for Quarwood Cottage. We continued along a green lane, eventually crossing several fields until we reached t