Immerse yourself in Cotswold combes

Take a very quiet exploration of hidden South Cotswold combes, across high open land and past three utterly beautiful English country homes, between Nailsworth, Dursley and Tetbury. It's seven miles, about 3.5 hours walking. Use the map OS Explorer 168, Stroud, Tetbury & Malmesbury, grid ref: 814 959.

Park at Kingscote on the A4135 Dursley-Tetbury road by kind permission of the welcoming and comfortable Hunter's Hall Inn, which has a spacious car park. Tuck yourself away in a corner.

I mmerse yourself in the wooded combes and green sunny valleys at Ozleworth on this undulating circle which has no major hills. In the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, it leads up and past glorious Ozleworth Park and its little church and then past Lasborough Park and Lasborough Manor – two superb, large country houses, in an incomparable setting.

Take refreshment with you, but it is ideal if you can start early and go back to the Hunters for something afterwards.

It's perfect for dogs although they should be kept on a lead for quite some time because of pheasant rearing.

The circle starts and ends along quiet lanes and then follows field and woodland paths and tracks, which may be muddy in parts.

START

Go down the quiet lane at the side of the Hunters. This is an ideal and quick route of nearly a mile to get you to the secluded valleys. There are good open views as you follow the undulating lane. Ignore a left turn and then ignore a turn right to Uley, but just past this take the next tiny unmarked lane on the right.

1. PATH

Immediately, go left down a small unmarked stony path which drops down under trees. Go through a gate into a field and follow the left fence. Shortly, cross left over a new stile and go right and then bear across downhill on a grassy path.

Further on you should find one or two footpath arrows as a guide. Enjoy the glorious woodland below and continue to drop down and go through a hunting gate by a large gate.

2. VALLEY

Enter a picturesque grassy valley flanked by mixed English woodland on each side, and following the Marlees Brook. Carry on, going through another gate on the way and then the valley widens and the brook is more visible as it wends its way through the sunny green combe bottom.

At the end, stay on the left of the brook and go through a gate on to a track.

3. TRACK

Turn right and climb steadily and bend round. Take time to look back at the valley. I stopped here for a morning coffee in the sun and it was idyllic.

Ignore a track going left and just stay with the main track which curves up, over a cattle grid and becomes Tarmaced. Begin to draw close to Ozleworth Park. Ignore side tracks and go on under an avenue of limes. Ahead is the park wall and stables.

4. OZLEWORTH PARK

At the entrance to the stables, turn right on the bridle path between hedges. It is all very well signed. Pass a lake on the right and at a marker post, you can turn left to visit the church – well worth it, and you get a good view of the main house.

The charming little church of St Nicholas of Myra, now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, has been described as one of the most architecturally fascinating places of worship in the country.

The tower rises from the centre of the church, and the churchyard itself is circular, which may be an indication that the site was used in the Saxon period, though the earliest known mention of the church is from 1131.

Return to the signpost and carry on. Ignore a bridleway right and immediately reach another marker post. Follow it left across the drive and through a gate into a field. Bear down left to the corner and out through another gate by a cattle grid back onto a track. You get marvellous views of the house on the way.

Turn right. The track/bridleway leads downhill (ignore a left fork) and before long you get pretty views over the valley right and Bulk Farm and pond.

5. KISSING GATE

Reach a track left and at the start of it go through the metal kissing gate into a field and bear left through the field to a marked gate into woodland. Follow the small path and then join a track and continue on.

Cross a footbridge and continue to a stile by a gate with the stream on the right. Once through, maintain direction. Go over another stile by a gate and on. Just stay with the track going through woodland and through one or two open areas. Eventually come up on to a track on a bank ahead.

6. POND

Go left a couple of yards and then right by a marker post, and left again on a path going alongside a pond, keeping it on your right. The going may be a bit squelchy in parts. Just stick with the path in the woods which is quite narrow in parts and not well marked.

Cross a footbridge en route and join a larger track and keep straight on, climbing, still in the woods. The path levels out and reaches another beautiful pond in a large clearing. Pass it on your left. The track climbs. Go through a gate and come into open pastureland.

7. LASBOROUGH PARK

Continue on and pass stunning castellated Lasborough Park up on your left.

This is part of the Manor of Lasborough which dates back to the 11th century. The deer park and woodland were laid out around the medieval manor a short distance away which we soon see.

Further planting was carried out in the parkland during the late 18th century when this house, Lasborough Park, was built for Edmund Estcourt to a design by James Wyatt. Pleasure grounds were also laid out and some deforestation was carried out in the mid 20th century.

Go through a gate and on up to reach the drive to Lasborough Park. Go across and climb uphill up the field bearing up to the right end of the wood above. Turn right along the top, and over to the right enjoy a magnificent view of Lasborough Manor. Continue on. Go through a gate in the wall ahead and maintain direction along the top. Near the end reach a tump of grass which is the site of Bagpath Castle.

The mound rises to four feet above ground and is surrounded by a ditch.

Reach the end, and ignore the stile left. Instead, go right, with the old church on your left and then go left on grass out to the lane. Turn left uphilland pass the church.

8. BAGPATH CHURCH

This served the two communities of Newington and Bagpath and was declared redundant in 1972. It is privately owned but as you can see lies abandoned.

This isolated hamlet, known simply as Bagpath, is sparsely populated by about 100 people and also has several small farms.

Records from the 1900s show it was once home to about 1,000 people and had its own school as well as this church.

My route back is along the lane, which is very quiet, mainly flat and open and gives a great contrast to the earlier walk in the valley, rather than taking footpaths which I did last time I walked this years ago.

So follow the lane and at a T-junction, turn right, retracing your steps on the lane all the way back to the Hunters – about 15 minutes from the junction.

Hunters Hall Inn, Kingscote, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8XZ. Tel: 01453 860393.