A Weekend on the Cotswold Edge

Friday 20 – Monday 23 November 2026 · based in Slad
View the route map →
Travelling
Alfie & Megan
Departing
Pitsea, 2:30pm Fri
Staying
Studio flat, Slad
Cost
£240, 3 nights

20 November

Friday

Travel day. No dinner stop — food's being bought for cooking at the flat instead.

2:30pm
Depart Pitsea
Friday afternoon traffic on the M25 approach is never guaranteed, even leaving before the worst of it.
~5:00pm
Supermarket stop, Stroud
Slad itself has no shop — stock up here for the weekend's cooking.
~5:30–6:00pm
Arrive Slad, check in
Self check-in via lockbox — no need to coordinate arrival time with a host.

21 November

Saturday

The big driving day — two routes back to back, no deadline pressure since there's nowhere else to be.

Morning
Breakfast at the flat
Late morning
Route 2 — The Southern Sweep
51 miles, ~1h45. Frocester Hill, Coaley Peak, over to the A433 past Kemble airfield.
Afternoon
Lunch, Painswick
Afternoon
Route 1 — The Doorstep Loop
36 miles, ~1h30. Slad Valley, Sheepscombe, Birdlip, Sapperton — starts and ends right at the door.
Evening
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Rodborough & Minchinhampton Commons — sunset drive
Pencilled in, weather dependent. Sunset is around 4:06pm, so aim to be up there by roughly 3:40pm. Confirm nearer the day rather than treating this as fixed.
Evening
Dinner at the flat

22 November

Sunday

Full day out — two farms, roughly triangular route out and back via good roads.

Early morning
Breakfast at the flat
Morning
Drive to Cotswold Farm Park
Via Painswick and Cheltenham — deliberately avoids the Air Balloon junction at Birdlip.
9:30am–12:00pm
Cotswold Farm Park
Open 9:30–5. Highland cattle among the rare breeds.
12:00–1:00pm
Lunch at the Farm Park shop/café
~1:00–1:30pm
Drive to Chadlington
~1:30–2:45pm
Diddly Squat Farm Shop
Shop and bar close 4:30pm. Quieter than summer, but it's still a Saturday-adjacent weekend crowd.
~3:00–4:30pm
Drive back to Slad
Sunset's around 4:05pm on this drive — worth keeping an eye out for a spot to pull over if the sky's doing something good.

23 November

Monday

Pack the car fully before setting off — no return to the flat once you leave.

7:30–8:30am
Breakfast, pack up, check out
8:30–10:30am
Route 3b — Bibury & Burford
Driven fresh, first thing, with luggage already loaded. Being trimmed to end at Burford rather than loop back — final figures pending.
Onward
Drive home to Pitsea
From Burford via the A40/Oxford/M40 corridor — ordinary sat-nav from there, no need for a scenic route.

The routes

Reference only — see the map for the traced lines.

Route 1 — The Doorstep Loop
Slad Valley, Sheepscombe, Painswick, Birdlip, Sapperton.
36 mi · 1h30
Route 2 — The Southern Sweep
Frocester Hill, Coaley Peak, Nympsfield, A433 past Kemble.
51 mi · 1h45
Route 3a — The White Way Loop
Cirencester, White Way, Withington, Andoversford. Banked for another trip.
61 mi · 2h04
Route 3b — Bibury & Burford
Barnsley, Bibury, Burford. Being trimmed to a one-way finish at Burford.
67 mi · 1h56*
Route 4 — The Two Farms Tour
Painswick, Cheltenham, Cotswold Farm Park, Diddly Squat, home via Cirencester.
88 mi · 2h35

Loose ends to check