7.5 k/ 4.6 miles
How long did it take? 3 hours, with play stops, snack stops, and a leisurely pace, not hurrying the kids.
Highlights: Enjoy the picturesque Bourton-on-the-Water, through countryside fields and woodlands, and past the lakes of the carp farm. Take in the River Windrush, Greystones Nature Reserve, and the tiny Wyck Rissington, the quiet, peaceful, and pretty hamlet with a lovely historic church and pond on the village green. There are river crossings and streams to pay in along the way.
Parking: Bourton has two large pay and display car parks that are close to the village centre. Station Road (GL54 2EN), or Rissington Road (GL54 2BN).
Top tips: Bourton- on-the-Water gets extremely busy, and parking can be problematic on busy weekends and school holidays. Be sure to arrive early to ensure a parking spot.
We always get to Bourton on the Water before 9 am at the latest. Any later and there are lots of tourists about including coaches, and the business feels a bit hectic for us. We much prefer to be early birds and have a wander with the place pretty much to ourselves. The shops and tearooms are still shut pre 9am, but the excellent Bakery on the Water has delicious food, treats, hot drinks, and breakfast to eat in or takeawy and is open from 8am.
Type of Walk: Circular
Dogs: Yes
Facilities: Public toilets at Bourton on the Water, GL54 2AP.
Accessibility: Uneven terrain, stiles and gates. Not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs.
Eat/Drink: Lots of options at Bourton on the Water. Try our favourite, the Bakery on the Water, GL54 2BY.
Step by Step:
From the car park, we headed straight to the Bakery on the Water for a coffee and an almond crossant; must get the essentials sorted before starting a walk!
After the Bakery, we retraced our steps along station road, past the car park and then took a right hand turn on to Cemetery Lane which was followed immediately by a left on to Greystones Lane, which is signposted for the nature reserve.
Follow Greystones Lane until you arrive at Greystones Farm Nature Reserve, a 66-acre nature reserve managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. It is also a working farm.
Go through the gate and ignore the path straight ahead. Instead, go right and past the cow shed
There is also a coffee machiene of sorts we saw here. It looked like an honesty box set up as it was unmanned. Something you could try if you missed out from a drink in the village before you set off and fancied a coffee on route!
Past the cow shed, you will see some unusual gates to try and fit through, and then on to a dirt track, called the Time Travel Trail. They have facts about the land that Greystones is on, from the present day until 6000 bc, and its so interesting. My kids loved the facts about the extinct animals of the UK, such as bears and wolves. In fact, we all learnt a thing or two on this walk!
Keep straight ahead. At the end of the Time Travel Trail, you will see a reconstructed iron age round house. Just beyond this, there are three gates. Take the left-hand gate and enter a field.
Cross the field, sticking to the left and head for the gate straight ahead of you. There are other gates to the edge of the field to the centre and right, but ignore these.
Walk through another field. Keep to the right, and go through a gate in the right-hand corner.
You will come out on to a tree lined track. Go straight ahead, crossing it, which takes you in to another field. You will see a nature reserve board ahead of you. This part of the trail is also signposted the Oxfordshire Way/ Gustav Holst Way.
It was so muddy and boggy when we did this walk after a lot of heavy rainfall. If you are doing this walk in the winter, beware, you will need wellies!
You will cross two rivers, the River Eye and the River Dickler. This is such a pretty spot and perfect for a picnic spot, pooh sticks, or a paddle in the perfectly clear water. My kids love water and played so happily here, throwing stones and making splashes until we moved them on.
Keep following the path. Go straight ahead through the next field and through another gate.
It is still signposted as a public footpath with arrow waymarkers. It takes you diagonally across the next field, bearing left, towards the road through Wyck Rissington.
Turn right on the road and walk through the tiny hamlet of Wyck Rissington.
It’s a charming little place with perfect stone cottages and a gorgeous church. Wyck Rissington is known as the place where Gustav Holst, the famous composer, once lived and worked as an organist in the St Lawrence Church.
There was a well-known maze in the rectory garden until 1984, when sadly it was dismantled on the death of its creator, Canon Harry Cheales. There is a Mosaic of the same maze in the church, though, to this day.
Keep following the road, past the church, as it leads you out of the hamlet.
After you have passed through the hamlet. The road takes a sharp left. Leave the road here and join the wide dort and stone track straight ahead of you.
Follow this track straight through two gates.
When you come to a junction, go right, through another metal gate.
Follow the track along the edge of the field. At the end of the field, the path takes you left. It’s pretty straightforward and a clear path to keep following. You will go through 3 gates and fields until you reach a stone driveway. Turn right and walk along it.
When you reach some hedge/ trees that have been pruned to look like cylinders, gonthrough the gap between them ( it has public footpath waymarkers)
Follow the waymarkers over two bridges/ streams, past the back of a walled garden and into another field.
Continue to follow the public footpath signs on the well established most obvious path through the fields.
You are nearly at the end of the walk. You will go through a wooded area and come on to a tarmac track/ quiet road. Keep following this road, and you will soon be back to Bourton on the Water.
When you reach the cemetery, take the paved alley way off to the left. You will come out on to station road, just opposite the car park.
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Cotswold Little Explorers 
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