A Cotswolds Weekend at Westonbirt: Arboretum, Tetbury and Cows on the Common

Two days in the Cotswolds, based at one hotel, with a car and no plan more ambitious than trees, villages, cows and ice cream. That was the whole idea, and it worked.

I stayed at the Hare and Hounds in Westonbirt, a few minutes outside Tetbury, and used it as a base for the arboretum next door and the commons above Stroud. Everything in this post is within half an hour's drive of the hotel.

Where Is the Hare and Hounds Hotel in Westonbirt?

The Hare and Hounds sits on the A433 between Tetbury and Bath, about two and a half miles from Tetbury and half a mile from the arboretum gates. It is a Cotswold stone house with gables and stone-mullioned windows, and the first photo above is how it looks from the drive.

It belongs to Cotswold Inns and Hotels, the same group that runs The Bear of Rodborough up on the common. The gardens and woodland behind the house are worth twenty minutes on arrival, before you unpack anything. Cattle graze in the fields around it, which set the tone for the weekend.

What Is Westonbirt Arboretum Like to Walk Around?

Westonbirt is the National Arboretum, run by Forestry England, and it is enormous. Six hundred acres, seventeen miles of paths and around 15,000 specimen trees and shrubs from all over the world. You could walk for the whole weekend and not repeat a path.

I went in late May, when everything is a dozen shades of green and the avenues look like the photo above. Autumn is the famous season here, when the Japanese maples turn, and the ticket price goes up to match. If that is your plan, my autumn in the Cotswolds guide covers when the colour actually peaks.

There are maps at the entrance and the paths are well signed, so you do not need a guided walk to find your way. Two things I would not skip: the STIHL Treetop Walkway, about 300 metres of boardwalk that climbs to 13 metres above the ground, and the shop in the welcome building, which is better than most.

Is Box Village Worth a Stop?

Box is a hamlet on the edge of Minchinhampton Common, not to be confused with the larger Box near Bath. It was built on quarrying, and the stone cottages are the darker, rougher Cotswold stone of the Stroud valleys rather than the honey colour of Tetbury.

There is not much to do here, which is the point. A red phone box and a post box side by side in front of a stone wall, a few lanes of cottages, and the common starting where the last garden ends. The cattle wander into the village because nothing stops them. Allow twenty minutes and then walk out onto the common.

Tip: Park along the side of the road on Common Road, next to the common.

Where Do the Cows Roam on Minchinhampton Common?

Minchinhampton Common is National Trust land, and every summer the local commoners turn their cattle out onto it. The herd goes out in mid-May, on what the town calls Marking Day, and comes back in during November. More than four hundred animals graze unfenced, across the golf course and along the roads.

It is a mixed herd. The one in my photo is cream with dark ears, lying down in grass up to its shoulders, with brown cows behind it and someone's back garden beyond that. They are used to people and to cars, and they will not move for either. Drive slowly and give them the road.

I have written about the town and the common in more detail in my Minchinhampton post, including the postbox with the painted cow on it.

Where Is the Ice Cream on Minchinhampton Common?

The ice cream is Winstones, made on Rodborough Common, which runs straight on from Minchinhampton Common with no visible join. Albert Winstone started selling it from the same spot in 1925, and the family still makes it there. The parlour lists well over a dozen flavours, and there is a vegan range.

The queue on a warm weekend afternoon can be long. Buy two scoops, walk fifty metres onto the grass, and sit down among the cows. That is the whole afternoon, and it needs nothing adding to it.

Tip: If there aren't any roadside parking spaces left near the ice cream stand, park on Butterrow Hill, just after The Bear of Rodborough on the left. There are about three or four spaces there.

Where to Eat Near Minchinhampton Common?

The Bear of Rodborough is two hundred metres from Winstones, a coaching inn on the edge of Rodborough Common with a bar, a restaurant and a terrace. It is the sister hotel of the Hare and Hounds, so the menus lean the same way: local meat, seasonal vegetables, a proper pie.

It is the natural stop after the ice cream, for a drink or an early dinner before the drive back to Westonbirt. If the cows have wandered up to the car park, which they do, that is part of the service.

What Is an Evening at the Hare and Hounds Like?

Back at the hotel there is a bar called Jack Hare's, with log fires in the cooler months, and a lounge with a long stone-mullioned window looking onto the garden. The photo below is that lounge: green armchairs, a Persian rug, and bookshelves running the full height of the wall.

Dinner is in the Beaufort Restaurant, which holds an AA rosette. After that, the grounds at dusk. It is dark enough out here for stars, and quiet enough to hear the cattle in the next field.

Day Two: What Is There to See in Tetbury?

Tetbury is five minutes up the road from Westonbirt. It is a wool town, and the money shows: honey-coloured stone all the way up the high street, and a concentration of antique shops that has made the town a destination in its own right.

The Market House in the centre was built in 1655 by the town's feoffees, and it stands on three rows of stone pillars with the market still held underneath. The Chipping Steps, in the photo above, are a stepped lane of former weavers' cottages running down from the old market place. It is the most photographed corner of the town.

Highgrove, the King's house, is just outside town and its shop is on Long Street. For a cream tea, any of the cafés on Church Street or Long Street will do. I have a full Tetbury post if you want the wool history and the shops in detail.

Tip: Park at 22 Chipping Street, Tetbury GL8 8ET, and don't miss the Chipping Steps.

What Is Minchinhampton Village Like?

Minchinhampton is a small hilltop town on the plateau above Stroud, about twenty-five minutes from Tetbury through Avening. The centre is a market square with a pillared Market House of 1698, and the streets off it are narrow, stone and mostly free of traffic.

The bakery to look for is Henry's Bakehouse on Market Square, sister to the Henry's Dairy cheese shop. Buy a loaf, buy a coffee, and walk out onto the common on the far side of town, which is a different stretch of the same common you sat on yesterday.

From here it is half an hour back to the Hare and Hounds for lunch before the drive home. If you have a third day, Castle Combe is twenty-five minutes south, and my Castle Combe, Winchcombe and Minchinhampton weekend strings three villages together in a different order.

Tip: Park at 4 Friday Street, Minchinhampton, Stroud GL6 9JL.

Visiting Westonbirt and Minchinhampton Common: Practical Notes

📍 Address: Hare and Hounds Hotel, Bath Road, Westonbirt, Tetbury GL8 8QL. Westonbirt Arboretum is at GL8 8QS, half a mile along the same road.

🚉 Getting there: About 100 miles from London on the M4. Leave at junction 17 for the A429 and A433, or junction 18 for the A46; allow two to two and a half hours. By train, Paddington to Kemble takes about an hour and a quarter, then a 20-minute taxi.

🎫 Cost: Westonbirt Arboretum adult tickets are £14 on weekdays and £19 at weekends, rising to £19 and £22 in the autumn colour season. The commons, the villages and the cows are free.

🕒 Opening: Westonbirt opens every day at 9am with last admission at 4.30pm, and closes only on Christmas Day.

📷 Best time to go: Mid-May to November for the cattle on the common. Late May for the greens in the photos here, October for the arboretum in colour.

⏳ How long to allow: Two days. Half a day at the arboretum, an afternoon on the common, a morning in Tetbury and a couple of hours in Minchinhampton.

🗺️ Nearby: Castle Combe is 25 minutes south of Westonbirt, Bath about 40 minutes, and Stroud ten minutes from the commons.

*Photos by Ina/WithinLondon.