Many of our Cotswolds Guided Tours guests say they want to experience the ‘typical’ English countryside and that’s not surprising. The Cotswolds has many veteran trees and ancient woodlands. In fact 10% of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is made up of woodland boasting internationally important yew & beech woods.

You will notice as you walk through many a Cotswolds Churchyard the beautiful old yew trees, including if you choose to visit the famous 99 yew trees at St Mary’s in Painswick.

You can enjoy the rolling hillside, typically English ‘enclosed’ fields providing a patchwork of colour throughout the year. The traditional art of ‘hedge laying’ has been practised in the Cotswolds for hundreds of years, helping to promote new healthy growth, providing a natural habitat for birds and insects along with acting as a livestock barrier.

For ‘twitchers’ the Cotswolds is said to have 86 species of birds, among them some nationally important species, such as Goldfinch, Dunnocks, Yellow Hammers & Skylarks. Other winged creatures, the ‘horseshoe bats’ found within the Cotswolds account for 10% of the country’s population.