Short dog walk at the Cleeve Common – Gloucestershire

Cleeve Common is a great place for dog walks in Gloucestershire. It is the largest common and the highest point in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. With an area of over 400 hectares, it offers many excellent options for dog hikes, from challenging, hilly trails to lovely leisurely walks. 

Distance	Total Time	Difficulty
2.64 km	00:40	Easy

After a few months of not posting anything new on the blog, I remembered out of the blue that the gang had done this hike back in March. Result! We have been to the common and the hill a few times in the past but just now decided to record it and make it into one of doghikes’ posts.

There are various options for parking around the site, and the most common ones seem to be at the Golf Club entrance, nearest postcode GL52 3PW and at the Radio Mast, access from Cheltenham, where we parked. There are others, and I will add the link to the post notes. We used “Cleeve Hill Common car park Southam, Cheltenham GL52 3NF” in the satnav.

Parking is free, although space is limited.

Don’t forget to check the post notes at the bottom of the page, with maps, a detailed table about the hike and links to everything mentioned in the post.

The Hike

It was very windy, probably the windiest of our hikes. For that reason, we made it a short 2.5km walk. It was not our first time in the common, and there is so much more to explore there than our short hike, but this is the one we recorded. As I did with Little Wittenham posts, I will also record and write a longer hike post there. 

We started again at the car park and turned left after the gate. From there, it was a straight hike towards the lone beech, a single beech tree at the top of the hill. It offers great views and amazing sunsets if you happen to be there at the end of the day.

The gang circled the lone beech and turned toward a couple of benches with views of Southam and the Cheltenham Race Course in the distance. Gambá needed a little rest as she was a little confused by such strong winds.

From the two benches, we made our way back to the car park by the edge of the site, following the fence until we got back to the gate. This section is part of the Cotswold Way Public Bridleway, one of the National Trails.

We saw a group of people looking for a lost cocker spaniel that apparently had lost its owners sent due to the windy conditions. So if you are there and it is windy, keep your pooch on a leash.

It’s a great place for dog walks in Gloucestershire and one we visit often. 

Cheers,

Ademar