The route is partly on the main road and partly weaves through green spaces and along stream-side paths, finally heading out of town through a neat new villagey estate. On the way down to to Falfield there are good views ahead towards the Cotswold edge. From here, the Slow Way takes the most direct route to the Little Avon river via an enclosed woodside bridleway, the corner of a road and hard tracks to Avening Green, but if you are not in much of a hurry, there is a nicer and slightly longer alternative route to the south via the Old Court at Tortworth. When it reaches the river, the route contours along its tranquil course to the old Mill at Huntingford where it takes to the lanes for a couple of miles to circumnavigate the difficult area of arable fields around Kitesnest Farm and Katherine’s Farm where the (apparently many) rights of way are rerouted, lack signs and infrastructure, or are obliterated by thick crops in the summer. In North Nibley, the Slow Way takes the longer way round via Nibley House Farm (signage and gates are a little wayward here) as the more direct path, which goes through someone’s garden, can be brambly and impassable....

Mockymock

This is a direct walk, mostly on field paths of varying quality - either well marked or across open pasture land, but the owners of Field Farm at Coaley seem determined to make life difficult for walkers by putting electric fences across rights of way and their own lanes - these are avoidable but the detour lines are not well marked or obvious on the ground. Careful navigation should bring you out on Springhill Old Court, which we follow out to Springhill, then continue on a well marked field path which starts just to the right. The field paths are open to start with, but beyond the junction we are forced by electric fences onto the farm lane. We turn left past the pub down Bath Road, where our path right is hard to spot until you have walked past it. We continue up Regent Street, then go a short distance (past a convenience store) left to reach the pelican crossing on High Street, then go right, then left up Burdett Road to reach the meeting point by Stonehouse railway station....

Hugh Hudson

We ignore Gipsy Lane and continue uphill, reaching the Cotswold Way at a gate with a bench. Just beyond what may be an old quarry we join a path that slants up from our right and climb to a viewpoint with a bench, then continue downhill, following the Cotswold Way through another holloway and a farm track, then a short road section. Beyond the farm lane we continue on a surfaced lane parallel to the stream, going a short distance right along Farfield before continuing on a well used path along the stream and across fields. A short section of the route down is not a right of way, but it is clearly marked as a permissive path, and has stiles. It soon joins another right of way, descending steeply down steps through a little wood before we follow the edge of the wood to the edge of Dursley, then follow Long Street up to the meeting point (Castle Street can be crossed at a pelican crossing)....

Hugh Hudson

This should be a 5* route but it is badly let down by lazy GPX plotting, especially the point where the track up from Kings Stanley meets the Cotswold Way, where there are several options none of which are near the straight line. I have submitted a better one (DURSTO two) and will post a more detailed review with pictures there. I have flagged this one for inaccuracy....

Hugh Hudson

My original plan for this walk didn't survive a delay to my CrossCountry train to Gloucester - I was going to start with a new route from Stonehouse to Dursley and was planning to walk the shorter DURWOT 1 and continue to Yate, but fortunately noticed that it has been deleted and downloaded this one rather than the longer DURWOT 2. Beyond the houses the pavement disappears, but the road is narrow and steep enough to discourage drivers from speeding, and the road walk is mostly pleasant. The lane we follow is narrow and very quiet, and eventually takes us steeply uphill to reach Old London Road. I didn't use the shortcut path at the bottom because there was some digging going on that I didn't want to disturb, but the road route is only a short detour and the Wotton meeting point at the junction is reached by a short walk along the pavements....

Hugh Hudson

It was good for the first few miles (as you’d expect given that a fair portion of that was along the Cotswold Way) but it was all change once the route departed the national trail at North Nibley, leaving the dependable footpath-maintenance territory of the Cotswold AONB and heading into a Bermuda Triangle of unwelcoming arable with little signage or path infrastructure. First the suggested path south out of the village, which partly routes through someone’s garden, was almost impassable with brambles, so I found my way round via Nibley House Farm instead along a right of way which is not quite as marked on the map, then headed happily enough downhill to the arable zone where the bigger problems started and the Slow Way eventually made it into a select group of routes I have given up on altogether. I then peered at the next path immediately to the south (from Elmcote) which didn’t look much of an appealing prospect either (but possibly works earlier in the year or after harvest time as there was a new post with a yellow arrow on it, pointing confidently into the wheaty oblivion) and opted to make my hot weary way around via lanes and a track west of Kitesnest Farm instead. Most of the remainder of the route I know from previous walks and is generally fine with only some more boring arable, a few big cronky stiles with wire under them and the usual nettlesome corners and occasional scratchy overgrowth typical of high summer walking in farmland. However, the route plot is totally wayward around Pound House Farm near the Thornbury end and needs to be redrawn, and I know that there is a slightly longer but much nicer route option in the Tortworth area..... Hope they had a better route than this one and didn’t get put off....

Mockymock

You leave the housing estate by walking down what feels like (and in fact is) someone's driveway walking to the left of their house on to a small hill behind their house (it is a very well established route just not super obvious from the housing estate side). 2) about half way through or so there is a point where the route - just after crossing a stream on a farm track- would lead through a farm/farm yard. In fact it's much easier and marked as such to walk round the farm to the right (coming from Dursley direction) bringing you out in exactly the same place after the farm (the farm yard was full of cows so was not obvious we could have got through that way anyway!)....

Neil Phimister

At the beginning walking through Littlecombe, the St Modwen estate you need to make sure not to miss a footpath connection....

Karen Phimister

Its a very pleasant and generally easy route taking in the Tyndale Monument and ending with good refreshments either in Wotton or Dursley....

patriciab

(We did the walk from Nailsworth to Dursley for public transport reasons, but the comments above read as though we did it from Dursley to Nailsworth.)....

Anne

However, the section after Nympsfield was difficult to navigate, and almost unpassable in places due to the large amount of standing water. This was after a spell of dry weather, so I would imagine it would be much worse in poor weather....

jamiekirk

The stretch from Nympsfield, through the valley, is more difficult as the footpath signs are widely spaced and the route is not well trodden. There is long grass and boggy stretches in the valley bottom. Careful map reading required!...

JD

Tricky turn in woods beyond Coaley Peak off Cotswold Way to get to Blackbird Cottage - bear half left at junction of paths down bridleway - wooden bench on right....

JD

The steps up the railway embankment to the former crossing were dilapidated and overgrown with brambles and the Stiles were falling apart. Overall not a pleasant experience and unfortunately the closure of the level crossing and state of Stiles made this a difficult, or even impassable route....

Joan in Dursley

The short sections along roads are reasonable - more than half have a pavement or verge but there are some sections where caution will be necessary (narrow roads, high hedges, no pavement/verge, twisting route)....

rr