You can drive and park next to the popular Broadway Tower, an 18th-century folly and an historic landmark in the Cotswolds. But this short circular hiking route offers a “quintessentially English experience through flower-filled meadows, wonderful beech woodland, charming towns and villages and past historic sites”. Hard to resist, really…
The Broadway Tower loop starts in the village of Broadway, often described as the “jewel of the Cotswolds”, and is gently ascends High St the route passes a number of stately homes. Once believed to be a stopping point for hunter-gatherers, High St was originally called Broadway (also giving the village its name) and became a toll-road in the 18th century as well as a prominent stagecoach stop on the route between Worcester and London.
The trail passes under A44 via a tunnel and continues up through a meadow (not a “flower-filled meadow” at this time of a year, but still a nice meadow with district views).
The least-nice part of the Broadway Tower Circular is where it briefly emerges from the forest to follow the A44, before it re-enters the forest.
This is another serene and pleasant section of the hike through tall, shaded forest.
I’m not taking the most direct through the forest, but turn onto the Limestone Trail, which winds up through ivy-covered trees to Fish Hill.
A well-known landmark in the Cotswolds, Fish Hill is believed to have historical origins, possibly related to the fish trade routes that passed through the area. It offers some nice views of the surrounding Cotswold countryside.
From Fish Hill the Broadway Tower Circular route crosses the A44 (again) as it follows the Cotswold Way, a 102 mile (164km) trail between Chipping Campden (in Gloucestershire) and Bath (Somerset).
The trail soon emerges from the forest and crosses the grassy meadows that surround Broadway Tower.
Although Broadway Tower is privately owned, the grounds are always open; during the day you can pay a fee to enter the tower, which was refurbished under the private ownership of the Will family in the early 1980s with three museum floors chronicling the folly’s history. (You can also visit a Royal Observer Corps nuclear bunker that was built in 1961 about 180m from Broadway Tower, which was manned continuously from 1961 until its decommissioning in 1991 at the end of the Cold War.)
There are some great views from the top of of Broadway Tower…
As the second highest point in the Cotswolds (after Cleeve Hill), the height and location of the tower offers a unique geographical feature – a 62 mile radius viewpoint of visible landscape, stretching across sixteen counties. It’s possible to see as far as the Black Mountains in Wales to the West and as far as Buckinghamshire to the East. This view over the landscape was recognised as being a unique vantage point, which later became useful as a surveillance spot during the war.
It’s a popular sunset vantage point too, with a small crowd of people gathered around the base of the tower waiting for the sun to dip below the horizon.
I linger until just before the sun actually sets before continuing down the meadow towards Broadway.
The views along the descent are even better than from Broadway Tower, with unobstructed views to the west.
Two wooden benches (David Jelfs Bench) about halfway down provide the perfect vantage point for the sun slipping below the horizon, with panoramic views over Gloucester.
There’s just enough daylight to complete the Broadway Tower Circular hike without a headtorch, as the trail descends through a few more meadows to end up on High St again.
There are a few variations to this circular route, all of which start on High St and pass Broadway Hill and Broadway Tower.
Getting to the Broadway Tower Circular hike
All of the Broadway Tower Circular hike routes start on High St, but with limited parking along the upper end of the street you may want to start from Lamington Road or a bit further down High St. There are three public carparks in Broadway; if you are doing this hike later in the day to watch the sunset, parking along High St closer to the start/end of the loop will be a bit easier.
More information
- Broadway Tower
- Visit Broadway – History of Broadway Tower
- Visit Broadway – Car Parks in Broadway & the Cotswolds
0 Comments