Kingscote

You're away from the main tourist routes here, but still positioned conveniently between Dursley to the west and Tetbury to the east, both proper market towns with cafes, shops and local character. The village itself is fairly compact, typical of upland settlements where properties spread across the landscape rather than clustering tightly together.

The real draw of Kingscote is the landscape and what you can do in it. The elevated position offers genuine walking opportunities across farmland and through woodland, with views across the surrounding hills. From here you can explore the wider area without too much effort. Owlpen, one of the Cotswolds' more interesting manor houses, sits just a few miles away, and Newington Bagpath lies nearby offering more of the same pastoral appeal.

What makes this place worth visiting is that working landscape feel that many find more authentic than the heavily visited villages. There's a real sense of the region's agricultural heritage here, and it's ideal if you want to experience the Cotswolds away from the crowds with good walking and genuine peace and quiet. It's the kind of place where you get a true picture of how the Cotswolds actually functions, rather than how it's been packaged for visitors.