Home / Things to do
From the gate outwardsWalks, water and the odd castle
Most of what is worth doing here starts on foot from the front door. The rest is within half an hour by car, and reception will tell you which version of it is worth the drive on the day you ask.
What each part of the year is actually for
Lambs and cold mornings
Lambing over the hedge from late February. Blossom in the orchard by mid-April, and the walks dry enough for ordinary shoes by the end of it.
Long light
Dinner outside until half past nine, the river warm enough to stand in, and the garden at the point where the kitchen cannot keep up with it.
Apples and mist
Pressing day in the second week of October, when guests are handed a crate and put to work. Grayling on the river; fires lit from about the tenth.
Short days, long evenings
Three fires going by four in the afternoon, carols in the church next door in December, and the Slaughters entirely empty of everybody but you.
The walks
Four routes are marked on the map in the boot room, drawn by the head gardener rather than by a tourist board, with the gates that stick and the field with the bullock in it both noted.
- The Slaughters loop — three miles, flat, an hour and a half with stops. Two of the prettiest villages in England and a tea room at the halfway point.
- The river to Bourton — a mile and a half each way along the Windrush, finishing among the low bridges in the village.
- Salmonsbury and the meadows — five miles over an Iron Age enclosure, good in winter when the bigger walks turn to clay.
- The Cotswold Way, a day of it — we drive you to Winchcombe and collect you at the far end, about twelve miles later.
Boots to borrow, sticks by the door, a flask filled at breakfast if you ask the night before.
The river
We hold a mile of single-bank fishing on the Windrush, wild brown trout and grayling, dry fly and nymph only, strictly catch and release. Two rods a day, no more, so the beat is rarely disturbed.
David has guided this water for twenty-two years and will take a complete beginner out for a morning without making them feel like one. Tackle is included; a rod licence is not, and takes two minutes online.
- Two rods per day, booked at reception
- Guiding £150 for a half day, tackle included
- Barbless hooks, catch and release
- Waders in sizes 6 to 13 in the boot room
Out in the paddock
Three things happen in the eleven acres, all of them arranged through reception and all of them better booked before you arrive than after.
- Falconry — a ninety-minute hawk walk with a local falconer, £120 for two, ages eight and up.
- Riding — the yard at Clapton takes out rides of one to three hours for all abilities, ten minutes away, from £65.
- Clay shooting — a half day on a farm shoot near Northleach with instruction and cartridges, from £180.
In lambing season, late February to March, the farm over the hedge lets small groups in at feeding time. Children find it more interesting than anything we could have arranged for them.
Book the rod, the hawk or the hamper before you come
All of it goes through reception, and most of it needs a day or two of notice — particularly at weekends and in half term.