Selsley Common

The walk up Selsley Common from Stroud is steep enough to leave you properly breathless, but the payoff is a genuine 360-degree view across the Cotswolds that justifies every grumbling leg muscle. You're looking at rolling green hills, distant ridge lines, and on a clear day, enough landscape to make you understand why people spent centuries fighting over this bit of England.

It's an open grassland common - no surprises for facilities or attractions at the summit itself, just space and air and views. The appeal is straightforward: walkers get a proper hill walk with genuine effort, families with older kids find it manageable if they don't whine about gradients, and anyone after a quick Cotswold viewpoint can knock it out in under two hours from Stroud. Worth an afternoon rather than a morning, since the light tends to be better later.

The common sits bang in the middle of walking country, so it works brilliantly as part of a longer ramble. If you're camping at Middle Lypiatt Glamping or Tobacconist Farm Campsite - both within a few miles - you've got something proper to aim for without needing to drive anywhere. Cherry Tree Glamping further out also puts you within striking distance.

Go mid-week if you can. Weekends pull the Stroud crowd, and while they're nice enough people, the car park gets rammed and the solitude evaporates. Bring layers - the wind can bite even when Stroud feels mild.