Self-catering cottage holidays in the Cotswolds

Quintessentially English, the Cotswold hills are dotted with charming villages of the local honey coloured stone. Designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, you will stumble across romantic cottages with roses rambling over the porch and splendid cottage gardens. Even the dry stone walls dividing up corn fields are clothed in creepers and honeysuckle. Nature is lavish in the Cotswolds; the landscape is criss-crossed with life giving rivers and streams, beech woods clothe the hillsides, bird song fills the air.

The Anglo-Saxons named this part of Britain. The word Cots comes from the old Saxon word for sheepfolds and Wolds from the high open pastures. Much of the wealth of the area was generated by sheep farming in the past.

The Cotswold hills extend across Gloucestershire and overlap into Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Wiltshire.