After nearly a hundred miles of Cotswold escarpment, woodland and open hilltop, the Cotswold Way delivers one of its finest moments at Prospect Stile. This unassuming viewpoint — now marked by a kissing gate rather than the original stile — sits at 230 metres on the edge of Lansdown Hill and offers walkers their first full panorama of Bath spread across the valley below.
The view is worth every step of the 97 miles behind you. Bath Abbey anchors the centre of the city, its perpendicular tower rising above the honey-coloured terraces. The curving sweep of the Royal Crescent is visible on the hillside to the south, and the University of Bath campus sprawls across Claverton Down to the east. Sham Castle, the decorative facade built in 1762 by Richard James (master mason to Ralph Allen) to improve the view from Allen's townhouse, perches on the ridge beyond.
Look right and you can pick out Bristol in the middle distance. On a clear day, binoculars will find the slender lines of Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge, opened in 1864, spanning the Avon Gorge. Beyond Bristol, the Severn Estuary gleams, and on the far horizon rise the Mendip Hills, with Beacon Batch at 325 metres their highest point.
“Look right and you can pick out Bristol in the middle distance.”
Closer at hand, the distinctive conical shape of Kelston Round Hill dominates the foreground — your next waypoint on the trail. Behind it, on exceptionally clear days, the Black Mountains of Wales form a dark line along the western horizon.
For northbound walkers setting out from Bath, this is the last backward glance at the city. Either way, Prospect Stile is one of those places where you stop, lean on the gate, and simply look.
