Thames Path Part Fifteen: Lechlade to Cricklade

The Thames Path is a 182 mile National Trail stretching from London to Gloucestershire. This year, the group will aim to cover the whole trail from start to finish! For the final 4 walks in this series, we will head into the Cotswolds taking us from Oxford to the Source of the Thames just outside Kemble!

**To add some fun to our adventure, you are encouraged to purchase the Thames Passport where we will collect stamps at over 30 stamping stations along the Path. Collect stamps at all the various stations and you can receive a Certificate of Completion for doing the whole trail from start to finish! The link to purchase the passport is here: https://walkthethames.co.uk/thames-path-passport/**

The penultimate leg of our Thames Adventure! We will start this section with a visit to the Cotswold Christmas Shop in Lechlade for another stamp for our passports. This is the only Christmas shop that is open all year round making it very unique. If you want to get some (very!) early Christmas shopping done, now is your chance!

After leaving the shop, we will return to Halfpenny Bridge and head towards Inglesham, crossing through Gloucestershire briefly along the way. Once at Inglesham, we will pay a visit to St John the Baptist church to collect another passport stamp, which we can self-administer.

After departing the church, we will pass over a footbridge where the River Cole joins the Thames, through a wood to eventually see an airfield runway. We will then peel away from the narrowing river and head through several fields, stopping for lunch at Hannington Wick.

After lunch, we will continue to Castle Eaton before a pub stop at the Red Lion and passport stop number 3 of this leg.
Following refreshment, we will rejoin following the river and eventually arrive in Cricklade for the conclusion of another section – only one more to go! We will take the chance to have another pub stop at the Red Lion to collect passport stamp number 4 of the day.

Saturday, 22 August 2026
Start time: 10:00 am
Estimated finish time: 4:30 pm
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 17.7km / 11.0mi
Ascent: N/A
Type: linear

Public Transport
To get to the start of the walk at Lechlade, if coming from Reading, please get the 8:25 train arriving at Swindon at 8:54. You will then need to catch the 64 bus leaving Armstrong Street at 9:05, arriving in Lechlade at 9:31. To get back to Reading from Cricklade, you will need to catch the bus leaving Stockham Close (the 51 leaves at 16:54 and 17:52) to Swindon taking 35 minutes directly to the station then catch the train to Reading from there.

Driving
If driving, parking is available either side in Cricklade or Lechlade where charges may apply, but given you would have to travel via Swindon either way, it is recommended that you take public transport for this leg.

Features

• Refreshments available (Pub/cafe)
• Toilets available
• Accessible by public transport
• No car needed