The underrated Oxfordshire Cotswolds is finally getting its turn in the spotlight

The Cotswolds is no stranger to attention. The bucolic region, given National Landscape status in 1966, has long been a “bucket list” destination for many a traveller; its golden-hued villages and drystone wall-lined fields are the picture of British countryside romance. But the majority of visitors to the Cotswolds head to a tiny handful of places, such as Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and Broadway.

These are all fine examples of quintessential Cotswold villages, but they’re over-crowded, underwhelming, and all based in Gloucestershire or Worcestershire. Beeline for the Bourtons and Broadways and you’ll miss out on an entire corner of the Cotswolds that’s quietly brimming with brilliance: it’s time to finally give the Oxfordshire Cotswolds the attention it deserves.

This region does, of course, attract visitors. But those that do visit the far eastern reaches of the Cotswolds tend to congregate in two main places: Woodstock for touring the behemoth that is Blenheim Palace, and Burford with its sloping high street. At the former, plenty of tourists will only ever see the Duke of Marlborough’s fine estate, missing out on the delightful little working town that sits next door, and the latter is still easily missed if you’re bombing up the A40 with Cheltenham in your sights.

Everything else in between – from tiny chocolate-box villages that could put the likes of Bibury and Broadway to shame, to upscale hotels and restaurants that give London a run for its money – is left largely untouched by the mass tourism that plagues the popular parts of this National Landscape. But perhaps not for long – there are new things afoot in this neglected part of the Cotswolds that are making it well worth the diversion, and plenty of other attractions that have been here all along, waiting for their turn in the limelight.

The most famous recent development is undoubtedly Estelle Manor, a gargantuan resort set inside and around an imposing mansion just outside Witney and the boundaries of the Cotswolds. You might recognise its name from Maison Estelle, London’s tantalisingly secretive private members’ club owned by entrepreneur Sharan Pasricha. At their new Oxfordshire outpost, there are 108 bedrooms, a handful of luxury houses on site, a heated outdoor pool, padel and tennis courts, an archery range, a kids’ club, a high-tech AI-powered gym and a soon-to-open bathhouse which promises to be a cut above any other spa in the area. It’s a worthy White Lotus location.

Don’t get excited thinking you’ll pop in for lunch at one of its three restaurants, though, or enjoy a day trip to the spa. This is an overnight guests and members-only affair, so you’ll either need to stump up for a room (from £450 in low season), or join the waiting list to become a paid-up member for just £3,600 per year – plus the £500 joining fee. Sound a little familiar? That’s because Estelle Manor isn’t the only private members’ club to make a new home in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds: Soho House arrived here in 2015 and has been turning away non-members ever since.

Thankfully, not everywhere in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds is quite so exclusive, as I found out during a January morning spent with the bubbly Victoria Proffitt-White. An Oxfordshire local from Long Hanborough, she has been running tours in the Cotswolds since 2021. Cotswold Teacup Tours doesn’t restrict trips to the Oxfordshire enclave only, but it’s become a regular feature on Proffitt-White’s most popular itineraries because it’s packed with little intriguing places to visit. “I’ll go to Bourton if I have to,” she told me, “but I try to steer people away from the more popular areas.”

It was a crisp Saturday morning when she scooped me up in her swish red and white VW minivan and took me for an early stroll to Widford church. It’s certainly not an exclusive location – anyone can visit and the 40-minute walk from Burford is delightful – but it felt like it was exclusively ours that day, as there wasn’t a soul to be seen aside from a pair of dog walkers with their prancing, fleece-swaddled whippets.

“The church was part of an entire community back in the medieval period, but it was largely wiped out during the plague in the 1300s and now this is the only complete structure left,” she told me as we surveyed rolling pasture pockmarked by the occasional ruined house. This is one of the many places she’ll bring visitors looking for a slice of the “real” Cotswolds, and she says the Oxfordshire corner is the best place to find just that.

Heading back into Burford, we bumped into Deputy Mayor Michael Taubenheim outside his eccentric Greyhounds B&B, which has some of the best gardens in all of the Cotswolds. He told me how the town, which has long sold itself as the “gateway to the Cotswolds”, was set along a major highway and once thrived, but in the 1800s a bypass was built and the coaching inns and shops were left to diminish. Today, though, he says, things are looking up, with 64 of the 68 shops in town run by independents – including five of his own – attracting plenty of visitors to their high street.

“The busiest year I’ve ever had was last year,” he told me. Perhaps it’s the Estelle Manor effect, or maybe it’s because visitors to the Cotswolds are sick of shuffling around with the crowds and want something a little bit different. That’s the word Richard Martin used to describe it when I visited his shops and exhibitions at Cotswold Woollen Weavers.

“West Oxfordshire has always been different,” he told me. “It’s very beautiful, but it’s a working place. There are some people who like that chocolate-box thing and they don’t care if it’s rammed with people and it’s artificial in some ways, but there are people who like the idea of coming to a place that’s very beautiful and very nice, but is actually more real.”

You can still find chocolate box out here, too, though. Villages such as Churchill, Kingham and Minster Lovell are just as pretty as their Gloucestershire counterparts. Even Burford is its very own version of chocolate-box beauty, in part thanks to the 19th-century bypass – the Victorians barely paid the town any attention after the new road was built, meaning many of its 16th- and 17th-century buildings remained untouched.

And hiding behind one of those modest, centuries-old facades in town is perhaps the most exciting new opening in the whole of Oxfordshire: Bull. Not the Bull. Not Bull in Burford. Just Bull, an 18-room hotel from the uncanny mind of PR mogul Matthew Freud – a Burford local since 2008 – which opened in late 2023 and is leaning into doing things differently, just like the rest of the county.

Its corridors are plastered with impressive artworks from Grayson Perry and Damien Hirst, including the controversial artist’s chess table which you can sit at on your way up to your room, and bedrooms have a kind of organic, pared-down luxury feel to them, with a few unusual touches (hello, wardrobe wine fridge).

There’s a 10-course tasting menu at omakase restaurant Hiro, a fire-based, outdoor, all-weather dining experience (under cover of canvas) at Wild, and a communal dining concept restaurant called Horn that’s open only on Friday and Saturday nights and Sundays for lunch. The property has very much brought a new level of innovative and upscale hospitality to a classic, chocolate box-worthy Cotswolds town.

Left-field luxury aside, most of us just want a cosy pub to hunker down in, and the Oxfordshire Cotswolds has pubs aplenty. The Lionhearth Group has three cracking boozers worth visiting, all much-loved by their local communities in Churchill, Ascott-under-Wychwood and Salford – even on a soggy Friday night in January, it was a jostle to get a table at the Black Horse. And in Woodstock, if you can tear yourself away from the sepia Blenheim Palace or, better still, swerve it entirely, there’s the brilliant Back Lane Tavern serving internationally inspired small plates.

Pair all of this with some fascinating local attractions, such as the ancient Rollright Stones or North Leigh Roman Villa, or the FarmED complex with its regenerative growing and farming feeding into their own excellent little café (come on Fridays for a guided tour), and you’ve got a lot to love in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds.

In fact, there’s so much here, I’d go so far as to say there’s little need to venture beyond the boundaries of the county. Sure, Bourton might have all those lovely bridges, but when there’s the ostentatious luxury of Estelle Manor, the quirk of Greyhounds and Bull in Burford, and all those buzzing country pubs – plus an opportunity to stop off in storied Oxford city on the way here – why bother? I wouldn’t. Instead, you’ll find me playing a spot of chess by the fire at Bull.

Essentials

Where to stay

Bull in Burford (bullburford.com) is by far the most exciting new accommodation in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with doubles from £300 including breakfast. For something a little more low-key, the Black Horse in Salford (lionhearth.co.uk/the-black-horse) has a charming self-catering cottage in the beer garden from £185 per night including a breakfast hamper – it also also offers a grill-based menu and serves up the best Hasselback potatoes outside of Sweden. The Swan at Ascott-under-Wychwood (lionhearth.co.uk/the-swan) offers reasonably priced rooms from £99 per night including breakfast.

Where to eat

The Bull in Charlbury gets rave reviews from locals for its flame-grilled dishes. Sunday roasts must be had at The Chequers in pretty Churchill, and the Kingham Plough and Feathered Nest Country Inn are two more lauded local pubs.

Getting around

Charlbury train station has direct connections to London and there are transfers if you’re staying at Bull. Driving to and around the Cotswolds is easy but parking can be tricky. Bespoke tours with Victoria Proffitt-White of Cotswold Teacup Tours (cotswoldteacuptours.com) cost from £425 for six people and offer an insightful and stress-free experience.