On Easter Sunday the weather was surprisingly very warm and sunny. After we had been teased with weather forecasts of potential snow and freezing temperatures, we had planned a family day at home watching movies and eating vegan Easter eggs. However, the weather was so warm we decided to pack a picnic for lunch and venture into the countryside. A place we only just found out about, which is surprisingly close to our home, is the National Trust Ebworth Estate with free parking and access to amazing walks through Cotswolds Commons and Beechwoods National Nature Reserve.

It’s also very surprising that we didn’t know of this place as although we are no longer National Trust members, we were in 2019-2020 and neither me or Ben ever spotted this place near our home on their app. We often looked for nearby places to explore, so I wonder how we missed it. I’m sure it never showed up for us on our searches!

Our brother-in-law told us about it and it’s an amazing hidden gem in the Cotswolds! We thought it would be really busy, especially on a warm Easter Sunday with many other families out for local walks, but it was very quiet. We can only assume many other people have no clue about it either. We saw a few other people on the start of our walk, but for most of it there wasn’t a soul around. Just how we like it!

The Ebworth Estate was given to the National Trust in 1989 and contains over 500 acres of beech woodland with several paths to choose from for a family walk and to avoid other walkers!

We walked through the woods to Sheepscombe Common where we stopped for a picnic on the side of the hill with beautiful Cotswolds hill views behind us and warm sunshine beaming down on us. Only two people passed us the whole time so it felt like our own private vegan picnic! We took pots of fruit and salad and warm food wrapped in foil with cans of Kombucha to drink. Ben and I had a vegan burger each, Reuben a vegan sausage roll and Bella a pot of vegan nuggets! We snacked on grapes, raspberries, baby plum tomatoes and sliced cucumber. It was delicious!

We knew there were lakes or ponds, so we set off to find them with the help of Google Maps! We found a small lake which was the most amazing blue/green colour. We had taken some bird seed and hoped to feed ducks, but we only saw two and they were unreachable. Whilst at the water and for this part of our walk there was no-one else around. It was so quiet and relaxing. There are large tree trunks blocking a path between the pools of water which would also have been the perfect spot for our picnic when no-one else was around. There’s also one lone bench looking over the water.

After enjoying the peace, the kids trying to find ducks and climbing on the tree trunks, we walked back through the climbing wood paths to the car park, not before finding an amazing carved tree trunk, the largest ant hill (ant mountain) you have ever seen in your life and admiring all the cute lambs springing around the surrounding fields.

If you’re looking for a lovely half day out or couple of hours walk in Gloucestershire in nature, then Ebworth Estate is perfect.

Here are our photos from our Ebworth Estate and Cotswolds Commons walk: