More than shin-kicking
The organiser’s games page describes individual strength events, team challenges and cross-country running alongside the best-known contest. Some competitions have limited team spaces. If you want to enter, read the specific event rules and registration details rather than assuming that an admission ticket reserves a place.
How it began
Around 1612 a lawyer called Robert Dover began staging games on a natural amphitheatre above Chipping Campden, with the blessing of King James I. They were famous enough to inspire a collection of poems, Annalia Dubrensia, in 1636, with contributions from Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton, and it was they who linked Dover’s games to the Olympics of ancient Greece. The Civil War interrupted them, they returned after the Restoration, and they finally ended in 1852 when the common land was enclosed. The National Trust bought Dover’s Hill in 1928, the games were staged for the Festival of Britain in 1951, and they have been held every year since 1966. Today’s programme includes tug of war and shin-kicking, and the day ends with a bonfire and torchlit procession into Chipping Campden.
Competition rules and admission
The published shin-kicking description requires soft footwear and permits straw padding. Its statement about free competition entry does not mean admission to the whole Games is free. Recheck both admission and participation terms when the next edition is announced.
Plan the return as well as the climb
Ask for the next traffic notice, permitted parking and access information. Check the walking surface, lighting on the return route and the distance from your parking or drop-off to viewing areas. No step-free viewing route or current accessible toilet provision has been verified in this guide.
Taking part
Two hill contests, two similar names, two different propositions. The organisers describe Champion of the Hill as an individual event combining the standing jump, spurning the barre, the hammer throw and the shot put. Championship of the Hill is a team challenge, with a changing series of rural games and limited spaces. Read the description before rallying a team for the wrong one, and don’t assume every activity is open without registering.
Shin-kicking has its own page and its own referee, the Stickler. The rules describe straight arms with hands on your opponent’s shoulders, unbalancing them through shin contact, and a result decided over several rounds. They also set out what to wear and ban metal-reinforced toes. It’s great background for following a bout, but ask for the next edition’s conditions before entering, as part of the page still mentions a 2024 champion. Buying gate admission, registering to compete and being accepted by an official are three separate things. If you’d rather just watch, nobody expects you to offer your shins just because you’ve reached the top of the hill.
Practical bits
Getting up to Dover’s Hill
The organiser’s visitor FAQ describes a walking approach from Chipping Campden via the Cotswold Way, along with shuttle and parking arrangements. That FAQ is dated 2018. It is background about the location, not a current offer of a shuttle, free school parking or tickets at those prices.
What to bring
If you’re there to kick shins, start with the organisers’ rules, not a theatrical costume. The rules require long trousers or tracksuits, allow straw supplied by the organisers as padding and ban metal-reinforced toes. Make sure your clothes and footwear meet the current conditions before you travel. Don’t swap in protection the rules haven’t accepted, or bring anything designed to make a bout more forceful.
Spectators have a simpler brief: bring what you can comfortably carry through an evening outdoors and on the journey home. Keep extra layers and your own essentials in one manageable bag, and leave the competition areas and walkways clear. Before bringing a chair or an ambitious picnic, ask where it can go; open hillside doesn’t come with a reserved enclosure. Save the updated traffic and visitor notice when it appears, and bring a charged phone or some other way of keeping your group in touch. The 2018 FAQ is history now, so pack and travel for whatever’s announced next.
Questions people ask
Are Champion and Championship of the Hill the same?
No. One is an individual four-event contest, the other a separate team challenge. Check the right registration conditions.
Can shin-kickers wear steel-toed boots?
No. The rules ban metal-reinforced toes and set out suitable footwear. Check the current rules before entering.
Who decides a shin-kicking bout?
The referee, known as the Stickler, starts, finishes and judges each contest under the rules.
Does the old FAQ confirm the next shuttle service?
No. Its 2018 arrangements say nothing about a service for the next Games. Wait for the updated visitor and traffic information.
Plan your trip
Stay the night
Search places to stay in and around Chipping Campden. Add your dates once the next one is confirmed. Rooms near popular events go early, so check cancellation terms.
Find a place to stay on Booking.comNearest station: Honeybourne
Honeybourne and Moreton-in-Marsh are the nearest stations, each several miles away, so arrange a taxi; Dover’s Hill is a short drive or uphill walk from Chipping Campden.
Check trains on TrainlineBooking.com and Trainline links are affiliate links. What that means.
Where it is
The pin shows the approximate area. Open in OpenStreetMap
Make a weekend of it
Court Barn in Chipping Campden celebrates the designers and craftspeople who worked in the north Cotswolds from the early twentieth century onwards. Its visitor page lists admission and opening times, a step-free entrance and exit, accessible toilets and visitor guides in several formats. It makes a good indoor stop on another part of the trip, especially if someone fancies a break from a long evening outdoors.
For a change of pace in the open air, there’s Hidcote. The National Trust garden is linked with Lawrence Johnston and laid out as a series of distinctive garden rooms. Go for the planting and the layout rather than expecting every corner to be at its seasonal best. The Trust has separate access and travel information to help you work out what suits your group. Both places run independently, with their own conditions. Check their calendars against the next Games announcement before booking, and don’t take an attraction’s everyday parking advice as permission to park for the event. A separate day gives you time for craft, gardens and countryside without racing between ticket desks.
Odd things nearby
- Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling 22 miles away, 31 May 2027
- Bampton Morris Day of Dance 25 miles away, 31 May 2027
- Oxford May Morning 31 miles away, 1 May 2027
Also in June
- Appleby Horse Fair Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria
- Hawick Common Riding Hawick, Scottish Borders
- Lanimer Day Lanark, South Lanarkshire
- Great Knaresborough Bed Race Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
Featured in 39 Weird British Traditions Worth Travelling For, Odd Cotswolds and Gloucestershire.
About this guide
Check before you go. Confirm the next date, ticket prices, programme, competitor registration, shuttle services and access. The older FAQ’s 2018 timings, prices and parking permissions must not be carried forward.
About the date. Current organiser site describes 2026 edition; no 2027 date verified.
Researched from the sources below and last checked on . We haven’t visited every event or tested every journey, and the organiser’s own information always wins.
- Organiser homepage: currently the 2026 edition
- Competition descriptions and entry distinctions
- Historical visitor FAQ, dated 2018
- Wikipedia: Cotswold Olimpick Games
- Organiser:Games overview
- Organiser:shin-kicking rules
- Organiser:homepage and edition status
- Court Barn:visitor information
- National Trust:Hidcote
