The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) has a strong geological foundation as it lies upon one of the best known sections of an outcrop of oolitic limestone that extends across England from Lyme Bay in Dorset to the North Sea coast.
It is this limestone that generates a feeling of unity with the stone being used for centuries in buildings and walls. The underlying geology has also dictated where settlements were built in the AONB and man has helped to shape the landscape having interacted with it for over 6,000 years
Today, the Cotswold landscape is made up of a variety of features including rolling agricultural land, flower-rich limestone grassland, deep incised valleys, country parks and woodland.
A Landscape Character Assessment has been conducted that divides the Cotswolds Landscape up into 19 defined landscape character types.