Cheese Rolling

Annual Gloucestershire race — chase a 4 kg wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a near-vertical hill.

🌤outdoor
Photo · Wikipedia

What is Cheese Rolling?

Cheese rolling is an annual folk sports event held on Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire, England. Competitors chase a 4 kg wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a near-vertical grassy hillside. The cheese has been clocked at over 110 km/h; catching it is impossible so the first person over the finish line wins the wheel — after a lot of spectacular tumbling.

Quick facts

Category

Traditional & Cultural Sports

Type

Individual

Players

1–30

Where played

outdoor

Country of origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Estimated origin

1826 first written record; Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire, England

Olympic

No

Popularity

niche

Sources & provenance

Last verified 2026-08-24.verified