The Fat Fox Inn - Route 2

(S/E) Leave the pub car park and turn left on to Shirburn Road (B4009) and walk for about 700 metres to a road junction.

(1) Turn right onto Station Road heading towards Pyrton Field Farm. Shortly after the large house on your left is the site of the old Watlington Railway Station. Continue straight ahead for just over a mile, about 1.8km, passing the junction with the Ridgeway long distance trail, and walk to the end of the tarmac road.

(2) Keep going straight, following a small path up the steep hill; there is a fence on your left, with a quiet, unspoilt small valley beyond. The path enters an area of hazel coppice. Fork right through a kissing gate onto footpath and the Oxfordshire way. Follow the path across a grassy field towards a metal kissing gate in a hedgerow. (You should be able to see the MOD Microwave Tower at this point.) Turn right on to footpath, and follow quite a narrow path which leads downhill through woodland in a sunken way. The path goes through mixed woodland. Keep going straight down the hill, past one path forking left. Take the next path on the left, marked with a white arrow on a concrete post. This small path goes up a small incline and then through an area of scrub and woodland before opening out in a small grassy area. This area is known as the Chalk Pits and is managed by Watlington Parish Council. Go straight on over the open area and then walk round to the left to find a wooden kissing gate leading on to Hill Road.

(3) Go through the gate and turn right. Walk down Hill Road into Watlington. Keep going straight, past the car park on your left. At the cross roads turn right on to Shirburn Road; the Fat Fox is a short distance along this road on your left.(S/E)

Watlington Station – Opened in 1872, this was the terminus of the single track Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway. There had been plans to extend the line to Wallingford, but this never happened and the line was closed to passengers in 1957 and to goods in 1961.

The Ridgeway Long Distance Trail – An 87 mile route from Ivinghoe Beacon in Hertfordshire to West Kennet Barrow in Wiltshire. Following a route used since prehistoric times, the trail passes through open downland, secluded valleys, woodland and hedgerows, linking many archaeological sites.

Sunken Way – This is typical of the many ancient sunken lanes and hollow ways in the Chilterns, eroded by many years of use, including moving livestock up and down the hills.

Chalk Pits – Much of this area is within the Watlington and Pyrton Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest. Watlington Parish Council and the local Environment Group manage the site to maintain the mosaic of chalk grassland, scrub. and woodland.