Distance: 4.5 miles
Start: Cowlease Wood Forestry Commission car park, Stokenchurch, Oxfordshire – A40 Oxford Road, nearest postcode HP14 3YL
Finish Cowlease Wood car park
This walk explores two adjacent but very different environments: the dry chalk escarpment of the Chiltern Hills and the rich clay Vale of Oxfordshire.
Find out how chalk and water have had a major influence on this landscape in terms of the flora and fauna, as well as human settlements and the use of land.
Discover a natural world of beech woods and juniper scrub, dry valleys and freshwater springs, wildflowers and butterflies, yellow ants and red kites.
Learn more about human activities in the area including a pre-historic settlement and a medieval castle, lords of the manor and peasant villagers, making a living from fields and woods, an ancient pathway and a modern motorway.
Be prepared for beautiful sights, spectacular views and some surprising stories.
This walk was created by Gary Gray and Mike Jackson for the Royal Geographical Society.
