Chicha two

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

This route is a mix of fields, tracks and quiet tarmac lanes. Chicha One can be wet on Watery Lane at start of route out of Charlbury - Chicha Two has a detour to avoid this. There are also other footpaths through Dean Wood and alongside streams that run almost parallel and link to Chicha One and Two (they can get wet and muddy though after rain and are narrow woodland tracks with the occasional log to step over). Both Chicha One and Two have gates but no stiles.

After crossing the main road (B4026) after Dean, look for the Salt Way restricted byway and an enjoyable route to Chipping Norton, along tracks and across fields and meadows, including a nature reserve by Glyme river (we didn’t detour to look around it but noticed a stile into it). There was a little bit of water on the track at the river crossing but it wasn’t a problem. We also walked another footpath route from Chipping Norton to Dean as a potential alternative to avoid the quiet country lane out of Dean but although enjoyable, it passed over quite a few fields and narrow paths and included a stile, so Chicha One and Two are probably better, especially if wet weather.

I didn’t know about the Hawk Stone until I read a Slow Ways review and detoured to find it.

Charlbury: train and bus (check timetable before travelling), accommodation, food shop and pubs.
Chipping Norton: bus (check timetable before travelling), accommodation, food and other shops, cafes and pubs.

I walked this route on 31 August 2023 in reasonable weather. I know the route well. It’s easy to follow. What road walking there is is on very quiet roads, particularly the one down into Dean. I can recommend Charlbury Deli where they will fill your water bottle (they’re registered on the Refill app).

A very enjoyable walk between Chipping Norton and Charlbury on well established footpaths and minor roads. The route was very quiet once out of Chipping Norton. Along the 2.5 miles of minor roads we encountered only 1 vehicle and on the bridleways only 1 horse and rider. There were a lot of gates to go through but no stiles to climb over. Where we had a choice of gates we found only one of them had waymarkers which made navigation fairly straight forward, except for the minor roads where there were no signposts, so we were glad we had the route marked on a map. There is a well located bench under a shady tree close to Dean Manor for a rest stop.

This is a rural route through gently rolling countryside between the pretty old towns of Chipping Norton and Charlbury. There are no real landmarks on route, just fields and occasional small woodlands. Though I did make a small detour to see the Neolithic Hawk Stone, near Dean. The small Cotswold hamlet of Dean is the only settlement on the way but has no facilities, so all refreshments and public transport links are at either end of the route, there's nothing available in between. There are a couple of kilometres of road walking on quiet country lanes but there was no traffic. It is the same route as Chicha one apart from the last kilometre into Charlbury that avoids the potentially waterlogged Water Lane I flagged on my Chicha one review.

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