Throughout the route paths can be muddy and slippery after wet weather.
Note that, as in many parts of the Chilterns, paths are often waymarked by white arrows painted on trees.
[1] From the car park, with your back to the road, turn to your right and proceed to the end of the car park. Follow a path ahead emerging on to the road. While this is a minor road, traffic may be moving relatively fast on this straight section, so take care.
Continue ahead on the road for 50 yards, ignoring a path opposite, and then cross a stile to the right side of the road into the corner of a field. Cross the field, bearing away from the field edge towards the right hand end of a sparse line of trees, to cross another stile and a crossing track on to a path descending first through woodland and then across open downland.
(A) This downland was the site of a Ramblers' rally at the time that the Government announced that it intended to proceed with the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, which gave rights of access to open country. It was hoped that a much larger part of the Shirburn and Pyrton hills would become access land, but only the small area crossed by this path achieved that status.
Enter the woodland ahead and then turn right. The path reaches and follows the wood edge, with a fence and field on the right, round several bends including a bend through 90 degrees to the left, eventually emerging on to a track by a gate. Watch out for a number of small stumps that may constitute a trip hazard.
Follow the track through the gate and then bending left. Where the track turns right continue ahead on a narrower path to reach a gate leading on to a tarmac drive.
[2] Turn left and follow the drive to its end, then continue ahead on an initially grassy track climbing into woodland. Near the top of the hill and at the edge of the wood bear right through a kissing gate into trees in a field corner. Bear right uphill towards the right hand side of the field and follow the hedge on your right, ignoring a kissing gate on the right, to pass through a kissing gate onto a road. Turn left and follow the road for 100 yards to the second driveway on the right with a telecommunications mast beyond it (Take care here due to road traffic).
If you wish to shorten the route it is possible to follow the road ahead from here back to the car park. However, the road is rather too busy for this to be an attractive option.
Turn right and continue ahead where the driveway turns right, onto a path through woodland, soon swinging left. Ignore side turnings and turn right at a path T-junction after a gap in an earthen bank. At the next waymarked junction, near a field corner on the right, bear left downhill away from the edge of the wood. Follow the path as it descends gradually for almost a mile. This path levels out for a while but continues generally downward. Ignore side turnings (including a waymarked path - called SH6 - to the right).
[3] Turn right as indicated by a waymark to pass an urn sculpture on your left (take care here as there is some uneven ground) and a path junction to the right and continue to join a tarmac driveway for 35 yards.
Bear left through a kissing gate to cross the corner of a field to a further kissing gate. Continue over a private road and ahead across a further field to a crossing bridleway in the valley bottom. Turn left here and follow the bridleway between fences.
(B) Nearby, red kites were reintroduced to the Chilterns some 20 years ago. They have since become so common that it is unusual to walk in this area without seeing some.
At one point the path passes through two narrower gateways. The surface here is eroded and can be treacherous when wet. The path continues through trees and then along the right hand side of a field. Continue ahead on a stony track and later on a tarmac road joining from the left.
(C) The road to the left leads to Wormsley House, home of the late John Paul Getty and site of a cricket ground and opera house.
Continue on to reach cottages on your left.
[4] Beyond the cottages, pass a side turning and then bear left on a bridleway ascending inside the edge of woodland. After about half a mile turn left on to a crossing path, waymarked by white arrows painted on a tree.
[5] To arrive at this point from public transport in Stokenchurch, take the following footpath route, which is hilly in places and may take an additional 30 to 40 minutes each way. Near the bus stop a small road leads westwards off the main road signposted "Stokenchurch Business Park". Follow this road and, where it ends by bending right into business premises, carry straight on past a gateway and along a lane. Continue forwards until you reach a field. Take the field path across the field to a gate on the far side. Immediately beyond the gate the path diverges.
Take the left fork into the woods. White markers on trees indicate the route. After a kink in the path continue downhill - gradually at first and then more steeply. At the foot of the hill cross a private road. Ahead is an upward sloping field. Take the grassy path which leads forward and upward across this field until you reach a stile on your right. Cross the stile and follow white markers on trees on a path uphill through woods. The path (known as L20) eventually meets the main route at the path crossroads near [5]. Go straight ahead at this junction and follow the main route.
The path descends to a stile and across a field to a gate into a garden. Follow the left hand edge of the garden to reach a tarmac private road. Turn left on the road for 50 yards, looking for a small gap and gate in the hedge on your right. Pass through and climb the hill through the fields beyond, initially parallel to the hedge on the right and converging with a line of electricity poles to reach a gate adjacent to a "Wormsley Estate" sign and, further on, to a gate at the corner of Cowleaze Wood. Follow waymarks, ignoring several unmarked paths to the right. After a hollow on the left the path swings right. At a waymarked junction continue ahead to emerge in the car park.