Last year, I crossed something amazing off my bucket list… as you may have guessed from the title of this blog post, I visited the real Watership Down!
For those who potentially aren’t aware, “Watership Down” is a book written by Richard Adams, published in 1972, and tells the tale of a band of rabbits who seek to find a new home, after their original warren is set to be destroyed by men for the purpose of housing development. Not only does the story highlight the impact humans have on wildlife and the environment itself, inspiring a lot of the meanings behind my own artwork, but the book means a lot to me for other reasons. At its core, the story is about two brothers - Hazel and Fiver - and how they rely on each other. Without either character, there simply would be no story. The two complete each other - where Hazel has leadership skills, cunning, trickery, and confidence, Fiver has wisdom, and the ability to see visions of the future to come. Without Fiver, Hazel wouldn’t have been warned about the inevitable destruction of Sandleford (their original warren). Without Hazel, Fiver would have no one else who understands him and no one who believes in his visions. If you know me well, you’ll likely understand why this is a key element of the story which matters to me so much. It’s something I find incredibly difficult to talk about - so I’ll refrain from doing so here - but to simplify: this book saved my life, and provided me a distraction during the worst part of it so far.
So, naturally, when I found out that Watership Down is actually a real place and not just a made up setting for this wonderful story, I immediately added it to my bucket list - and last year, I finally got to experience it! And not only did we visit the real down itself, we also had time to stop at some of the other locations featured in the book, all of which shall be discussed below!
The Watership Down Inn!
The wall outside The Watership Down Inn - with a big rabbit portrait painted on the side!
With our trip taking place over the course of three days (two nights), we needed a place to sleep. What better place is there than a hotel literally called The Watership Down Inn?! The hotel is situated in Whitchurch, Hampshire, and not too far away from the real book locations. I was thoroughly thrilled to find out such a place exists, and I was even more excited to see this awesome rabbit wall-art upon our arrival!
We checked in and were soon shown to our room. As we had Fiver (my rescue greyhound companion with us), we’d booked a “Garden Room”, giving us easy access to the outdoors. I’d actually mentioned that we were bringing Fiver with us at the time of booking, specifically highlighting that he was named after the Watership Down character, so I don’t know if it was coincidence or pre-planned perfection, but we were actually allocated to Room 5!
The room itself was spacious and luxurious, and despite the cold December temperates outside, the warmth of the room was comfortably sealed inside, so we felt perfectly cosy! There was plenty of storage space for our luggage, a huge bed, and a TV situated on the wall opposite. As for the bathroom, I’ve never experienced such luxury! With huge mirrors and special lighting, I truly felt like a celebrity and so lucky to be staying in such a place!
Admittedly, we were absolutely exhausted after the four-hour journey to Hampshire from Lancashire, so after discovering that it was possible, we ended up ordering pizza straight to the hotel - instead of dining at the hotel itself, as was the original plan. Eating takeaway pizza in such a luxurious bed while watching a Christmas film, was a very surreal experience, but I genuinely loved every moment.
More rabbit-themed artwork at The Watership Down Inn
In the morning, we got up early to head to the breakfast dining room. There was plenty of “help yourself” options - with a variety of cereal, spreads and milk (including several different plant based options). We opted for a vegan cooked breakfast, which was nice (and it’s always a great thing to have our dietary requirements catered for), although I admittedly don’t remember the food very well as a result of being so eager to get outside. But either way, the meal set us up for the day - a day which we expected would involve a lot of walking!
The Journey Begins!
Holding my copy of Watership Down (and my very own bookmark, which I designed myself) at the memorial tree!
To avoid this blog post getting too long, I’ll summarise the walk in as concise a manner as I can.
Our adventure began about five minutes from The Watership Down Inn, where we found part of the River Test - which you may know is the same river the rabbits from the story use to escape General Woundwort and his owsla. I imagined a little wooden punt floating gently down the river, with many rabbits sitting inside, waiting to reach a place they could safely depart.
Afterwards, we made our way up Watch Lane, spotting and following the signposts for the “Watership Down Trail”, which eventually led us to where the real Efrafa would’ve been situated - at the crossing point of two bridle paths, known as the “crixa” in the story.
A wooden sign post featuring a sign for the Watership Down Trail!
We made our way down one of the bridle paths, taking us across a bridge over “the iron road” (train tracks). The pathway eventually led back to another portion of the River Test. We continued to follow the path and looped our way back to The Watership Down Inn for a quick rest stop, before getting into the car.
We then drove to the closest place we could park to the real Watership Down, a small car park on White Hill road. The walk up to the memorial tree took us about half an hour in total, although we did spend part of the walk admiring the abundance of red kites flying closely over our heads!
With it being December, the memorial tree was looking a little worse for wear - naturally so, considering it had lost all of its leaves for the winter months. I imagine the memorial tree looks spectacular in spring and summer, maybe even in autumn too when the leaves change colour! I suppose this gives me all the more reason to return to the down someday!
Fiver-Rah on Watership Down!
A wooden post surrounded the memorial tree, in which people had engraved some of the character names into its surface. In the photo above, you can see the name “Fiver” carved into the wood, with Fiver the greyhound posing before it!
It was amazing being at the real location, the place where the rabbits from the book made their forever home - a place that was safe and quiet, and where they’d be able to sense approaching danger from any direction!
To round off our day of book-location exploring, we drove to Nuthanger Farm (the farm where the wild rabbits release the hutch rabbits), where we also spotted the “iron tree” (pylon), situated on one of the fields in between the farm and Watership Down. If you’ve watched the 1978 animated adaptation of the book, you may remember the pylons being a key element in the “Bright Eyes” song interlude, the part where Fiver believes Hazel has been shot and seeks to find him. The way in which the pylons are animated during this scene has always stuck with me - there’s something hauntingly unsettling about them, yet also familiar and nostalgic.
Nuthanger Farm signpost
We then made our way back to the hotel for another rest stop before heading out for some tea!
Before heading home the following day, we stopped off at where it’s believed Sandleford warren would’ve been located - the home of the rabbits at the start of the story, and the warren which is eventually destroyed by men. Additionally, we also visited Richard Adams’ grave at Whitchurch Cemetery in Hampshire. Located close to the cemetery is an entire new-build estate, where the roads are named after references from the book (such as character names, like Fiver Close). It was a bit bittersweet to visit the estate. While it was cool to see the roads named after elements of the story, part of the book’s plot was to make a point of why humans have such a bad impact on wildlife, the environment, and the planet. It made me wonder how many animal lives had been disrupted in the building of the estate. Personally, as cool as the estate was, I’d rather have the natural landscape, with an abundance of wildlife inhabiting it. Although, I did still appreciate the references - it felt like a nice way to honour the importance of the story.
Plaque on the wooden post at the memorial tree on Watership Down
Well, that concludes my rundown of my bucket list trip to the real Watership Down! Earlier this year, I actually made a YouTube video which documented everything we got up to on this trip - in a more detailed way than I can type here! So if you’re interested in finding out more about the hotel or the walk itself, please feel free to check out the video, I’ll leave a link to it below!
I’ve also created a bunch of illustrations based on Watership Down over the years, the last one I created was actually to celebrate this trip! I actually don’t think I’ve illustrated any Watership Down fan-art during 2025… so I definitely need to make a mental note to create some in the new year!
Watership Down fan-art created after coming home from the trip
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post! Don’t forget to come back next Friday to see my next post!
Until then… Goodbye for now!
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