  Our knowledge of the intrinsic properties of short duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
has relied, so far, only upon a few cases for which the estimate of the
distance and an extended, multiwavelength monitoring of the afterglow have been
obtained. We carried out multiwavelength observations of the short GRB 061201
aimed at estimating its distance and studying its properties. We performed a
spectral and timing analysis of the prompt and afterglow emission and discuss
the results in the context of the standard fireball model. A clear temporal
break was observed in the X-ray light curve about 40 minutes after the burst
trigger. We find that the spectral and timing behaviour of the X-ray afterglow
is consistent with a jet origin of the observed break, although the optical
data can not definitively confirm this and other scenarios are possible. No
underlying host galaxy down to R~26 mag was found after fading of the optical
afterglow. Thus, no secure redshift could be measured for this burst. The
nearest galaxy is at z=0.111 and shows evidence of star formation activity. We
discuss the association of GRB 061201 with this galaxy and with the ACO S 995
galaxy cluster, from which the source is at an angular distance of 17'' and
8.5', respectively. We also test the association with a possible undetected,
positionally consistent galaxy at z~1. In all these cases, in the jet
interpretation, we find a jet opening angle of 1-2 degrees.
