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Nicola Baird’s husband Pete May with their two children enjoying Parkland Walk |
If you go down to the woods you’re sure of green surprise
Healthy family outings cost nothing in a recession if you are lucky enough to live near the Parkland Walk, says Highbury environmentalist Nicola Baird
FINSBURY Park may be a busy urban area but it boasts one of London’s best-kept secret wildlife sanctuaries, the Parkland Walk.
When my daughters, aged 10 and seven, want to play the answer is a stroll along the two-and-a-half mile walk up to the playground, oaks and hornbeam of Highgate Wood. It is ideal for unfit walkers – you follow a former railway line that is as flat as a
cow-pat.
You can wear normal shoes. It’s signposted (thanks to being one of the star routes along the 78-mile Capital Ring), so you can calculate your mile per minute as you zip through London’s longest nature reserve.
For those out of breath there are exits in Stroud Green, Crouch End and Highgate, with bus stops nearby.
You won’t be alone on the Parkland Walk but it still offers a slice of habitat heaven.
Even in deep winter, blackberry brambles are recognisable as are the fluffy wisps of Old Man’s Beard that hang like rainforest lianas from an assortment of pioneering trees – silver birch and sycamore – which sprang up when the railway line was closed in 1971.
There is no nature table at my kids’ school, so I try to cram the girls with plant ID – a hard task as there are more than 300 species known to be growing here.
Nell wants to see the muntjac deer, but keeps her eyes down looking for pottery on the path, ignoring Lola, an avid Agatha Christie fan, who tries terrifying us with grisly tales of murder dating back to the first steam train journey made here in 1867.
Without locals running a strong campaign, the Parkland Walk would have become a dual carriageway out of town in the 1970s. Instead, it is alive with blackbird alarm calls, joggers puffing towards their April Marathon training targets and off-road cyclists.
It’s here we spot Christmas presents on their first outing (bikes, trainers, silly jumpers) and envy London’s luckiest dog walkers.
We dawdle when the girls climb trees or scout for bird boxes. Our longest stop is at Crouch End, where the children challenge each other on the skateboard ramp, race to see the Green Lady in the brick embankments first and sniff for the scent of fox.
The route is long enough to feel like it’s doing your body good (especially if you hike home again).
There are work days for those who value green gyms. And if you cannot congratulate yourself with a cuppa from a thermos, there’s always tea at Highgate Wood café nearby.
My friends who’ve moved to the country email accounts of long holiday walks (all only reachable by car), thinking we are trapped in the city.
What they don’t realise is that London’s greatest secret is the myriad places people can watch bats, pick blackberries, spot mugwort, orchid and foxes – almost on our N4, N5 and N6 doorsteps.
And by the way we’ve also got fantastic bus services and late-night opening shops…
London: it’s the A-Z explorer’s way to get fit without spending cash or burning carbon.
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