24 March 2009
Walk the Parkland Walk
The Parkland Walk is a four and a half mile walk in 'parkland' between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace. Also known as the Northern Heights, the walk passes through Islington and Haringey and is a designated nature reserve.
The path was originally the line of the London and North Eastern Railway, and you can still see 'ghost' stations along the path. Following the closure of the original line, it was proposed to include it in a branch of the Northern Line but when the Second World War came along these plans fell by the wayside. Due to the linear nature of the former railway line, the walk is very long and thin with small patches of green space on either side of the path.
The Walk connects Finsbury Park, Stroud Green, Crouch Hill, Highgate, Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace and even has its own 'Friends of the Parkland Walk' group, who have been dedicated to protection of the resource since 1988. From the Haringey Council Website, we learn that this is 'London’s longest Local Nature Reserve', which is a pretty weak claim to fame, but it is a fairly pleasant walk away from the road and the altitude sometimes even gives some good views.
The walk is also a haven for plants and wildlife and along the route you might see oak, ash, birch, hawthorn, cherry, apple, holly, rowan, sycamore and yew trees, michaelmas daisies, golden rods, buddleia and guernsey fleabane, 22 species of butterfly, hedgehogs, slow-worms, foxes and even muntjac deer (though it is very unlikely you will see all of them).
Click here to see the walk on a map.
For more information visit the Parkland Walk website at http://www.parkland-walk.org.uk/.
The path was originally the line of the London and North Eastern Railway, and you can still see 'ghost' stations along the path. Following the closure of the original line, it was proposed to include it in a branch of the Northern Line but when the Second World War came along these plans fell by the wayside. Due to the linear nature of the former railway line, the walk is very long and thin with small patches of green space on either side of the path.
The Walk connects Finsbury Park, Stroud Green, Crouch Hill, Highgate, Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace and even has its own 'Friends of the Parkland Walk' group, who have been dedicated to protection of the resource since 1988. From the Haringey Council Website, we learn that this is 'London’s longest Local Nature Reserve', which is a pretty weak claim to fame, but it is a fairly pleasant walk away from the road and the altitude sometimes even gives some good views.
The walk is also a haven for plants and wildlife and along the route you might see oak, ash, birch, hawthorn, cherry, apple, holly, rowan, sycamore and yew trees, michaelmas daisies, golden rods, buddleia and guernsey fleabane, 22 species of butterfly, hedgehogs, slow-worms, foxes and even muntjac deer (though it is very unlikely you will see all of them).
Click here to see the walk on a map.
For more information visit the Parkland Walk website at http://www.parkland-walk.org.uk/.
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It is also something of a Grafitti gallery (In a nice way).
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