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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 2 April 2017

Sunday Walk – a rural walk in London's Northern Heights

Extra Walk 228 – Totteridge Circular
Length: 14.1 km (8.8 miles), with optional extension (see below). Toughness: 2/10

Take a Northern line tube (High Barnet branch) to arrive at Totteridge & Whetstone (in TfL Zone 4) by 11:00.

Although this walk starts from a tube station the notes insist that it's a proper rural walk through London's “Northern Heights”, while acknowledging that you won't completely escape some urban noises off. The walk author also claims that the area around Darland's Lake is particularly nice at this time of year, so be sure to address complaints to him – you know who he is! – if you don't get good displays of wood anemones or come across any snakeshead fritillaries.

I've started the walk a bit later than recommended but you should still reach the “efficient” Three Hammers pub well before 1pm. There are several tea options near the station or a little earlier in Totteridge village.

Extension to Cockfosters: 19.8 km (12.3 miles), 3/10. If it's a pleasant spring day I recommend taking the “Longer walk to Cockfosters” across more green spaces and wooded commons, plus a nice café in Trent Park for tea. On this extension you could choose to break off in High Barnet if you want to stick to the Northern line. Both of these stations are in Zone 5.

You'll need to print the directions from this pdf document.
T=swc.228

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did this walk today, 26 Mar, and can report both wood anemones and snakeshead fritillaries are plentiful and in full blossom.

Walker said...

They are indeed and cross fingers the blackthorn will also be in blossom by next weekend. It is seriously thinking about flowering as we speak.

Anonymous said...

n=16 ennjoyed this lovely 'Northern Heights' walk. w=sunny with intermittant clouds. I was impressed how rural the walk was. If it was not for the occasional road noise, it could easily be taken as one of the remote country walks. So well done for the walk author to introduce us to this undiscovered Northern Heights. Lots of flowers, wood anemones, snakeshead fritillaries, blackthorn to name a few enRoute. The lunch pub was value for money, with two course meals (Sunday roast and a few other options) at £11.95. Those who had fish and chips had a pleasant surpise - unadvertised promotion at only £5.49. In the afternoon, 3 opted for a longer version to Cockfosters, 4 had tea and cross buns at Walker's Castle and rest decided to head home. A nice day out in good company. Thanks Sean for posting it.