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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.

Thursday, 26 January 2023

Evening Walk - A dismantled railway line plus an undulating wood: Finsbury Park to Highgate (SWC Short 49 in reverse, map-led and w/o Highgate Wood)

Length:  6.3 km 
Ascent/Descent:  155/100m 
Net Walking Time:  1 ½ hours 
Toughness:  2 out of 10 
 
Meet at 18.30 outside Finsbury Park Station, Station Place/National Rail Exit (Victoria and Piccadilly Lines, Thameslink from St. Pancras and Mainline Rail from King’s Cross, Zone 2).  
Finish is at Highgate Underground (Northern Line, High Barnet Branch, Zone 3). 
 
Walk up from the transfer hub that is Finsbury Park along a dismantled railway line to Highgate, and either finish immediately or loop through the undulating Queen’s Wood, remnant of the ancient Forest of Middlesex, in one of the highest parts of Inner North London. Queen’s Wood has a wild, little managed and challenging feel and consequently features a great mixture of flora and fauna (which will admittedly be difficult to spot in the dark). 
 
Walk Options:
Finish at Highgate w/o going through Queen’s Wood: 3.7 km with about 80m ascent. 
 
Refreshments in Highgate:
The Boogaloo pub/bar or The Woodman pub.
 
For walk directions, photos, map, height profile and gpx/kml files click here.  T=short.49.b

1 comment:

Thomas G said...

n=6 on this walk in w=dry-and-not-too-cold weather.

We had a quarter-moon, so headtorches were only used for studying info panels along the dismantled railway and on a couple of occasions in Queen's Wood where the 'leader' thought he'd lost the route (but I don't think we ever did, it just looked different due to walking in reverse and w/o leaves on trees, ie with houses visible beyond the wood's boundary etc.). Muddy areas were mostly frozen, so it was quite easy walking.

3 finished at Highgate upon first getting there, and walked to The Woodman, waiting for the other 3 after they had also 'done' Queen's Wood. All had a meal.

Worked well, I thought, as an evening walk in the 'dark'.