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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, 27 March 2025

Evening Walk - Grand Union Canal and an Iron Age hillfort site in the Borough of Ealing: Perivale Circular via Horsenden Hill

Length: 5.3 km (3.3 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 95m
Net Walking Time: 1 ¼ hrs
 
Meet: Perivale Station at 18.45 hours. Perivale station is on the West Ruislip branch of the Central Line, and in Zone 4. Travel time from Bond Street is 24 minutes.
 
You hit the Grand Union Canal and walk along its towpath, then cross a couple of meadows to climb the mostly wooded Horsenden Hill (an Iron Age hillfort site) and descend to a pub. Retreat to the tube along a tarmac path, then a road pavement.
 
Eat/Drink: The Ballot Box at Horsenden Hill (a Hungry Horse pub, i.e.: Greene King, open to 23.00, food to 21.00).
 
For walk directions, map, and gpx/kml files click here . T=short.4

3 comments:

PeteG said...

Unfortunately, I can't come on this walk, but at the point where you turn right across the canal, there should be a gate into Paradise Fields and the Ealing Beavers.... https://theealingbeaverproject.com/paradise-fields/

Thomas G said...

n=3 evening regulars on this, on a w=fine evening.
Only residual mud to contend with along the route, more danger coming from speeding electric cycles on the canalside path and some very large assemblages of packed rubbish, from the lived-on boats moored there. We diverted into the Beaver Enclosure and ventured to where the brook crosses the path. From a map we saw later, it would be possible to get closer to the main pond where one should see some sign of the beaver's activites, if not the animals themselves. Next time...
On through some meadows and up the hill. Ample light was about, which was mainly coming from the Green Park Way Ventilation Shaft worksite of HS2. It looked like one of the Boring Machines was lying about there, although I always thought these were left in the ground once they had finished their stretch?
Not so, apparently: according to HS2's site, of the four TBM's that are completing the 13.5km Northolt Tunnel, TBM4 Sushila and TBM5 Caroline have already done their job, and have been/are being disassembled below ground and then lifted up. So, presumably it was parts of TBM Caroline that we saw.
Later on we passed some abandoned Lime bikes on the grassy descent from the hill, then had a drink and food stop at The Ballot Box and walked the lit tarmac path back to the tube.

Marion said...

https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/ealing-beaver-project-guided-walks-and-safaris-2831239

The beaver project runs guided walks on Saturdays- see next date of 26 April. Must book. The beaver activities are nocturnal but their tree demolishon activities and dams are there for all to see if you venture further into the wetlands just off the canal tow path. This evening walk would be perfect for viewing once you know where to look. Next time?