Elthorne Park and Waterside
An attractive walk around meadows, woodland and the Grand Union Canal with a few information boards on the route.
- Start and finish: Main entrance to Elthorne Park on Boston Road
- Distance: 3.2 km (1.98 miles)
- Transport:
- Parking: Fairly easy outside the park
- Facilities: Corner House Café and shops on Boston Road a short distance from the park entrance towards Hanwell; Harvester restaurant 0.5 km in the other direction
- Accessibility: This walk is not suitable for wheelchairs
Directions
- Turn left at the Sarsen Stone (where there is an information board) and follow the perimeter of the formal park until you see 2 yellow bollards.
- Go through these, turn right and go past a metal gate into the large area known as Elthorne Waterside where you should beware of rabbit holes, as they are abundant here.
- Keep to this gravel path as it goes past the brick-built 'Mosaic Trail' plaque and a granite sculpture, and then goes downhill.
- At the bottom, go straight across at the junction, and then, near the road, go down some steps on to the canal towpath and turn left. Be careful here – the path is a bit narrow initially.
- Follow the path between the canal and a ditch (where you might see water voles) until you come to Osterley Weir, where you cross over the weir on a footbridge to Osterley Lock Island.
- Here you might see herons, kingfishers or cormorants and there is a picnic spot beside Osterley Lock on the island, which is an attractive wooded spot with a maze of little paths.
- Carry on the towpath until you cross another footbridge and then turn left before the motorway flyover.
- Take the path beside the river and then follow it uphill through woodland.
- At the first junction (at the top of the hill), turn left and follow the path round the edge of a plateau with woodland on your left and playing fields and meadows on your right.
- This whole area used to be a rubbish dump with refuse arriving from central London along the canal and now it's a haven for birds and wildlife.
- Walk past the sculpture of a deer, which was erected in the park in 2000, then on in between two fenced-off areas.
- After the path goes downhill, go straight across at the junction and keep the scout hut on your left.
- Go uphill and, at the first junction, turn right to stay inside the park.
- After the houses, turn left through a wooden gate into Elthorne Park again.
- Keeping to the left, walk past the tennis courts and the playground around the edge of the park till you come to where you started.
- If you've time to spare to make up an hour's walk you can always do another circuit of the small formal park.