Walking on Hampstead Heath
The benefits of walking are well documented, and Hampstead Heath is one of London’s prime spots for a gentle or more vigorous walk in nature.
As part of our Health Connections work on Hampstead Heath, we are therefore rolling out some exciting new walking projects on the Heath in 2023 - find out more below!
Regular Health Walks
As of January 2023, we have taken over the coordination of Hampstead Heath’s regular health walks from Camden Council. The health walks are informal social walks, completely free and they operate on a drop in basis - just turn up, say hello to the volunteer walk leaders (in yellow hi vis vests) and join in the walk, no need to book. They run every Monday (except bank holidays) as follows:
Longer (challenging) walk: meet at 9.50 for a 10am start at the entrance to the Heath opposite Hampstead Heath overground - this walk takes in the whole Heath (often going up to Kenwood), May go off the paths (so come prepared for uneven ground - comfortable footwear essential!) m and includes a stop at a cafe. You can expect to finish at around 11.30.
Shorter (leisurely) walk: meet at 9.50 for a 10am start at the Parliament Hill café - this walk is gentler and suitable for those new to walking, recovering from injury or illness, or who simply fancy a shorter walk! You can expect to finish at 11.
Nature walks
The health walks above complement our existing programme of nature and discovery walks on Hampstead Heath, details of which can be found on our events page. We regularly add events to the website, so do check back from time to time for updates on new upcoming walks and events.
If you would like to hear about events before they make it onto the website and get free access to our paid walks, do consider joining us as a Friend of Heath Hands to receive our regular newsletter as well as supporting our work.
Family birdwatching walk
Looking at pollinators on a nature walk
Nordic walking and more upcoming walks
Over the past year, we’ve been working in partnership with Queen’s Crescent Community Association to offer regular women-only Nordic walking sessions from our community hub, the Hive. These are taking a break for the winter months but will be back in action in the spring!
Thanks to funding from TfL’s Walking and Cycling Grants London, we are glad to say that we’ll be developing some additional walks on the Heath, focusing on increasing variety and reaching out to new groups - so watch this space for walks on different days of the week, as well as for different audiences, for instance family walks or women-only walks.
If you are a local group who would like to partner with us to set up a walk, do get in touch!
Nordic walking on Hampstead Heath
We hope to see you our on one of our walks soon and, in the meantime, if you’d like to explore walking on the Heath yourself, you can download a handy walking trails map or head over to our online shop to buy paper map of the Heath or the extremely informative Walking Guide to Hampstead Heath.
