Parkland Walk is an extraordinary thing to find in London — it removes you from the city and carries you through it at the same time. You catch glimpses of buildings through the trees, everywhere little paths join it, allowing people to enter and exit from their streets of concrete and brick and stone. Each such path or stairway stands as a tantalising road not taken.

Never do you lose the feeling you have somehow escaped the city for a while into a cathedral of green.

It carries you along with quite a number of other people.

Past these wonderful ruins of the old train platforms

Through tunnels of leaves

Through tunnels of stone and brick, covered with a generally higher quality of graffiti art than I am used to in this city

past alcoves with sprites [as we found out later, a spriggan] smiling down on you

rounded towers and stairs Trees intertwined with brick

And nearing the end in Highgate, a meadow, with a dirt trail that invites you along

To find the bats:

Surely we can do this with all of our disused railway lines. A welcome breath of peace and beauty, a place for birds and wildlife, and a safe place to walk that many people can integrate into their daily routines, and the rest of us can enjoy from time to time.

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