London Heathrow, Harmondsworth Moor Running Route

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Length: 4.5 km (2.8 miles), terrain has light hills


London Running Routes:
Best London Running Routes: Overview
Thames Embankment
Docklands-LimehouseRegent's Canal and Camden Town  
Hampstead Heath  
3-Parks Route: Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James' Park  
Regent's Park  
Hyde Park   
Chelsea
Heathrow Harmondsworth Moor  
Greenwich 
Richmond Park
Notting Hill
Victoria Park
Wimbledon Common Trail Run
Royal Docks/ExCeL Route 
Kew / Brentford Thames Run  
For more running routes, see Route List. 

If your company hates you so much that they book you into airport hotels, you should probably just sit down and cry right there, wherever you are at this moment. A whole world full of great towns and countryside is just waiting to be explored -- and there you are, squeezed between freeways, jets thundering overhead, and diesel fumes lingering in the parking lots of those bunker-like structures euphemistically called hotels.

NOTE: see the Destinations Tips page for tips about spending your free time in this great town!
 
My new employer was obviously trying to tell me something that I don't want to hear when they sent me off to stay at the Sheraton Heathrow on my very first week of work this past week. London -- the most fun-, interesting-, greatest city around -- was just a stone's throw away, but I was stuck out at the airport.

Making the best of this disaster, I went running in the green area just behind the hotel, north of Heathrow, and to my complete surprise, I found (relative) paradise. Harmondsworth village is just separated from the hotel by one field. And there is rolling parkland stretching west of the village, called Harmondsworth Moor, full of public footpaths, streams, hills, lakes and swampy ecosystems.

Harmondsworth Moor pond

The park is hemmed-in by the M25 motorway along its western edge, the M4 to the north, and the A4 (Bath Road with the hotel) on the south. The park was created in the year 2000 on an old landfill, and they did a decent job of bringing back nature here. The only problem is that it's LOUD, with the nearby freeways and non-stop jet takeoffs. Deaf people will think it's true paradise, but the rest of us can fake it. For a few morning's runs, though, it's a welcome surprise.

The Wraysbury River flows through the park

And the Harmondsworth village center has a real pub (the Five Bells, plus the less scenic but just as friendly Crown across the street), a beautiful old church with its churchyard full of hulking old yew trees, and even a manor-house of sorts, Harmondsworth Hall, which is a guest house now, for those few privileged people who know better. All of this will cease to exist when runway 3 gets built. Public protests have fended it off for now, but the village is living on borrowed time, as the regulars will sadly tell you if you spend an evening in the Five Bells, which I would heartily recommend.

If you're staying at the Sheraton Heathrow (don't mix this up with the GOOD Sheraton, the Skyline, down at the other end of Bath Road -- route A4), just follow this route to running heaven. Other hotels such as the Thistle, Heathrow Lodge, Arora and Holiday Inn Bath Road are also close to this route:

Heathrow Harmondsworth Moor Route
Walk out to the street in front of the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, and just turn right, and run westwards to the end of the hotel property (the parking lot). Right there between the parking lot and the next building, there's a little paved footpath heading north to your right. Head up the footpath. The building on the left seems to be a prison (although it's hard to distinguish from the other airport hotels). Just run up the path, but watch out for the squashed rat! An open farm-field will soon open up on your right, behind the hotel.

After the field, the path goes through a green gate and then splits the village recreation fields. Turn left at the gate and run diagonally across the green lawn towards the northwest corner of the park, keeping the houses to your right. You'll see another green gate between the last rows of houses. Follow the street until it runs into a little road after just one block, Moor Lane.

Now, turn left on this road and you'll run straight into the moor, about a kilometer ahead. Ignore the 2 different barriers in the street, including the blocked bridge, just keep going straight on the footpath. You'll pass some foot trails that cut off to the left and right at various times, going to several parts of the moor, but we'll ignore them. You'll hear the M25 motorway straight ahead getting louder. The road ends at a wooden fence where a wooden waymarker points to Joan's Bridge to the south (left) or West Drayson village just 1.5 miles to the north (right).

Waymarker to Joan's Bridge

You could go either direction here. Let's go south, following the sign towards Joan's Bridge. There is a ridgeline along the west side, close to the motorway. You can use it for some hill work. It's less noisy to stay down closer on the left, though, following the Wraysbury River, with its swamps and pond. When you see the wooden bridge over the river, cross it, and turn back north again, heading back towards the waymarker. Back at the waymarker, you could head back to the hotel from here or continue going north to do a loop of the north end of the park first. Decide on how much distance and time you have.

Along the ridge

As a historical note, the big granite blocks that you see scattered around the landscape are left over from when they tore down the old Waterloo Bridge in 1935. Too bad that they couldn't think of anything better to do with them.

When heading out Moor Lane back to the village, instead of turning right on the first street, back to the recreation field again, keep going straight into the village to take a look. In just a few blocks you'll see the Five Bells pub on the left. Turn left there and you'll find the old church right behind it, and its ancient churchyard (Mr. Cox, who bred the tasty Cox apples is buried here, I'm told). The church is very English: built of split flintstones, with their glassy surfaces reflecting the light, and a solid oak portal at the front door. The churchyard is full of impressive deep-green yew trees.

The Harmondsworth village green, churchyard in background

So now that you know where the pub is so that you can get a decent beer this evening, you can head home. Cross the street, going through the tiny square in front of the pub, and continue down Summerhouse Lane, the side-street next to the little Gable Stores grocery. You'll run past Harmondsworth Hall on the right (remember? that historic hotel that your company's travel agency people book for themselves, so there's no room left for you) and then into a suburban neighborhood. The street will curve to the right, but just go straight on the footpath between the houses. You'll soon be back at the recreation fields, where you turn right and follow the path right back to the hotel parking lot.

In the Harmondsworth Hall guest parlor: is this an airport hotel?

NOTE: As an alternative, when running out towards the moor from the village, you can turn right at the waymarker pointing to "The Ring". This way circles clockwise around the north end of the village, and ends up back in the village churchyard. Follow it north, cross the wooden bridge to Saxon Lake, and then follow the path to the right, along the south shore of the lake. At the east end of the lake, the path turns southward and heads directly back to the churchyard. 

Saxon Lake at sunset