Countryside Management Service

Bunkers Park

Walk your way to a Healthy Herts

Distance:	3.5 or 5km (2 or 3 miles)
Time:	Short route - about an hour Longer route - ;1½ hours
Rating:	Easy
Starting point:	Any point on the route eg: Leverstock Green Village Hall show me on a map

Route description

The circular walk shown here will take you right around Bunkers Park, and has an optional "dog-leg" into the neighbouring Long Deans Nature Reserve. It may be joined at any point and walked in either direction. The dotted line on the map shows the route and there are also waymark posts with this arrow along the way.

The circular walk is 3.5 km long (2 miles) and should take about an hour to walk. The Long Deans spur adds about another 1.6 km (one mile) and will make your walk about half an hour longer.

Bunkers Park was given to Dacorum Borough Council by the New Towns Commission for leisure and amenity use. You may walk anywhere you like in Bunkers Park, except where signs indicate that ground nesting birds (such as skylarks) are being protected from disturbance.

If you are walking with a dog, please clean up after it. Please also make sure you keep your dog on a lead if there are cattle grazing in Long Deans - this is for the safety of your pet as well as that of the livestock.

Points of interest

Bunkers Park was farmed from Roman times until the 1990s. Now the area has been replanted to provide a haven for wildlife and the people of Hemel Hempstead.

In 1996 the land was ploughed and re-seeded with grasses and wild flowers. These make a wonderful habitat for declining bird species such as the corn bunting, yellowhammer, song thrush and the skylark, which is pictured on the Bunkers Park logo. The birds eat the seeds of the flowers and grasses, and also feed on the many insects which can thrive because there are no pesticides used here.

Bunkers Park is developing into one of the most important butterfly habitats in Hertfordshire, with twenty five species recorded at the last count.

This walk is supported by the Dacorum NHS Primary Care Group and Dacorum Borough Council

Rights of Way symbols you might see

	Yellow arrows indicate footpaths for pedestrian use only
	Blue arrows indicate bridleways for horse riders, cyclists and pedestrian use only
	Red arrows indicate Byways Open to All Traffic (BOAT) for horse riders, cyclists and pedestrians and may be legally used by other wheeled vehicles
	Black arrows indicate Roads Used as Public Paths (RUPP) for horse riders, cyclists and pedestrians and may be legally used by other wheeled vehicles

More about Rights of Way

Maps

This map is based on Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Hertfordshire County Council 100019606 2004.

The Ordnance Survey mapping included within this web-site is provided by Hertfordshire County Council under licence from the Ordnance Survey in order to fulfill its public function to provide information relating to its activities, services and plans. Persons viewing this mapping should contact Ordnance Survey copyright for advice where they wish to license Ordnance survey mapping for their own use.

See the Ordnance Survey site for more information.

This is is one of a series of walks through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) supported by the Chilterns Conference.

Please be considerate in the countryside - keep to footpaths, especially through crops, and leave farm gates as you find them.