We checked 10 Boxing Day walks near Barnet, from Monken Hadley Common to the Welsh Harp, for gates, toilets and trains on 26 December. Updated November 2026.
Overview
There are 10 Boxing Day walks in and around Barnet worth setting out for in 2026, and this guide puts them in one place with what is open on Saturday 26 December, where the toilets are and how to get there. Most people head for Monken Hadley Common and Jack’s Lake, Trent Country Park at Cockfosters, Totteridge Fields and the Dollis Valley Greenwalk. Every entry was checked against the owner’s own site on 13 November 2026.
The good news for Barnet is that most of its best walking has no gates to beat. The commons, the London Wildlife Trust’s meadows and the waymarked brook paths are open at all times, so the only clock that matters is the light: the sun sets at about 3.55pm on Boxing Day. Boxing Day falls on a Saturday this year, and the bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December.
Getting there is the other thing to plan. Last year the Underground and London buses ran a Sunday service on Boxing Day, which on the Northern line covers High Barnet, Totteridge and Whetstone, Woodside Park and Golders Green. Thameslink ran no trains at all on 26 December 2025, so Mill Hill Broadway and Hendon may be dead. Our Christmas travel page will carry the 2026 timetables when they are out in early December.
High Barnet, Hadley and Cockfosters
1. Monken Hadley Common and Jack’s Lake
The walk High Barnet does on Boxing Day: a wedge of oak, hornbeam and beech woodland about a mile and a half long between Hadley Green and Cockfosters, left over from the royal hunting forest of Enfield Chase. The London Gardens Trust records that the land was given to the villagers in 1777, when the Chase was enclosed, in return for their lost grazing rights; cattle grazed it until the 1950s.
It is owned and run by its Trustees, and its opening times are listed as “unrestricted”. Walk down from Hadley Green to Jack’s Lake at the Cockfosters end and back, or carry on into Trent Country Park for a longer day.
Open at all times; no gates are locked
Price free
Address entrances at Games Road, Hadley Road, The Crescent, Camlet Way and Hadley Green Road, Barnet, EN4 and EN5
Toilets none on the common
Access woodland paths, muddy in winter; New Barnet and Hadley Wood stations nearby, and buses 84, 184, 298, 299, 383, 384 and 399
Website londongardenstrust.org/conservation/inventory/site-record?ID=BAR054
Good for ancient woodland, Jack's Lake, dogs, a two-hour out-and-back
2. The London Loop, High Barnet to Cockfosters
The same country with a station at each end. This half of London Loop section 16 runs 6.5km on Go Jauntly’s route for TfL, from the upper exit of High Barnet station down Barnet Hill, through King George’s Fields, across Monken Hadley Common past Jack’s Lake and into Cockfosters.
The Ramblers’ route guide points out Livingstone Cottage, where a plaque says the explorer lived in the 1850s, and notes there are no public toilets on the way. Both ends are on the Tube, the Northern line at High Barnet and the Piccadilly at Cockfosters, so if last year’s Sunday service is repeated you can walk one way and ride home.
Open footpaths open at all times; unlit
Price free
Toilets none on the route
Access linear, 6.5km; one steep descent down Barnet Hill; mud on the common
Website innerlondonramblers.org.uk/ideasforwalks/loop-guides.html
Good for a station-to-station walk, signposted route, woods and a lake
3. Trent Country Park, Cockfosters
Just over the border in Enfield, and the safest bet on a day when everything else is shut. The Friends of Trent Country Park say the park “is open every day of the year”, from 8am Monday to Saturday, with the day’s closing time posted at the Cockfosters Road entrance; Enfield Council’s table puts it at about 4pm for the week of Boxing Day.
It is a 413-acre estate in the Green Belt, with a lime avenue, lakes, woods and the mansion on the hill, and a perimeter of roughly 4 miles. The Friends warn that the EN4 0PS postcode leads to a closed entrance, so use the main gates on Cockfosters Road, ten minutes’ walk from Cockfosters station.
Open every day of the year, from 8am on Saturday 26 December; gates lock from about 4pm
Address main entrance on Cockfosters Road, EN4; do not navigate by the EN4 0PS postcode
Parking two free council car parks inside the Cockfosters Road entrance, with disabled bays
Toilets by the main car park only; they close an hour before the park
Cafe cafeteria by the main car parks and a tea shop at the animal sanctuary; Boxing Day hours not yet published
Website friendsoftrentcountrypark.org.uk
Good for lakes, lime avenue, dogs welcome, long or short loops
Totteridge and Mill Hill
4. Totteridge Fields
Seven hectares of ancient hay meadows with old hawthorn hedges and veteran oaks, looked after by the London Wildlife Trust and crossed by both the London Loop and the Dollis Valley Greenwalk. The Trust’s page says it is “open at all times”, with “no steps or slopes”, though the footpaths are mainly unsurfaced and the clay holds water in winter.
It is a short, flat walk on its own, or the middle of a longer one along the Folly Brook. Dogs must be on a lead.
Open at all times
Price free
Address main entrance beside the Old Cholmelian Sports Club, Hendon Wood Lane, NW7 4HR
Parking street parking on The Ridgeway
Access level, kissing gates, unsurfaced paths; 251 bus to Totteridge Common; Totteridge and Whetstone station about 30 minutes' walk
Website wildlondon.org.uk/nature-reserves/totteridge-fields
Good for meadows, veteran oaks, flat, dogs on a lead
5. Darlands Nature Reserve, Totteridge Valley
Eighty acres of woodland, wetland, grassland and lake in the Totteridge Valley between Totteridge and Mill Hill. The Darlands Conservation Trust says the lake was desilted and restored, and the Mayor of Barnet reopened it in November 2024.
Public footpaths cross the valley and loop round the lake. There is no car park, so the Trust suggests coming on foot or by bus: from the Orange Tree or Totteridge War Memorial stops on the 251, from Burtonhole Lane on the 240, or along the Folly Brook from the Southover stop on the 326.
Woodside Park and Totteridge and Whetstone stations are both within walking distance.
Open public footpaths, open at all times
Price free
Address paths from The Close and opposite St Andrew's Church, Totteridge Village, N20; Burtonhole Lane, NW7
Parking none; limited street parking
Access field and woodland footpaths; buses 251, 240, 221 and 326
Website darlandsconservationtrust.org/explore
Good for lake, valley views, dogs, a quiet loop
6. The Dollis Valley Greenwalk
The borough’s own long walk, about 10 miles from Moat Mount in Mill Hill to the Hampstead Heath Extension, along the Dollis Brook and then the Mutton Brook, waymarked with white arrows on green discs (Long Distance Walkers Association). Nobody needs all ten on Boxing Day.
The stretch south from Woodside Park through Windsor Open Space towards Finchley is mostly flat and partly surfaced, which suits pushchairs; north of Woodside Park it can be very muddy. It passes under the brick arches of the Dollis Brook Viaduct, which carries the Northern line to Mill Hill East.
Totteridge and Whetstone, Woodside Park, Finchley Central and Golders Green stations all sit close to the route.
Open no gates; unlit
Price free
Toilets Totteridge and Whetstone is the only point on the route with shops and toilets
Access flat and partly surfaced south of Woodside Park; very muddy to the north
Website ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Dollis+Valley+Greenwalk
Good for brookside, buggies on the southern stretch, walk it in sections, dogs
7. Scratchwood and Moat Mount, Mill Hill
The wildest walking in the borough, at its top edge. Wikipedia describes Scratchwood as 57 hectares of mainly sessile oak and hornbeam, a remnant of the Middlesex forest that Hendon council bought in 1923. Next door, Moat Mount is about 110 hectares of hilly grassland and woods with wide views from the top and the Leg of Mutton Pond.
Together they are a Local Nature Reserve and the start of the Dollis Valley Greenwalk. Wikipedia records the Moat Mount car park on the southbound A1 as permanently closed; Scratchwood’s is reached from the northbound side near Stirling Corner, and there are footpath entrances on Hendon Wood Lane.
Open open access woodland; no published closing time
Price free
Address Barnet Way (A1) and Hendon Wood Lane, Mill Hill, NW7
Parking Scratchwood car park off the northbound A1 near Stirling Corner
Toilets none
Access hilly, rough woodland paths, muddy in winter
Website en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moat_Mount_Open_Space
Good for ancient woodland, views, a proper muddy walk, dogs
Golders Green, the Suburb and Hendon
8. Hampstead Heath Extension and Big Wood
The Barnet end of Hampstead Heath, where the Dollis Valley Greenwalk finishes. The City of London’s Heath has no gates, so the Extension’s sloping fields, old hedges and ponds are open whatever the date; the London Gardens Trust describes the listed Great Wall of the Suburb along the top.
Add a loop through Big Wood, which Wikipedia says has been woodland for over a thousand years, with entrances on Northway and Temple Fortune Hill. For toilets and a cafe, cross North End Road into Golders Hill Park, which the City lists as open 7.30am to 4.30pm from 16 November to 31 December; it does not mention Boxing Day.
Open the Heath Extension is open at all times; Golders Hill Park 7.30am to 4.30pm in late December
Price free
Address Hampstead Way and Wildwood Road, NW11 6UX
Toilets in Golders Hill Park, by the cafe and the zoo
Access Golders Green station is the nearest; grassy slopes, muddy in winter
Website cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/hampstead-heath
Good for open fields, ancient woodland, free zoo next door, dogs
9. The Capital Ring, Hendon Park to Highgate
A 5-mile walk across the south of the borough on the Ramblers’ section guide: along the River Brent and the Mutton Brook past the old duck decoy in Brent Park, through Hampstead Garden Suburb and East Finchley, and into Cherry Tree, Highgate and Queen’s Woods. The Ramblers describe mostly firm, level paths, with some steep, rough ground near Highgate.
The finish is in fenced woods: the City of London gives Highgate Wood a 4.30pm closing from 9 November and says it may shut at short notice in winds of 37mph or more. Start at Hendon Central by noon.
Open footpaths open at all times; Highgate Wood closes at 4.30pm
Price free
Toilets Highgate Wood (by the cafe and the playground) and Queen's Wood only
Cafe Highgate Wood's cafe; Boxing Day hours not published
Access linear, 5.6 miles with the station walks; Hendon Central to Highgate, both Northern line
Website innerlondonramblers.org.uk/images/RingandLoop/guides/CR11-hendon-park-to-highgate-Dec24.pdf
Good for a station-to-station walk, brooks, three ancient woods
10. The Welsh Harp (Brent Reservoir), West Hendon
The borough’s big sky. The reservoir was dug in the 1830s to feed the Regent’s Canal, is now owned by the Canal and River Trust, and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its wetland birds, among them great crested and little grebes and ducks.
The Trust says the floating nesting islands can be seen from Cool Oak Bridge or the picnic area beside it. A short walk runs from the Cool Oak Lane bridge along the waterside path.
There are no toilets, and the nearest station on a Boxing Day without Thameslink is Neasden on the Jubilee line, at the far end.
Open no published closing time
Price free
Address Cool Oak Lane, West Hendon, NW9
Parking limited and free, off Cool Oak Lane past the bridge, and off the North Circular at Edward Road and Woodfield Park
Toilets none on site
Access Hendon station (Thameslink) at one end, Neasden (Jubilee line) at the other
Website canalrivertrust.org.uk/canals-and-rivers/places-to-visit/brent-reservoir-welsh-harp
Good for birdwatching, waterside, a short walk, dogs on a lead near wildlife
How we chose
These are the walks Barnet people look for over Christmas that are open on Boxing Day, chosen from the owners’ and route-makers’ own pages: the Monken Hadley Common Trustees and the London Gardens Trust, the Friends of Trent Country Park, the London Wildlife Trust, the Darlands Conservation Trust, the City of London, the Canal and River Trust, the Ramblers’ guides for TfL and the Long Distance Walkers Association. Our year-round guide to walks near Barnet has more on each route, and Christmas in Barnet has the rest of the season, from carol services to where to eat on Christmas Day. For a pub lunch afterwards, see our guides to Barnet pubs and Sunday roasts in Barnet, and for the rest of the month, what’s on in Barnet and things to do in Barnet.
Run a place that should be here, or spot something that has changed? Email newsdesk@barnetlive.co.uk. Taken a good photograph of any of these places? Email it to newsdesk@barnetlive.co.uk and we will add it with your name as the credit.
Frequently asked questions
Which walks near Barnet are open on Boxing Day?
Most of the best ones have no gates at all. Monken Hadley Common’s opening times are listed as unrestricted, Totteridge Fields is open at all times, the Darlands reserve is crossed by public footpaths, and the Dollis Valley Greenwalk, the London Loop and the Hampstead Heath Extension never close. Trent Country Park is open every day of the year, from 8am on Saturday 26 December. Fenced parks such as Golders Hill Park and Highgate Wood lock at dusk, around 4.30pm.
What time does it get dark on Boxing Day in Barnet?
Boxing Day 2026 is Saturday 26 December, and the sun sets at about 3.55pm. Trent Country Park’s gates lock from about 4pm that week, with its toilets closing an hour earlier, so set off by 1.30pm for anything longer than an hour. The commons, fields and footpaths are unlit.
Are there Tubes and trains to the walks on Boxing Day?
Last year the Underground and London buses ran a Sunday service on Boxing Day, so the Northern line to High Barnet, Totteridge and Whetstone and Golders Green, and the Piccadilly line to Cockfosters, should be running. Thameslink ran no trains at all on Boxing Day 2025, so do not count on Mill Hill Broadway or Hendon. TfL and Thameslink publish their 2026 plans in early December.
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