I must have driven past them at least a hundred times. Those four big mounds alongside the A40 near the Northolt roundabout. Watching the people walking up them whilst I was stuck in a traffic jam, vaguely thinking that they looked like an interesting place for a walk. Despite living only a couple of miles away at the time, we never quite got around to exploring them.
Having my sister and nieces come to visit for a few days is always a good encouragement to get out and explore somewhere new. Northala Fields, where the mounds are situated, was on my list of potential places and seemed like a good place for a walk on a sunny afternoon.
What I didn’t realise was that the mounds are only a small part of the park – from the A40 I couldn’t see the beautiful park behind them with its lakes and a big playground for the girls to explore. 27.5 hectares of open space, six interconnecting fishing lakes, a model boating lake, three wildlife ponds and two playgrounds.
The park first opened in 2008 and the four mounds were created using rubble from the original Wembley stadium. The tallest mound is 22m tall and we made a beeline for this, following the spiral path to the top. It was a very windy day and quite a climb for little legs but the two older girls were quite happy to take turns in carrying their little cousins whenever they got a little tired (and the toddler carrier came in very useful too!)
The view from the top was wonderful – being able to see across to central London. We spotted the BT tower, the Gherkin, the Shard and Canary Wharf and the girls enjoyed being able to watch the planes coming in to land at Heathrow Airport.
The two older girls decided that the next mound was ideal for trying some hill rolling. They tried to encourage Jessica to give it a try close to the bottom but she wasn’t keen on the idea!
We didn’t explore the area around the lakes as the prospect of getting an ice-cream from the ice-cream van near the playground was much more appealing!
Inside the playground area, Jessica enjoyed climbing some mini mounds whilst Sophie had fun going down the slide with her cousins.
A fun afternoon and definitely somewhere to add to the list of places to go for a walk – especially as there was so much of the park we didn’t get to explore this time around.
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I love how far you could see from that highest mound, truly impressive, I was trying to pick out the same landmarks from your photo, harder than in real life I’m sure! What fun for the girls to have their cousins too. Thank you for sharing a great place for a family day out on country Kids.
It is hard to pick out the landmarks from the photo – was definitely easier in real life. Lovely to link up to #CountryKids 🙂
Wow this looks like an amazing place! Looks like you had a ovely family day aout and you can really see the family resemblance with you and your nieces! xx
Thanks Caroline – it was a lovely day out and lovely to spend time with my sister and nieces too 🙂
Ah such a lovely, happy post. Love all the smily photos. This looks like such a fab place to spend a few hours!
Popping over from #CountryKids
Becky xx
Thank you – it was a fun afternoon out 🙂
Love the immense open-space! And as always, the girls are looking so cute in their photos 🙂 #countrykids.
Thank you. It was amazing – never realised how much space there was. Will definitely be going back at some point 🙂
Oh I think I know where that is but didn’t realise it was a park – might have to investigate when we’re next down there #CountryKids
It’s definitely worth a trip – I was amazed by how big it was 🙂
That’s a great place to know about. So nice to have such a great outdoor space to explore in London
Thanks Emma, it was amazing – will definitely be going again 🙂
Looks like a nice place for a walk. Love the girls’ ice cream faces. Happy times!
Thanks Mel – it was a lovely day out 🙂
I’m sure your daughters will enjoy hill rolling when they’re a little older. As an adult I sometimes watch my son with trepidation whilst he’s rolling down ever steeper hills but I’m pretty sure it’s a passage of childhood.#countrykids
Oh yes – I got quite nervous watching my nieces – perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing that Jessica wasn’t quite ready to join in!
Wow what a fantastic place and such a great discovery hiding behind those mounds. And so close to home too.
It looks like you all had a great time and lots of lovely pictures to remember it by too.
Thanks Jenni – we really enjoyed our day out 🙂
What a wonderful fun place that looks. I bet the mounds were a lot of fun along with the playground.
Love the ice cream face!
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
It was a lot of fun and the ice-cream went down very well! Lovely to link up to #LetKidsBeKids 🙂
Looks like you had a super lovely day. Loving the ice cream photos! 🙂
Thank you – we had a lovely time 🙂