Harsta three

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Walked from Harpenden to St Albans. An enjoyable route, the northern part is excellent and mostly quiet, the pavement walk from Sandridge to St Albans is a bit tedious but is at least safe and fairly direct.

From Harpenden station we follow Station Road into the centre, then take the alleyway left onto Southdown Road, staying on the east side of the green then crossing and taking the path right just before the Crabtree Lane roundabout. Beyond the first trees another well used path takes us left. We go straight across Walkers Road and into the wood on a wide path, bearing left beyond the trees.

Limbrick Road is quiet and popular with dog walkers, so no safety issue with walking on it. We follow East Common alongside the golf course and past a cricket field then turn left where one hole of the golf course is on the east side of the road. The GPX file uses the more direct of the two paths here but I opted to take the longer one which avoids the golfers. After rejoining the GPX route it gets quite muddy in places.

We turn left at Ayres End Lane then turn right on an unsignposted permissive path parallel to the railway, which leads us into Heartwood Forest. I did wonder why the route doesn't rejoin the footpath and take the more direct route across this access land, but the route is easy enough, with a few short wet or muddy patches. We turn left just before the far edge of the wood, then left again (a shortcut is possible here) to a good path through the trees that joins the footpath to Sandridge (there are a few steps where we join the footpath).

From Sandridge we follow the pavement on the right/west side of High Street/St Albans Road as far as the junction just before the railway bridge. Pelican crossings help us across the junction, and we cross the railway and turn left into Lancaster Road, then right onto Battlefield Road, going straight across Sandpit Lane and continuing onto Lemsford Road, taking the second of the two paths that cross the railway. The path between the football ground and the railway is not strictly a right of way - in the unlikely event that it is blocked there are alternative paths around the far side of the ground. A short section through Clarence Park leads to a flight of steps which we follow up to Hatfield Road where we turn left.

If it is busy there is a pelican crossing here, and we turn right into Station Way to find the meeting point outside the station.

I walked Harpenden to St Albans.
I enjoyed the walk very much as far as Sandridge, where I had refreshments in the pub by the church.
However, I really disliked the walk into St Albans along the B651, around 1.5 miles along a road (pavement) with a constant stream of fast cars whizzing up and down the hill.

It was unpleasant enough for me to make an alternative option Harsta Four, which is similar between Harpenden and Sandridge, and then follows a quiet green off-road alternative to St Albans through Jersey Farm Woodland Park, so more or less avoiding the B651. I recommend Harsta Four if you want the extra greenery and less busy B road.

Lovely walk! Much shorter than the other Harpenden to St Albans route (which was in Mike's 50 Least Direct Routes).

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