Alexandra Palace & Highgate Wood loop from Finsbury Park

Starting out (and ending) at Finsbury Park station, after a short bit of Finsbury Park itself, off along the Parkland Walk (South) Nature Reserve. This is along is decommissioned old rail line from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace. Those who have done the Capital Ring section 12 will be familiar with it as it the bit that bridges Finsbury Park and Highgate. After that, through the Queens Wood, and then Highgate Wood - both of which feature in section 11 of the Capital Ring. For variety, I choose a different route that the Capital Ring to see more of the woods, skirting the outside of Queens Wood, and up the edge of Highgate Woods. I then picked up the second part of the old rail line - Parkland Walk (North) Nature Reserve, which was the bit that ran from Muswell Hill Road to Ally Pally. This leads into Alexandra Palace, and a walk up to see the building itself. Opened in 1875, it was the People's Palace, a grand building to serve as a centre of recreation and entertainment. In 1936, it was home to the first regular television broadcast of the BBC, and has a large transmission tower at the end of one wing. Today it plays host to concerts, conferences, exhibitions, ice skating, ice hockey and has pubs and restaurants (and outside the building, a boating lake). Leaving the park, I pick up the path of the New River. Opened in 1613, it is an artificially created waterway to deliver fresh water to London (a role it still delivers on to this day, providing 8% of London's fresh water). I include a walk down Harringay Passage, a narrow alley running for almost a mile between rows of houses. It sits on top of an old sewer, so wasn't built on to give access to the sewer. The final bit is through Finsbury Park, which is also included in Capital Ring section 12, but I took a different route, skirting around the edge of the park and back to the train and underground station.