Oak Hill parkrun
- Chris Jeanes
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
This latest round of tourism was very last minute and impromtu, when a late invite from an old running buddie who has since moved north to Sheffield, advised us he would be back in the area with his partner (for one weekend only), to do the reverse London Marathon on the Saturday night and would we like to join them for a London parkrun. So we found ourself heading down to Oak Hill to join them both for parkrun and coffee. Not having had a lot of time to research I had very few expectations of this parkrun, other than I was expecting a hill, mainly because of the name. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to be greated with an all tarmac lapped course with a only a long gradual incline, rather than a proper hill. This was course number 72, so I am gradually closing in on my 3/4 cowell, and it was another enjoyable lapped urban park type parkrun, in shape and layout terms somewhat similar to Cassiobury, although less flat. [I first visited this parkrun on 26th April 2025]
Bit of History
Oak Hill park was originally part of the Monkenfrith estate and dates back to at least the 11th centuty when it was owned by the church. After the dissolution of the monasterires, it was sold into private ownership until being bought by East Barnet counil in 1930. Oak Hill House became the home of Oak Hill College along with some of the grounds but the majority of the grounds became Oak Hill park, which was officially established in 1933. Today, Oak Hill park is one of Barnet's premier parks and received a Green Flag Award in 2009-10. It has many facilities including outdoor gym, bowls green, football pitches, golf course, tennis courts, a multipurpose court, and a play area for toddlers.
Briefings
Unfortunately upon arriving at this parkrun I needed to make an urgent trip to the toilets so I am not sure if there was a visitor briefing but if there was then we missed it. However we made it back to the start from the toliets in time to catch the main briefing, and what a briefing it was! Every so often on our parkrun tourisms, we encounter an absolute legend of a run director and this one definately fell into that category. A superbly entertaining briefing (video of which can be found later in this article), covering all the usual topics. No PA system or Megaphone but she really didn't need either (although she did have a little stool for better visibility)! Firstly was a shout out to all the volunteers as well as an appeal for new volunteers, reminding us that as well as giving up a run, there are also roles which you can do while not missing a run. Also there was a fairly urgent call call out for volunteers for Sunday's Junior parkrun. parkrun really lives or dies with its volunteers so this is an important message. There was then a description of the course, which as I will come to shortly is a quite simple route, 2.75 laps anti-clockwise with a some inclines, and you really cannot get lost on this one. An instruction to keep left and let the faster runners to pass you on the right, she advised us faster runners are not bad people and don't be tempted to trip them up but instead give them a little cheer as they pass us. A reminder that parkrun is a run not a race, and that everbody is welcome whether they are runners or walkers, we were also reminded that we don't have exclusive rights to the park and to be respectful and courteous to other park users. She then gave instructions regarding the finish funnel and was very careful when reminding us all to please not be a Funnel Ducker! We were then all asked to raise our right hand and make a pledge that we would all hand our tokens back in, and if not we were threatened with a house visit later on that day to recover any wayward tokens. Usual rules around dogs and under 11s were given out as well as a reminder they have first aid and defib at the finish area, if they are needed (hopefully not). We were told the Cafe (on site) sells cake and we were all invited there after. Finally some shoutouts for milestones and birthdays, as well as shout outs to anyone doing the London, or vitual London marthons the next day, including our Run Director herself, as she was doing the virtual she encouraged us all to keep an eye out for her if we were in London and to give her a little push or feed her cake if we see her. After all that, we then took a walk to the start. Honesty please watch my video of the briefing, it really was such a good one and well worth a watch.
Course Description
One of the easier parkrun courses, 2.75 laps in an anti-clockwise direction. After the briefing which takes place at the finish area there is a joint walk to the start alongside the brook about 400m west of the finish. After the start the first turn is a left turn over the bridge and then right and then straight on until a sharp turn at the top of the park. This is quite nice because you get a good view here of all your running buddies either in front or behind you. It is then a largely straight run slightly uphill back to the tennis courts and finish area, taking a left turn at the finish area to take you back up to the start. As you can see on the screenshot of the route below, there are a few sharp turns but it is mostly long straight stetches. The incline starts just after the farthest North West point of the park and it is pretty much mildly uphill all the way back to the finish area, although there is a short downhill just before the finish itself. Once you have done 2.75 laps, don't forget to stop!
Difficulty
All tarmac, and a straightforward course, with not too much elevation to deal with, I'm going to give this a 2 out of 5. No real issues here. A short note that if you happen to be on the B course, which is used when the park is waterlogged or flooded involves much more of the hill and has at least twice the elevation of the summer course. I cannot rate it as I didn't do it, but it is just something to be aware of if you are planning a winter visit.
Elevation
For a parkrun with Hill in the name, I was expecting more elevation but although there was an incline it wasn't much to write home about, apparently there is an alternative course which takes in more of the hill, which is used mostly in winter if the lower part of the park is flooded. but we were on the regular course on the morning of our visit. The summer course has a total elevation of only 26m in ascent, there are two inclines each lap, the second incline slightly more than the first, but nothing to worry overly about. I understand the winter course is much hillier.
Parking, Facilities and Coffee
The cafe and toilets are a short walk away from the car park along a footpath leading south west away from the briefing and finish area. Word of warning if you want the mens cubicle it is a single toilet in an unlit room, if you are happy standing then there are urinals in the lit section of the mens toilets. No idea about the ladies toilets, I assume they are adequately lit. The cafe itself was good, with breakfast items and cakes. We used the car park on site, and there were plenty of spaces when we arrived about 20 minutes before the start. There is also an outdoor gym.
Other Points of Interest
I love seeing different parkrun's solutions to the problem of token sorting, this parkrun had some delightful little coloured buckets hung up on the outside of the tennis courts, in groups of 50 tokens at a time. A great idea, and I'm sure if helps with resorting after the event!
Summary
Great to meet up with old friends, and we all thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Oak Hill, was easily to get to, free parking, a very enjoyable brief by the entertaining run director, an enjoyable and fairly quick course which wasn't nearly as hilly as I was expecting it to be, all finished off with a coffee and a cake. Another great morning of tourism and I would happily come here again, although maybe not if the brook is flooded as the B course sounds like it might be much more challenging. Thanks to Oak Hill parkrun for a great day out.
Links
Link to official parkrun site for this course: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/oakhill/
My YouTube Video Review of this parkrun:
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