Bulwell Hall Park, Nottingham

As part of my not at all regular exploration of Nottingham’s green spaces, on Monday I headed with my Dad to Bulwell Hall Park, five miles to the north of Nottingham city centre. I hadn’t even known the place existed and my dad wanted to show me some places he went with my mum when they were first engaged. We drove there and parked in what was described as the overflow car park [free] just short of the track that leads to the car park for the golf course, which I also hadn’t realised was there. I actually worked in Bulwell many years ago but never really had time to explore the area. I spotted a bus stop for the No. 70 bus very close by to the entrance which would be the best way of getting there on public transport.

I was actually surprised by how big the park is – open grassland, lakes, wooded trails, streams, football pitches, plus a cafe and a children’s playground. The park is named for Bulwell Hall which was built in 1770 but demolished in the late 1950s. It had been taken over by the army in the Second World War and even served as a Italian POW camp. Interestingly the golf course next to the park was built in 1910 which means it’s one of the oldest golf clubs in Nottinghamshire. Personally I’m of the golf is a good walk spoiled school of thought.

You can tell that I wasn’t the one to plan this trip as we didn’t have a set plan of what route we were going to take, and ended up almost by accident doing a small loop of the park. There are some information signs and maps dotted around the paths with some trail markers as well which proved quite helpful.

At first we moved up to the entrance to the golf course and then veered off through trails to the right. The route up to the golf course, and cafe, is adorned with some quite cute metal sculptures of different types of birds, and the ground is littered with mole hills – we couldn’t help wondering if they venture over to the golf course too. We followed some tracks down to a large open space where we encountered quite a few dogs and their owners and the remains of some sculptures – I’ve seen pictures from a couple of years ago where they were looking considerably better than this and I think a lot of them have suffered from the weather. Speaking of, if you’re planning on visiting at the moment be advised that due to the unusually wet weather lately everywhere here is very muddy and even swamp like in places – our shoes and trousers were covered in mud by the time we got back to the car.

We then headed over this small bridge across one of the park’s streams and after traversing a lot of mud we managed to get onto a sturdier track that took us up to what used to be the RAF Aerodrome where my dad and his friends used to come and watch the planes – and avoid the military police patrolling to make sure no one took photographs! It was also here that we came across an entrance to Merlin Park, an area neither of us had known existed. Rather than explore through there though we decided to backtrack a little and make our way to the lakes.

The lakes are home to some extremely large swans (we decided not to get too close!) plus other waterfowl and also fish. Fishing is allowed here (and several people were doing so when we were there) but you have to return whatever you catch. [There’s also a sign that you musn’t use any offensive language, perhaps so as not to shock the fish with your vulgarity – it’s an official Nottingham City Council sign but I’ve never seen that wording on one before].

From here we followed several paths, some muddy, some blissfully not, and made our way back to the car park. It was actually a very nice place to visit, with very few people around and far enough from any roads that all you could hear was bird song. We spent nearly two hours there and you could certainly spend longer if you wished. Mud proof footwear definitely recommended.