The Friends of Rowntree Park have two new tree trails released in Summer 2020.
An adults 20 tree trail (1.5 km) walk around the park -suitable from prams and come wheel chair accessible too. We also have a children’s ‘little legs’ trail that takes 20-30 minutes.
The trails were planned by some of our Young Friends of Rowntree Park during Covid ‘lockdown’ and drawn by locals artists.
Rowntree Park has a wide variety of trees
Sadly the old council tree trail had been out of date for many years, with trees no longer there. We had wanted to design new trails for a couple of years. However, during lockdown when a Year 5 school task happened to be tree and leaf identification, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some of our Young Friends of Rowntree Park involved. Matthew Banham and Ida Gaines, with help from Ted Gaines and Noah Banham, spent time identifying the many trees in the park. To our surprise we found over 40 varieties of trees! The children help plan a route than also created a pleasant walk around the park, taking people to areas they may not always explore.
Artists – Rowntree Park Tree Trails
Local artists volunteered to draw up the maps and leaflets. The illustrations are really lovely, and helpful! The adult trail was designed by Sarah Cooper at StudioThirtyTwo and the children’s trail by Ellie Lewis at Nutkin Avenue. Both artists also have their own online shops for cards and other art, do check them out!
Where to get the Rowntree Park Tree Trails
The tree trails are both available from Rowntree Park Reading Cafe (open 10-4pm) and are just £1 each. All profit goes back into our volunteer work in maintaining and improving the park for the community.
Once you have your leaflet, the trail starts near the cafe and you look for wooden numbered discs high up on the tree trunks.
We hope you enjoy the tree trail, we really enjoyed making it!
