A deer park the size of a small town, walled in by Charles I in 1637 and still roamed by around 600 red and fallow deer. The Tamsin Trail circles it under ancient oaks, past ponds and woodland gardens, to a hilltop view of St Paul's ten miles away.
At 955 hectares, Richmond Park is the largest of London's royal parks and one of its great wild places: rolling acid grassland, bracken, veteran oaks hundreds of years old, and herds of deer that pay no attention to the city around them.
The Tamsin Trail runs right round the inside of the wall, a gravel path shared with cyclists. It is easy walking with gentle hills, and the best of the park lies just off it: King Henry's Mound, where a gap cut through the hedge frames the dome of St Paul's on the far horizon; Pembroke Lodge, a Georgian house turned tea room with a terrace over the Thames valley; the Pen Ponds in the middle of the park; and the Isabella Plantation, a woodland garden that explodes with azaleas in late April and May.
October is the peak of the rut, when the red stags bellow and clash across the grass. It is one of the great wildlife spectacles anywhere near a capital city; watch from a distance.
The Tamsin Trail is signed throughout. Detours to the highlights add a kilometre or two.
From Richmond station, walk up Richmond Hill, pausing at the terrace for the famous view over the Thames bend, to Richmond Gate at the top.
Turn right inside the gate into Pembroke Lodge gardens. On the mound, a telescope looks down a protected avenue cut through the trees to St Paul's Cathedral, 16 km away.
The Georgian lodge, once the home of Prime Minister Lord John Russell, now serves lunch and cakes on a terrace looking west over the Thames valley.
A short detour from the trail leads to the fenced Isabella Plantation, with streams, ponds and evergreen azaleas. Spectacular in late April and May.
The eastern side of the park is wilder, with huge veteran oaks and the deer often grazing close to the path. Cut across past the Pen Ponds if you want a shorter day.
Complete the circuit along the north edge of the park and walk back down the hill to Richmond's riverside pubs.
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Richmond station is served by the District line, the Overground and trains from Waterloo. Allow 15 minutes on foot up the hill to Richmond Gate.
Bushy Park, next to Hampton Court, has the same deer and a quarter of the people. Pair it with the Thames Path to Hampton Court.
Wildlife in the guide →
Upriver from Richmond to the Tudor palace.
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Parliament Hill's skyline view, Kenwood and the ponds.
Stepping stones, chalk slopes and a vineyard lunch.
Ancient pollards, Connaught Water and High Beach.
Beechwoods and the Coombe Hill monument.
Chalk cliffs from Seaford to Eastbourne via Beachy Head.
Wikimedia Commons photographs are used under their Creative Commons licences; Pexels photographs under the Pexels licence.
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