I remember coming to Stanborough Lakes when I was a kid, but the memories are pretty vague. I moved to Welwyn Garden city around 10 months ago, and before I moved I was quite into off-road mountain biking (aka MTB ) with a mate of mine, James. Unfortunately his bike is no longer usable (long story) and my moving has meant we couldn’t just meet up in Whitewebbs, Forty Hall or Hilly Fields, as easily as we could when I lived in Enfield.

Today I decided to take a day off to get away from work, enjoy the sunshine and go cycling down to the lakes, and I’m so glad I did.

The two lakes are quite moderate in size, but not exactly huge. The north lake is used as a boating lake, and has a series of ‘islands’ in the middle of it. The south lake is used for lightweight sailing and wind surfing. Both are licensed for fishing. The lakes are each bordered on one side, and also separated, by a river. The water was surprisingly clear.

I also chose to venture off the main pathways to a few other areas of the park. The first area of note is the marshlands at the south end of the south lake. There were some pretty hairy, but beautiful, barrier-less man-made walkways across the marshes. Sure the water is only a foot or so deep, but knowing marshland (as I do to enough of a degree) it’d be no fun to be in it without some waders.

There was also a hilly set of fields to the north, with what I can only describe as a knoll. It was a peculiar shape at the top, like a horseshoe. So either it’s man-made, or there was some form of landslide at some point.

It doesn’t make for exiting MTB off-road action overall, but its really very pleasant and I’m very content to live less than 5 minutes from it. I’m sure I’ll be taking a fair few more trips down there.