Hello everyone,
This is something a bit different for you all this week, and although the sound quality isn’t great, etc (filming at home is harder than I thought), I hope you like it.
People probably don’t agree with some choices, but where’s the fun in conforming and saying ‘Yeah, Fountains Abbey is the best.’ Yawn.
I hope this encourages you to visit some of my favourites. I should probably offer some honorable mentions that haven’t made the list, but I won’t.
Loads more parkruns for me to get involved with, and this list is ever going to evolve, at present, I’ve done 106 parkruns in 85 locations, so I’m experienced but there will be others out there who’ve done many more.
Please share, it’ll hopefully help others. If you can, leave a comment on some suggestions for me. As always, I’d love it if you could subscribe to my channel and help it grow.
The more people running, the happier I am. I think parkrun is such an easy and great stepping stone into running and I really just want to help as many people realise that as possible. Even if you only watch or do park runs for the cafe experience like me, you can’t go wrong.
Thanks,
Grant
Introduction – 00:00-01:21
10 – 01:21-02:06
9 – 02:06-02:36
8 – 02:36-03:07
7 – 03:07-03:50
6 – 03:50-04:37
5 – 04:37-05:13
4 – 05:13-05:57
3 – 05:57-06:42
2 – 06:42-07:41
1 – 07:41-09:13
Goodbye – 09:13-10:14
43 Comments
What would you say is the friendliest parkrun you have done?
Volunteering role reviews, prehaps the next angle
Loved your top 10, I’ve done about five of those. Nice to see Cumbria featured. Some to do in 2025.
Surprised to have done and have on my wish list quite a few of these. Would argue that The pastures is not the most northerly in the country Bressay is and it would make my top 10 list for all criteria and has carrot cake and an amazing local staffed early by parkrunners cafe. Added a couple of these to my to do list too. Thanks
Going to add these Lake District ones on. They look good.
Just hit 70 different PR’s yesterday so I’m needing locations beyond the north east 😂
International I can recommend if you haven’t run them…
Bos park, Amsterdam
St Anne’s Dublin. In fact you could get carrot cake in the main cafe or the food festival they had on 😂.
Thanks for all the content helps me recce ones I haven’t done
You should come to our parkrun Haigh woodland parkrun in Wigan. It's a beautiful trail run with fantastic amenities.
Enjoyed this. I've only been to 3 different parkrun locations, but Talkin Tarn is one and would agree it's a good one.
Great video . Thank you. Really interesting and given me some thoughts for tourism this year. What was no 8 I didn't catch the name and do you have the list somewhere? ( sorry if I've missed that !!)
I’ve not done any of your top 10, so some good recommendations, thanks! 👍🏼
10 nice ones there and really well presented/structured. The Pisa one looks amazing, I've also seen the full course video on the run parkrun wirh me channel. I need to catch up.on your back catalogue I guess.
I think you might need to bite the bullet and rest for a couple/few weeks if your hip isn't recovering while running.
Cute picture of a cat in the background there ❤
Hey Grant! Emma here, the Event Director at Dalby Forest parkrun. So so psyched to see us at number 3. Thanks so much for coming to visit us. Hope to see you there again. Love watching your videos, thanks for all you do to add to the parkrun psyche. 🤘🏼
This top 10 is like a highlight series of your videos, many I've yet to watch. This one looks like doing good numbers / subscribers too.👍
My top 3 out of 20 locations, in no order:
Middleton Woods: The bike park can be busy but the café after does carrot cake. I've seen prosecco brunches on the menu… perhaps if you're celebrating.
Frickley Country: Don't let the zig-zags put you off. The hills are out of the way early, nice trails thereafter. Free parking is good. You can pre-order butties at the football pavilion. Everything on hand, close to the start / finish.
Kettering: I have never run on so many different surfaces in a parkrun. Tarmac, hardpacked trail, grass, pontoon bridge, railway line… Two and a bit laps with two ups but three downs 😁 Paid parking, excellent toilets. The venue is in a little amusement park perfect for kids. However, limited rides and cafes in the close season when I was there.
Honourable mentions: Queen Elizabeth for most entertaining briefing. Pie Shed café in Mirfield, Dewsbury is a nice parkrun but lacks a café – big cakes and breakfasts here.👍
Interesting list. All a bit far north for me but hopefully I can tick some of them off in the future.
I have run a section of the Tyne Green course (sadly on a non-parkrun day) but it is very pretty.
Love this – mentions my home run of Dalby Forest and my original home run of Sewerby. Are you at Albert Park on here?
Talkin Tarn and Fell Foot are fantastic. Williamson Park in Lancaster is even better
Great video Grant. We've not been to a few on your list so you've given me some good ideas. Sowerby looks amazing. I think Fountains is our favourite but Tyne Green was amazing when we went
I'm based in the south so not done any of these – my favourite round here is Durlston, closely followed by Moors Valley.
Great video Grant. And now some food for thought for those of your 10 I haven't yet done. Nice to see a "top ten" steering away from a lot of the usual suspects and I agree that Tyne Green is an underrated gem of a course.
Tyne Green is also one of my favourites. Cafe Enna at Tyne Green ( the Tyne Green golf club club house) does a cracking bacon sandwich and lovely coffee. If you’ve got some time on your hands next time, you could try there. No carrot cake unfortunately but you could do a second stop at Grant’s for that 😊
Hi Grant nice work some more hidden gems I hope to discover one day!
My favourite used to be Hillsborough in Sheffield, to be honest since the run director left it's not quite the same. He was a legend. Great course good vibes and well worth a visit!
The best course I've done is Wakefield, one loop hilly, mixed terrain and really good fun, fairly challenging too.
I can't comment on cafes near them unfortunately haha.
Keep up the good work and best wishes for 2025!
Great video! I love The Pastures. When I was at school in Northumberland it’s where we had the area Cross Country Championships so it was nice to go back as an adult many years later! Did it on Christmas Day 2023 and was knee deep in mud! 😂😂😂.
Really want to do Talking Tarn and Fountains Abbey!!
Glad to see Sedgefield up there. I did my first ever run/Parkrun yesterday at Sedgefield. Watching your videos over the last week inspired me to take the plunge and do a Parkrun, it was absolutely freezing, it nearly killed me, can't walk today but I loved it and will be back either at Sedgefield or Durham next Saturday 😁 Thank you Grant for your inspiring videos.
Nice video, I have only done one of your top 10 so will have to try and visit the rest
Personally I have developed a particular liking for some of the smaller events, I find them to be some of the friendliest with a great community feel (and often some of the more challenging)
Thanks for volunteering on Saturday, I gave you a quick shout at the end but didn't want to disturb your timing!
We're off to do Lucca in 2 weeks!!!! 😊
Need to sort the sound out, or at least put captions on, couldn't catch half the names of the runs, sorry.
"Parking very convenient" – and that's for the favourite one at #1. Pretty well gets a mention in every one of the top ten. For the love of Allah, Grant, will you cut the parkrun charity and its charitable aims requirements some slack and at least acknowledge what parkrun tries to provide, and not just talk about your own ways of travel and your ease of parking just a little bit. So for your next challenge – get to 5 parkruns using foot, bike, bus, scooter, e-bike, train or a lift share, and then share how schit it was and why parkrun is wrong to promote those alternatives.
Made it in a yt video🤣, I'm the guy in the middle at the front with bright alphaflys on at my go to park run, Albert park, ran a 18:15 but my PB there is 16:54🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️
Loved Lucca which I did a few years ago and can see why you chose it. Have done Dalby, Fountains and Sowerby, but will look to add some of the others to our tourism list. Thanks for the video.
So glad you have Sewerby in your top 5, I’m biased but think it should be higher! Love Dalby Forest too and it is extra special on Christmas and New Year’s Day!
I can't see any south of Manchester!
Enjoyed this , when we started watching I hadn’t realised your base 😁 nice to see the local ones and a great surprise to see Lucca , we did it this year and it’s amazing
In would say if you have fell foot winter isn’t top 10 then you need to try the summer one
Some nice memories also as we stayed in Corbridge when we did Tyne green so we frequented the bakery
A bit of investigation (without me
Having to ask my friends who are striders 😂) and it looks like we have been at the same one 4 times , I’ll say high if I see you sometime
I know Need to watch your sewerby one as that’s on our list
Cheers
Interesting watch, happy to see Dalby up there too, im biased but its my fave. Love watching your videos, keep reviewing parkruns for us 😀
Thank you for this great video. I do ParkRuns in Melbourne ( Australia) and I love doing them it’s such a wonderful community event and I realise ( having done a few different ParkRun locations) that at the end of the day trying to pick the best is a such a subjective thing! Ps: For anyone reading this from Melbourne, the most difficult one for me ( bearing in mind I’m now 70) was Maroondah Dam ( in Healesville) it’s the only time I’ve ever had to stop to walk because of the hills!
Great video thanks! I enjoyed it especially because I've done 115 different events and it's only natural to compare. I've only done 4 in UK as I live in Australia. Would love to try a few courses out up north next time I'm back in UK.
Really enjoyed this video, good commentary and some nice camera work. I have to admit I've visited a few of these places but not actually ran whilst there. Ahum. Fell Foot I should have done by now, holidayed nearby numerous times. I note you are a local(ish) lad. Were the opening and closing shots filmed in Albert Park in Middlesbrough ? If not you have a very similar green space to me.
It would be nice to see text when mentioning the parkruns. Sound quality, not so good. These choices are subjective. No toilets removes any run from my list. I like Fountains Abbey personally
your number 4 Sewerby i have done it twice and love it always the day before Bridlington road runners 13.5 mile trail race to Flamborough and back which i do every year
Rickmansworth is the the best
Top ten Parkruns, yes… All in Australia
Big shout out to volunteers
I’ve only done huddersfield 😂
Reading is a very picturesque course considering how close it is to the City Centre.