Harewood Half Marathon

The magnificent Harewood House and its illustrious grounds provide a picture perfect scenery for this 21-kilometre half marathon route.

Get ready to run off road on trails around the estate grounds. This route is a traffic free stunner with the grandiose house never far in the background.

If you are wanting some hints on how to train for a half marathon, take a look at our Training for a Marathon as a Beginner article. It will help set you up for a half-marathon!

 

Wanting to find your way to the start of the route? Here is a link for a Google Maps Directions page.

This route has a distance of 10.4km and an elevation gain of 248m.

The largest non-stop incline begins in the second third of of the route, and has a distance of 716m and an elevation gain of 64m. You can see this on the above elevation chart in red.

The largest continual decline is 320m long with an elevation drop of 26m which starts in the final third of the route. This is shown on the chart as green.

Route Highlights

One of the biggest highlights is running around the 4000 acre estate you may notice popular TV sets including ITV's Victoria and the 2019 Downton Abbey film. When you're not soaking up the onscreen sets you might catch an eyeful of a Red Kite flying over head or deer trotting around the estate ground

Best Time To Run

Harewood House has a schedule of events whatever time of the year it is. This makes it an appealing run (and visit!) whether you run it on a frosty winter morning or a hot summers day.

This run route is way marked around the estate. You will run over wide green expanses will give way to dense forest sections, with a couple of hills thrown in for good measure.

The Harewood half marathon route is one of the more challenging half’s in Leeds. The challenge is made that little bit easier with the amazing views from the lake to the gardens. Don’t forget it’s two laps to complete the full 21-kilometres!

As this route is completely on trail and footpath it’s recommended you run this one in a decent pair of trail shoes.

Watch the rocky areas on the more quaggy patches of grassland – these are primed for rolling an ankle.

Harewood is an affluent village with the mansion of Harewood House the standout site in the area. The 18th century mansion has expensive paintings and furniture. On the outside the grounds are graced with a Farm Experience and Bird Garden.

Harewood House has accessible toilets on-site within the house – check opening hours before you visit.

Park for free on-site in the Harewood House visitors car park, postcode: LS17 9LG (Google Map Directions)

The onsite Courtyard Café has been created to serve food and drink that is locally sourced and sustainably in season. Finish your run with a selection of hot and cold servings of salads, sandwiches and cakes. All topped off with a good cuppa.