Art trails, swims and punt safaris near Cambridge South station

Flat fields of poppies and ox-eye daisies lead to Byron’s Pool, where skylarks sing and a cuckoo calls by the river, a mile from the new £250m Cambridge South station. Opening to passengers on 28 June as the first Great British Railways-branded station, it sits beside the towering Biomedical Campus — Europe’s biggest medical research facility, with about 40,000 visitors a day.

The station’s 1,000 cycle-parking spaces, living roof and solar panels give it the feel of a model for sustainable transport. Cambridge can be congested, but you can reach wild, peaceful corners without adding to the traffic. There are layers of human and natural history to discover, plus a newly devised art trail, bat safaris by punt and a peaceful botanic garden near the central station.

With buses and now three stations, the city is easy to explore without a car; the busway from Cambridge North to Fen Drayton lakes and bus 1 to Fulbourn are among the best rural routes, and the Harcamlow Way offers a longer walking loop between Cambridge and Harlow.

United Kingdom, Cambridge

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