Concord Walking Tours
The best way to tour Concord is on foot, with the occasional car or bike ride. My walking tours take you to all of Concord's prime sights. (Here's where to have a picnic.)
- North Bridge & Old Manse: Revolutionary Concord
- Alcotts & Emersons: Louisa May, Ralph Waldo & More
- Concord Cemeteries: Famous Concordians' Graves
- Thoreau's Concord: Where & How the Environmentalist Lived
- Emerson-Thoreau Amble: Walk from Emerson's House to Walden Pond
- Walden Pond: Thoreau's Little House in Nature
- Battle Road Trail: The Redcoats Marched...and Fled
1 - North Bridge & Old Manse
From Monument Square in the center of Concord along Monument Street to the Old Manse, Old North Bridge, Buttrick Mansion (National Historical Park Visitor Center) and Caesar Robbins House, with a detour to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Authors Ridge.
1.5 to 2 mi (2.4 to 3.2 km), 30 to 45 minutes’ walking, round trip; add sightseeing time.
Minutemen marching over
the North Bridge, Concord MA.
2 - Alcotts & Emersons
Monument Square past the Wright Tavern and First Parish church to the Emerson – Thoreau Amble trailhead, Emerson House, Concord Museum, the Alcotts’ Orchard House, the Hawthornes’ Wayside, and Grapevine Cottage where the Concord grape was bred.
2 mi (3.2 km), 40-minutes’ walking time, round-trip; add sightseeing time.
Orchard House, the Alcott
residence, Concord MA.
3 - Concord Cemeteries
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Authors Ridge & graves of the Emersons, the Alcotts, Thoreaus, Daniel Chester French and Mary French. This tour also visits Concord’s Old Hill Burying Ground and South Burying Place.
1.5 mi (2.4 km), 30 minutes’ walking, round trip; add sightseeing time.
Melvin Memorial, by D C French, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord MA
4 - Thoreau's Concord
Henry David Thoreau’s birthplace, places he lived and wrote about, including Walden Pond, & his grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Various times & distances; bike or car best for some.
Henry David Thoreau's grave, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord MA.
5 - Emerson-Thoreau Amble
Walk the Emerson – Thoreau Amble, a footpath through the forest from Emerson’s house to the site of Thoreau’s cabin on Walden Pond.
1.7 miles (2.4 km), 40 to 60 minutes one-way; uneven surfaces, highway crossing (with pedestrian signal).
Replica of Thoreau's house at Walden Pond, Concord MA.
6 - Walden Pond
How to get there (including by the Emerson-Thoreau Amble), the replica of Thoreau’s cabin, walks around the pond, swimming, boating, birding & natural history. No dogs allowed.
1.5 mi (2.4 km) around the pond, 45 to 60 minutes; Walden Pond is 2 mi (3.2 km) south of Monument Square.
Walden Pond, Concord MA.
7 - Battle Road Trail
Follow the forested road along which Minutemen fought Redcoats in 1775: Meriam’s Corner, via the Bloody Angle, Hartwell Tavern, Paul Revere Capture Site and other sites to Fiske Hill, on foot or by bike.
5-mi-long (8-km) trail starting 1.4 mi (2.25 m) east of Monument Square. Shuttle bus, & several parking areas & starting points along the trail.
Hartwell Tavern on Battle Road Trail, Minute Man National Historical Park.
Concord Outdoors
Walking, hiking and biking trails, canoe and kayak rental, swimming and fishing at Walden Pond, birding & wildlife observation at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge: there’s lots to do outdoors in Concord!
Muskrat love, Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge, Concord MA.