Willen Lake is a

visitor attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

and public park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire The site is owned by The Parks Trust, an independent, self-funded

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * C ...

that cares for and maintains over 6,000 acres of green space across MK. Willen Lake is Milton Keynes's most popular park, attracting in excess of 750,000 visitors a year. It comprises 180 acres of landscaped parkland which surround around 100 acres of water across two lakes. Both lakes are

balancing lake A balancing lake (also flood basin or Sustainable urban drainage scheme) is a term used in the U.K. describing an element of an urban drainage system used to control flooding by temporarily storing flood waters. The term balancing pond is also ...

s, designed to mitigate flooding from the

River Ouzel The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell. It is usually called the ''River Ouzel'' ...

. The southern lake offers a wide range of activities on and off the water, whilst the northern lake offers a more natural and tranquil setting, ideal for quiet walks and spotting wildlife. There are large events held on the site throughout the year, including

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

's FriendsFest

Attractions

Operating

, the activities area of the park includes of a number of leisure attractions including: *

Watersports Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...

centre (new centre opened 2021) * High ropes course *

Wakeboarding Wakeboarding is a water sport in which the rider, standing on a wakeboard (a board with foot bindings), is towed behind a motorboat across its wake and especially up off the crest in order to perform aerial maneuvers. A hallmark of wakeboardin ...

course * Children's outdoor playground * Children's outdoor splash park * Inflatable aqua park *

Ridable miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petrol ...

* Outdoor fitness equipment * Health club (including hair and beauty salon) *

Funfair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

* Large events spaces * Observation wheel * Benugo Bar & Kitchen *

Premier Inn Premier Inn is a British limited service hotel chain and the UK's largest hotel brand, with more than 72,000 rooms and 800 hotels. It operates hotels in a variety of locations including city centres, suburbs and airports competing with the like ...

hotel, with bar open to non-residents.

Previous attractions

* Miniature golf * Outdoor amphitheatre

Geography

The lake is one of the largest purpose-built stormwater balancing lakes in the UK. The lake is designed to take surface run-off from Milton Keynes, the largest of a number designed to do so. The lake has capacity for an additional level increase of 1.3 metres, equivalent to a once in 200 years event. Unlike most of the rest of the UK, Milton Keynes has separate storm and foul sewers, so sewage pollution is not a significant problem. The lake is surrounded by a mixture of open parkland and woodland, which forms part of the wider Ouzel Valley Park. The lake is divided by an embankment and bridge carrying the

A509 The A509 is a short A-class road (around long) for north–south journeys in south central England, forming the route from Kettering in Northamptonshire to the A5 in Milton Keynes, via M1 J14. From north to south, the road begins at Wi ...

(H5 Portway), which runs between the east and west of the city, providing links to M1 Junction 14 (approximately to the north-east), and

Central Milton Keynes Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right, with a town council. The district is approximately long by wide and occupies some of the highest land in Mi ...

and the A5 (approximately and to the south-west, respectively).

References

{{Reflist Milton Keynes Lakes of Buckinghamshire