Hernshead

Hernshead is a miniature woodland landscape overlooking the Lake. The name is derived from the shape of the prominent bedrock outcrop that punctuates the end of this small peninsula. To Olmsted and Vaux, its shape resembled the head of a heron (hern, in its British translation). Olmsted lavished horticultural attention on this site, first with a grove of London Planetrees and then with a variety of herbaceous plants and shrubs. Spring is Hernshead's season with blooming azaleas, Virginia bluebells, Dutchman's breeches, and daffodils. Violets add diminutive dots of color amid the unfurling fern fronds. Most striking of all, in late June, is the copse of flowering white Mountain Laurel — a rare sight in Central Park.

A narrow pathway through the woods ends at a filigreed cast iron structure called the Ladies' Pavilion, shown below.  Located earlier at Columbus Circle on the site of the Maine Monument to serve as a bus shelter, it was moved to Hernshead some time after 1912. Like many of the Victorian vintage structures in the Park, it has elaborate ornamental detailing.  The Ladies Pavilion provides the perfect setting for admiring the vista of the Lake.

Ladies' Pavilion

Skyline view from Hernshead

Location

• West Side between 75th and 76th Streets

Details

• On the Lake

In 1988, the Conservancy restored the boat landing at Hernshead, including the restabilization of the shore edge and the reconstruction of the paths and the drainage system from the West Drive to the Lake.