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Print Friendly MapNew Castle’s Battery Park Trail begins in its eponymous park and extends 1.7 miles along the Delaware River. Battery Park is adjacent to Historic New Castle, a charming downtown area with parks, amenities, shops, and restaurants. The trail is also part of the larger East Coast Greenway, a growing network of multiuse trails connecting 15 states and 450 cities and towns on a 3,000-mile route between Maine and Florida.
The popular park, a draw for residents and visitors alike, gets its name from the cannons once situated there to protect the city from coastal invasion. Another remnant of New Castle’s history is the small 19th-century railroad ticket office near the park’s entrance. Surrounded by a white picket fence, it was first constructed to serve the short-lived New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad and was restored in the 1950s. You may even catch a glimpse of the Kalmar Nyckel, a full-scale replica of a 17th-century Swedish ship (but built by the Dutch) that famously brought Swedish settlers to North America in 1638; it periodically docks at Battery Park as it travels along the Atlantic Seaboard.
On the park’s green, you can claim a bench, a picnic table, or a spot on the grass with friends to enjoy the sights and sounds of the river. The paved hike-and-bike path begins on the edge of the green and heads southwest on a levee sandwiched between reedy marsh and the river. At the edge of the park are several short spurs of the trail that connect to a nearby neighborhood, offering immediate trail access to locals.
The Gambacorta Marsh Dike, atop which you’ll travel, was constructed to carry a singletrack railroad that led from the park’s current location to the Tasker Iron Works plant, which no longer exists. The trail continues past Dobbinsville Park and Deemers Beach, then crosses Army Creek onto another dike before dead-ending. The entire trip is 3.4 miles out-and-back, but if you are interested in extending your run or ride, there is access to the 5.5-mile Jack A. Markell Trail just north of Battery Park; to reach it, take South Street 0.4 mile to Young Street Park.
Parking is available by Battery Park (at the end of Delaware St and at 199 W. Third St) and by Deemers Beach River Access (W. Seventh St., 0.2 mile southwest of Clymer St).
I live super close to Battery Park and can actually access this park and it's subsequent trail through the Jack A. Markell trail, which is also very nice(10/10 recommend). But this trail offers great views, especially during sunrise and sunset. Never too crowded, lined with some trees along with labels on a few of them for their biological information to keep things interesting, and close enough to some shores of sand to collect shells, rocks, etc!
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