The Glacial Boulder is a chunk of granite which travelled from Scotland to Staffordshire in an ice sheet during the last Ice Age. After being found in a pit in the 1950s, it was hauled atop a nearby hill to be displayed. After several incidents of people rolling the boulder down three different hills, it was finally cemented here.

The boulder often makes ‘worst attraction’ lists and has been compared to the Holy Stone of Clonrichert, a fictional relic in the comedy series, Father Ted. It is a popular meeting point for hikers and cyclists, though, and is right next to a convenient car park.

Tom

February 4, 2019

Exactly as the title states, this boulder has been here since the last big glacier melt in the area.

Sasha Taylor

October 5, 2019

Set upon a pedestal of Triassic pebbles, the boulder is of Granite which is out of place here on the Moorlands of South Staffordshire, there being no granite outcrops anywhere in the Midlands. The boulder has been matched however, to the intrusive rock outcrop at Cniffel in Dumfries & Galloway, which is over 170 miles (280km) away from the Chase in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. This granite 'erratic' is marked on the OS map as the "Glacial Boulder", which gives some idea how it got here. The boulder was ripped from its parent mountain sometime during the last Ice-Age, and was transported by glacial action to its present location, the journey perhaps taking ten-thousand years during which the edges of the rock were worn down, giving its present rounded appearance.

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Elevation 190 m

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Friday 10 October

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Location: Brocton, Stafford, Staffordshire, West Midlands Region, England, United Kingdom

Glacial Boulder of Cannock Chase

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