キャノックチェイスの湖・トップ8

may need to take detours due to festival dismantal or no access to other routes minor issue but amazing walk

Lovely place to stop mid ride to take in the scenery.

Where do you park?

A picturesque location at the woodland's edge, perfect for pausing and savouring the beauty of the surroundings and what Cannock Chase AONB has to offer.

A mixture of open green space and woodland. Surrounding the pool at Mill Green, you'll discover patches of diverse fenland habitats. During the winter months, this pool becomes a haven, drawing in small gatherings of teal in addition to the familiar mallard ducks and Canada geese.

A beautiful circular walk at the end of the Chase Heritage Trail. The horseshoe shaped lake has a variety of wildlife and there are plenty of benches to stop and have a picnic.

This disused quarry, just south-east of the still active Cemex Quarry, makes for interesting topography. There is also the rusted remains of an old GM car.

having just been in the area for 3 days and ridden all of these: Perry's blue, a new route post Commonwealth games, from the Birches visitor centre, is suitable for even the newest of MTB'ers - there is nothing technically hard. But there are some really fun berms even for experienced to enjoy and it has some good Red optional diversions as well. Follow the Dog is the next one up - a "light and fruity middling" Red - whilst some sections are steep, some are technical, some are loose/narrow/twisty - none are all 3 are at the same time. Suitable as a first time Red. And finally, Monkey is a proper hard red - some brutal sequential switchback climbs (Lung Buster), adverse camber rocky drops verging to "very dark oaky" red (Tom/Dick/Harry on Original Monkey). And the parts that are actually marked black are verging on Danny MacAskill.... Definitely not one for a first red.