ホックンハルの湖・トップ4

Great ride , some good climbs

It does get busy around the visitors' centre and the Gruffalo trail. However, if you ride up Pale Hill and follow the perimeter of the forest, there are plenty of quiet trails to explore. Keep your eyes peeled for single tracks going through the forest, there lots of off-the-beaten-path routes to follow if you look for them.

Nice spot for a quiet rest as I cycle the country lanes into and out of Chester.

amazing walk just cant take the path next to the hatch mere nature reserve because it's very deep mud at the moment

Could become overgrown in summer or muddy if wet. Interest spot to see

Lovely place for a quick stop...there's always plenty of birdlife on or around the pond. The ducks generally boss the place,so don't mess with them :-)

Blakemere Moss at Delamere Forest is a reclaimed wetland area. The Moss was originally formed from two kettle holes (water filled hollows formed by a detached mass of glacial ice melted in situ towards the end of the last ice age). Delamere Forest is made up of more than 100 peatland basins and includes several sites of rare 'quaking' bogland, a phenomenon in which sphagnum mosses form a carpet above peaty water that appears to tremble when trodden on. The area was drained from the 1800's, supposedly by prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars and planted with trees, (mainly oak and Scot's Pine) between 1793-1815 to provide timber for shipbuilding. The Forestry Commission planted the moss with pine and western hemlock during the 1940s, which proved uneconomic. In the late 1990's the Commission allowed the area to re-flood again naturally.

Blakemere Moss is a flooded area of Delamere Forest. The lake is rich in biodiversity and is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a great place for birdwatching and is home to species such as greylags, Canada geese, black-headed gulls, coots, mallards, and lapwings. The area was drained in the 1800s, supposedly by prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars, and planted with trees. It was turned back into a lake in the 1990s and tree stumps still poke through the water’s surface.