Delamere Forest or Delamere Forest Park is a wood in the Cheshire West and Chester area of Cheshire, England, near the town of Frodsham. It includes 972 hectares (2,400 acres) of mixed deciduous and evergreen woodland, making it the largest area of woodland in Cheshire. The name means "forest of the lakes".
Delamere Forest is the remnant of the Forests of Mara and Mondrem, which covered over 60 square miles (160 km2) in the north-west of the county in the 11th century. A hunting forest of the Norman Earls of Chester, it was subject to the harsh forest law, which greatly limited agricultural use for centuries. Ownership passed to the Crown in 1812 and then to the Forestry Commission, which now manages the forest, shortly after its establishment in 1919.
The area also includes Old Pale hill, the high point of the northern mass of the Mid Cheshire Ridge, and Blakemere Moss, a lake around 1 km in length. Black Lake, a rare example of quaking bog or schwingmoor, has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and forms part of an international Ramsar site; Linmer Moss has also been designated an SSSI for its fenland habitat. The white-faced darter, a species of dragonfly that is rare in the UK, has been recorded at Delamere Forest, and marsh fern and white sedge, wetland plants that are rare in Cheshire, are found here.
A popular recreational area, Delamere Forest is used by walkers, cyclists, mountain bikers and horse riders. The forest is also a venue for outdoor concerts.
Read more about Delamere Forest: Geography and Geology, Ecology, Recreational Uses, Facilities For Visitors
Famous quotes containing the word forest:
“The moose will, perhaps, one day become extinct; but how naturally then, when it exists only as a fossil relic, and unseen as that, may the poet or sculptor invent a fabulous animal with similar branching and leafy horns ... to be the inhabitant of such a forest as this!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)