Cannock Chase

The Chase is about seventy square kilometres of heath, birch and planted conifer on a sandstone plateau, the largest surviving lowland heath in the Midlands and a protected landscape since 1958. It was royal hunting forest, then stripped for charcoal to feed local ironworking, then planted with conifer in the twentieth century. Around eight hundred fallow deer range free across it, the descendants of the medieval park stock, and the autumn rut in October is one of the more accessible in England. During the First World War two large training camps held tens of thousands of troops and left concrete foundations across the heath, and a German war cemetery holds burials moved here from across Britain. Mountain-bike trails and Go Ape run from Birches Valley.

What you actually see

• The free-ranging fallow - around eight hundred deer descended from park stock.
• The heath - the largest surviving lowland heath in the Midlands.
• The camp remains - concrete foundations left across the heath after 1918.
• The trail centre - waymarked mountain-bike routes from Birches Valley.

When to go

April to October for the heath; October for the fallow rut, best at dawn from a distance. Heather flowers purple in August. Winter is bare but the deer are easier to see without leaf cover.

Honest expectations

Much of the Chase is commercial conifer plantation rather than open heath, and the best heath is in patches. Car parks are charged and the popular ones fill on weekends. Deer are wild and should be watched from far off, especially in the rut.

Nearby

Shugborough estate is on the northern edge; Lichfield and Stafford lie either side.