Delamere redevelopment project
At Delamere Forest, the first stage of the redevelopment project saw the construction of a brand-new Visitor Centre with larger and improved toilet facilities which include a changing places facility, a Café, and a staffed Visitor Welcome Point – a place for our visitors to ask questions, learn all about Delamere Forest’s history and pick up a map or get an activity pack for our children’s activity trail.
The new car park has made it much easier for our visitors to arrive and enjoy your visit straight away, with ample of spaces and ANPR technology, you don’t pay until you’re ready to leave. Horse boxes are also welcome at the main car park and can use the Additional Parking Area for somewhere quieter to unload onto a grassed area.
Also, as part of phase 1 of the redevelopment project, we renovated our existing buildings to create a new bike hire & shop, Delamere Bike Hire, and a classroom for our learning partner, Forest Explorers. The old visitor hub and café is now the site offices for Forestry England and the Forestry Commission.
Phase 2
Bike trail
The next phase of our redevelopment of Delamere Forest now focuses on the wider forest and our trail infrastructure. We’re currently creating a new mountain bike trail, which includes 4km of new blue graded single track along the 10km length and will enable families and those new to mountain biking to practice and perfect their mountain biking skills before moving on to some of the tougher trails at other Forestry England sites such as Cannock Chase Forest. This new trail is due to be completed before early summer 2023.
Improved signage
We’ve already made a number of improvements to many of our existing trails and we’ve created some new ones, too. Once all the new trails are ready, our next step will be to review and replace all of the signage across the forest, making it easier to find your way around and follow our waymarked trails. We want everyone to be able to come and enjoy Delamere Forest together, and therefore, many of the trails are shared-use, whether you’re walking, cycling, horse riding or one of the other activities that our visitors come to do, including Segway tours with Go Ape. We’re planning to highlight the best trails for running, walking and cycling, with dedicated maps for each activity.
Wellbeing and play
We’re always looking at ways to improve and develop Delamere Forest to make it a fun and memorable day out for everyone. So as we look into the coming years, we’d love to install play equipment for children which will be close to the Visitor Centre and have a key focus on sustainability and imaginative play, highlighting elements of the area’s history.Watch this space and look out for our new wellbeing trail, too, which will be developed in the Whitefield area of the forest over the next few years.
During any of the current and future works that are taking place around Delamere Forest, we promise to try and keep disruption to a minimum and to keep you all safe, so please adhere to any works signage and diversions there are in place.
In addition to all of the above, we can’t forget about our amazing events programme that’s getting bigger and better every year. From our Forest Live music series in June to our magical Christmas at Delamere Forest illuminated lights trail throughout December, there’s plenty to see and do all year round. And if you’re looking to get active, you can sign up to our annual Forest Runner event.
