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United Kingdom United Kingdom forest

Charnwood Forest

Daveleicuk · CC BY 3.0

43% trees around it and 1,692 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km43%
  • wild within 10 km63%
  • species recorded1,692
  • Altitude143 m

The forest around

43% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 62%Grassland 38%Cropland 1%Trees 41%Grassland 47%Cropland 7%Built-up 5%Trees 34%Grassland 36%Water 2%Bare ground 0%Cropland 19%Built-up 9%Trees 28%Grassland 26%Water 1%Bare ground 1%Cropland 22%Built-up 23%43%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km62%
  • 1–3 km41%
  • 3–6 km34%
  • 6–10 km28%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees41%
  • Grassland47%
  • Water0%
  • Bare ground0%
  • Cropland7%
  • Built-up5%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

1,692 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Stickywilly
StickywillyGalium aparine283 recordsAlvesgaspar · CC BY-SA 3.0
English holly
English hollyIlex aquifolium246 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Creeping buttercup
Creeping buttercupRanunculus repens244 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Lesser Celandine
Lesser CelandineFicaria verna237 recordsAnRo0002 · CC0
Ribwort plantain
Ribwort plantainPlantago lanceolata236 recordssannse · CC BY-SA 3.0
Common Hawthorn
Common HawthornCrataegus monogyna232 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Yorkshire-fog
Yorkshire-fogHolcus lanatus225 recordsRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0
Red catchfly
Red catchflySilene dioica224 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Hogweed
HogweedHeracleum sphondylium220 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Common Sorrel
Common SorrelRumex acetosa218 recordsAnRo0002 · CC0
Pedunculate Oak
Pedunculate OakQuercus robur209 recordsAlgirdas at Lithuanian Wikipedia · Public domain
Foxglove
FoxgloveDigitalis purpurea206 recordsUnknown author · Public domain

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

56out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 43%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 63%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 1,692Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 143 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking in June and in September.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan6°1°63 mm
  2. Feb7°1°52 mm
  3. Mar10°2°51 mm
  4. Apr13°4°46 mm
  5. May16°7°60 mm
  6. Jun19°10°66 mm
  7. Jul21°12°72 mm
  8. Aug21°12°73 mm
  9. Sep18°9°51 mm
  10. Oct14°7°76 mm
  11. Nov9°4°70 mm
  12. Dec6°2°68 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Charnwood Forest.

Picturesque upland area in north-western Leicestershire, England

Charnwood Forest is a forest in United Kingdom.

Seen from space, 43% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 63% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

1,692 species have been recorded around it: 937 plants, 519 fungi, 205 birds and 31 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Stickywilly, English holly and Creeping buttercup.

The best time to walk is in June and in September.

The Bomb Rocks, Charnwood Lodge SSSI, Charnwood Forest
Daveleicuk · CC BY 3.0

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Charnwood Forest seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 3marked trails within 5 kmLeicestershire Round, Ivanhoe Way, National Forest Way
  • 16picnic sites within 4 km
  • 10shelters and huts within 6 km
  • 4viewpoints within 5 kmOld John, Bardon Hill and 2 more
  • 1visitor centres within 6 kmBradgate Park Visitor Centre
  • 39car parks within 3 km
  • 13campsites within 10 kmCharnwood Acres Park, Cropston Caravan Site, The Oaks Scout Campsite and 10 more
  • 64places to stay within 10 kmField Head Hotel, David Collett Hall, The Castle Hotel & Restaurant and 61 more
  • 9restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • named and notable trees within 6 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Charnwood Forest.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas6 mountains within 25 km
Old John1.8 kmBeacon Hill248 m · 3.2 kmBardon Hill278 m · 5.1 kmCroft Hill15 kmAmbion Hill16 kmWilford Hill25 km
Lakeyas4 lakes within 15 km
Cropston Reservoir0.3 km² · 4.0 kmThornton Reservoir0.2 km² · 5.4 kmSwithland Reservoir0.4 km² · 5.8 kmBlackbrook Reservoir0.2 km² · 7.6 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Swithland Woods, Leicester
Benjamin Watson · CC BY-SA 3.0
Oaks and District Tennis Club
Anickolls · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other forests nearby.

Charnwood Forest

United Kingdom

  • 56Forestyas Score
  • 43%Trees
  • 63%Wild
  • 1,692Species

Cannock Chase

United Kingdom · 51 km

  • 69Forestyas Score
  • 69%Trees
  • 68%Wild
  • 1,108Species

See the guide

Wyre Forest

United Kingdom · 83 km

  • 75Forestyas Score
  • 73%Trees
  • 75%Wild
  • 1,920Species

See the guide

The National Forest

United Kingdom · 20 km

  • 52Forestyas Score
  • 43%Trees
  • 56%Wild
  • 1,210Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q5086584) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species109,535 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Islandyas, Lakeyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.