Macclesfield Forest
This visitor centre lies within Macclesfield Forest, just across the road from Trentabank Reservoir. The car park has a compacted sandstone surface, with tarmac entrance road and three parking spaces reserved for disabled people close to the toilets. There is a toilet suitable for disabled people for which a RADAR key is required (a key is available when the Rangers' Room is open). The Ranger’s room is sometimes open, with its display of local fauna and flora; at other times information can be obtained from boards and leaflets (available from dispensers).
There is a pleasant grassy picnic area behind the building, with a number of picnic tables, one of which is wheelchair-accessible via the compacted limestone path. Also available at the back of the visitor's centre is the Nice Nosh refreshment stall (pictured here), serving excellent hot and cold snacks - this is well worth a visit, as John serves food with the Peak Cuisine mark, most of which supports Fair Trade.
Macclesfield Forest is a scenic blend of coniferous forest, lakes and moorland with extensive variety of wildlife, including a heronry. The forest is a workplace which produces timber, and the Ridgegate and Trentabank reservoirs are a source of drinking water. Access in the forest is by public footpath, or concessionary paths and bridlepaths. Macclesfield Forest was once the centre of a Royal Forest created by the Norman conquerors for the purpose of hunting game such as deer, wild boar and wolves. This particular forest stretched from the modern Disley down to the River Dane, and was the preserve of the Earls of Chester. This has always been an isolated and sparsely populated area, and it still is.
Both the Ridgegate and Trentabank reservoirs are home to many wildfowl. At different seasons you may see tufted duck, goldeneye, pochard, teal, little grebe, great crested grebe, and coot. Trentabank is also home to a large heronry – the larch trees at the eastern shore are the nesting sites.