The Ercall & Lawrence’s Hill Nature Reserve

Ancient oak woodland, spectacular views and more than 500 million years of history can be enjoyed here in 66 hectares of space. Little sister to the famous Wrekin it may be, but the Ercall has its own grandeur.

Human activity is dramatically evident in the huge chunk blasted out of the hillside to provide road stone for the nearby A5. Destructive this certainly was, but it had the unexpectedly wonderful effect of laying bare the earth’s history; revealing rocks from the earliest beginnings of life on this planet.

Limekiln Wood was once part of the Royal Forest of Wrekin, and is one of the most botanically interesting woods in Telford, supporting a range of limestone flora.

The internationally important geological site, which is part of the Wrekin and the Ercall Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) includes 540 million old ripple beds and ancient precambrain lava flows in quarries.

The ancient woodland is full of bluebells in spring, flowering spikes of orchids and the sheltered grassland in the quarry floors can be good for spotting butterflies. Woodland birds abound all year round – look out for redstarts in the breeding season. Ash trees form much of the tree canopy, along with oak and sycamore, with hazel and hawthorn providing the understory.