About
The Habitats and Hillforts Landscape Partnership Scheme is focused on the chain of historically important hill top Iron Age hillforts that lines Cheshire's Sandstone Ridge. Heritage Lottery Fund Landscape Partnership Schemes are constructed around thematic programmes informed by the condition and needs of the landscape and that of the local community and other users.
The project area and the project team
The overall scheme is delivering across four key priorities in order to deliver an integrated and balanced scheme:
- Conserving the hillforts and any associated features in the vicinity
- Restoring and increasing natural habitats in the vicinity of the forts, as these are areas of countryside that would be visited by people and the landscape setting could benefit from increasing areas for wildlife
- Making the hillforts more accessible by improving footpath access where appropriate and linking them to the Sandstone Trail
- Interpreting the historical landscape and the natural habitats and the management work being carried out to enhance them
- Involving the local communities surrounding the hillforts as well as a wider area
- Providing appropriate volunteering and training opportunities
The Scheme has four inter-related programmes of work:
- Habitats of the Ridge (Habitat restoration and conservation – as both an ecological and landscape enhancement measure)
- Hillforts of the Ridge (Investigation and consolidation work on the hillfort sites, including any adjacent historical features of significance)
- Access and Interpretation (Access improvements and associated interpretation and education in the hillfort areas and linking the hillforts to the Sandstone Trail)
- Training and Volunteers (A related training, education and volunteer programme)
More information about the Hillfort Scheme Areas:
The Sandstone Ridge is a living landscape and a valued economic, social and heritage asset to the 34,000 people who live and work in the area and the many hundreds of thousands who visit it for rest and recreation each year. Flanked by glacial sands and gravels, the Ridge has a strong cultural and natural character of which its key characteristics are:
- The sandstone ridge itself with outcrops and upstanding bluffs of over 100m, forming a distinctive landmark and providing spectacular long distance views across Cheshire and beyond towards Wales, the Peak District and Shropshire
- High density woodland compared with the rest of Cheshire comprising ancient woodland and post medieval conifer plantations
- The largest areas of surviving lowland heath in Cheshire
- Low density dispersed farms
- Sandstone buildings, boundary walls and sunken lanes
- 6 iron age hillforts with surviving earthworks
- Historic halls at Utkinton and Peckforton Castle
- Industrial archaeological remains of sandstone quarries and copper mines in particular
The Scheme area is essentially rural in character, and in fact has quite a remote and hidden feel, especially in the south. There are, however, significant urban populations nearby and their many schools and educational establishments that use the area for recreation and could be encouraged to appreciate it more (over 400,000 people live within 30 minutes drive of the Sandstone Ridge). An estimated 1.4 million walking trips are made along its length, utilising the 473 kilometres of rights of way which include the Sandstone Trail long distance footpath.