I always like a good view with my walks so am constantly looking for hills and mountains to climb in the Midlands. Whilst definitely not the highest we’ve ever done, Battlestead Hill offers some amazing views of the Staffordshire countryside and is a lovely place for a circular walk in the National Forest.
This walk should take you around one and a half hours and incorporates Battlestead Hill, reputedly home to a bloody historic battle between the Angles and the Danes and Rangemore forest. It’s just over 3 miles and even includes a lovely pub, perfect for a post hike refreshing pint.
Battlestead Hill and Rangemore route
Begin the walk at the Horseshoe Pub in Tatenhill. There’s plenty of parking available. Head out of the carpark and cross the road, keeping the pub and church to your right. Be careful crossing the road, it’s a very quiet village but cars seem to drive a bit too fast through. Opposite the Church you’ll see a small stile, climb over and head up the hill.
Keep Church to the right 
View from the top
Once you reach the top, you’ll need to walk through another field – it was full of sheep when we visited and then through a gate to an immature woodland. This is High Wood and is part of the National Forest which is currently undertaking a project to plant 30 million trees in the areas of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. We saw some very cute Christmas trees here which got us all very excited about the next few months!
Don’t worry, they don’t bite! 
Go through this gate
Walk to the top of the tree field, across another field to a small pedestrian gate. Go through and then follow the narrow path till you reach the road at the end. Turn right and walk all the way to the bottom of the road – be careful to keep an ear open for cars.
See the gate bottom left 
Follow this small track 
it does open up a bit
Once you reach the bottom of the road you’ll keep following a small pedestrianised path which leads you to another stile and gate. Before you do so however, stop to say hello to the beautiful cows in the field to your right.
Staffordshire Cattle 
Cross over this stile
You’ll now be starting to head back downhill. The path back is almost like a hobbit hole, with the forest almost growing around the path. Follow it all the way down to the road.
How gorgeous is this path!?
Cross back over the main road. Careful to keep a tight grip on kids and dogs! On the other side you’ll pick up the National Forest Way several metres back from the road, over another stile. From here your options are pretty endless. You could turn almost immediately right, walking in parallel with the road back to Tatenhill or climb the hill up into the forest adding another little loop to your walk. It was a gorgeous day and we all still had plenty of energy so decided to carry on.
Head up this path
Turn right at he top of the hill until you reach an area of woodland. You can continue on and explore the woods or head back down as we did. This bit of path was very steep and pretty muddy so be careful. Turn left once you hit the bottom.
Careful going down 
The views from the top
Keep following the path until you reach a small turn to the right which will take you back to a quiet road into Tatenhill. You’ll come out right next to the Horseshoe Pub and back to your starting point. We made sure to pop in for a drink as we had used their carpark for a few hours. I was very impressed with their current safety precautions. You have to wait at the front door until a member of staff leads you to a table where they take your order. You can then take your drinks out to the beer garden. It was a lovely way to finish a perfect circular hike.
Parking: We parked at the Horseshoe pub at Tatenhill. Postcode: DE13 9SD. You will also be able to park anywhere in the village of Tatenhill.
Duration of Walk: This walk took us just over 1.5 hours. You can probably get it done a bit quicker if you’re not stopping to look at things. You could also add some more loops through the forest to extend the route.
Facilities: There are no public facilities available on this walk although you can visit the Horseshoe pub in Tatenhill at the beginning or end.
The walk with dogs: On the Battlestead side of the walk you’re likely to come across sheep, horses and cows so probably best to keep them on a lead for this. Whilst walking through the forest, we were fine to let Holly run free.
If you’re looking for circular walks in Staffordshire then you’ll also love this rainy day walk to the stepping stones on Cannock Chase. Or if you’re looking for another one with fabulous views then check out this Dunstall Estate circular walk near Barton under Needwood.
Make sure to pin for later for your next walk up Battlestead Hill
