Places to explore in StaffordshireEngland · West Midlands

Spectacular gritstone escarpment on the Dark Peak edge, its wind-carved crags climbing to 505m with views to Wales and a hidden pool below.

A sixty-foot symmetrical cave mouth punched through a limestone crag above the Manifold valley — occupied since the Stone Age, photographed since the Victorians.

Dragon's-back reef limestone ridge in the upper Dove valley, a sharp-crested fossil-reef hill with dramatic sunrise views.

Celebrated limestone ravine on the River Dove, its famous stepping stones crossing below the cone of Thorpe Cloud.

Fantastical Victorian world garden, Egypt and China.

Britain's first national park: gritstone edges in the Dark Peak, limestone dales in the White.

1,438 km²

The only medieval English cathedral with three spires, guarding the Lichfield Gospels, the carved Lichfield Angel and Flemish Herkenrode glass.

Sham ruined tower folly perched on a gritstone summit on the Cheshire border, a National Trust landmark with vast Cheshire Plain views.

Popular reservoir below the Roaches with a shore trail, visitor centre and grand views up to the gritstone edge.

The packhorse bridge and pools where Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire meet — once handy for prize-fighters dodging three county constabularies at once.

Brindley's mile-and-a-half canal tunnel under Harecastle Hill, its water stained orange with ironstone; boats pass through Telford's later parallel bore.

Winding limestone valley where the River Manifold vanishes underground in summer, followed by a traffic-free trail on the old light railway.