The best family-friendly hikes and walks around Penkridge

Steady couple of hours chilling.

delightful walk on the chaser .easy

Cannock Chase, referred to locally as just 'The Chase' is one of the jewels of the midlands. It features an internationally important heathland which is teeming with wildlife.

A friendly little pub, a perfect stop off on the canal.

This grave marks the last resting place of Freda a Harlequin Great Dane dog who was the mascot of the 5th Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade. The Brigade arrived at Brocton Camp in September 1917 for training purposes. Freda was then about 2 years old. As a mascot Freda would take part in parades and was a familiar sight around the camp. Freda survived the war but died in December 1918 and was buried at Brocton Camp. The New Zealanders were based at Brocton Camp until the Rifle Brigade was disbanded in 1919. The grave is beautifully kept, but you'll have to keep your eyes peeled to find it, it's slightly off the beaten track!

The lively market town of Penkridge is easy to access and a handy base for exploring Cannock Chase AONB, which is a short drive or longish walk to the east. It is only a half an hour train ride from Birmingham, is right next to the M6 and is also served by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. The town has a couple of hotels and an inn, as well as plenty of places to eat and drink.

The Glacial Boulder is a chunk of granite which travelled from Scotland to Staffordshire in an ice sheet during the last Ice Age. After being found in a pit in the 1950s, it was hauled atop a nearby hill to be displayed. After several incidents of people rolling the boulder down three different hills, it was finally cemented here. The boulder often makes ‘worst attraction’ lists and has been compared to the Holy Stone of Clonrichert, a fictional relic in the comedy series, Father Ted. It is a popular meeting point for hikers and cyclists, though, and is right next to a convenient car park.

Set upon a pedestal of Triassic pebbles, the boulder is of Granite which is out of place here on the Moorlands of South Staffordshire, there being no granite outcrops anywhere in the Midlands. The boulder has been matched however, to the intrusive rock outcrop at Cniffel in Dumfries & Galloway, which is over 170 miles (280km) away from the Chase in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. This granite 'erratic' is marked on the OS map as the "Glacial Boulder", which gives some idea how it got here. The boulder was ripped from its parent mountain sometime during the last Ice-Age, and was transported by glacial action to its present location, the journey perhaps taking ten-thousand years during which the edges of the rock were worn down, giving its present rounded appearance.