Charnwood Forest

Area of northwestern Leicestershire, England. It is no longer thickly wooded. An area of rocky outcrops, it lies over 120 m/400 ft above sea level, with its highest point at Bardon Hill (278 m/912 ft). The Leicestershire coalfields lie on the western and northwestern fringes, and the area is traversed from north to south by the M1 motorway.

In the forest are the remains of Ulverscroft Priory, founded about 1153. Also in the forest is the Cistercian Abbey of Mount St Bernard.

Charnwood Forest contains rocks from the Precambrian period and several granite quarries. Because the soil in Charnwood Forest is of only moderate quality, at the time of the Norman Conquest it was an uninhabited wasteland; settlement did not begin until the 12th century. It was enclosed in 1829, by Act of Parliament passed 21 years earlier.