About the reserve

Gun Moor, includes Gun Hill and the surrounding land which overlooks Leek in The Staffordshire Moorlands. It’s a gem of a site that is much quieter than the nearby Roaches.

When Gun Moor came to the market back in 2019 Staffordshire Wildlife Trust were very keen to secure the site as it fits in well with our plans to increase the area of land being managed in a way that is beneficial to wildlife.

We needed to act fast, but didn't have the funds to buy the site ourselves and so entered into an agreement with the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. The Foundation was able to step in and purchase the land themselves with a "buy back" agreement giving Staffordshire Wildlife Trust two years to raise funds needed to buy the land back at the original price.  Thankfully, with the generosity of our supporters, we were able to raise the funds to cover the purchase price and pay back the loan.

In 2022 we got a further opportunity to acquire an additional piece of land, a meadow in the northwest corner of Gun Moor, and again had to act fast to secure it so we took out another loan. The reserve extension was made possible with the support of Peter Solly who helped us to acquire this site through ‘We Have the Power’ Funding Nature project. To learn more about the meadow visit our Gun Moor Meadow page here. You can find out about other sites acquired by Funding Nature here.

This extension to Gun Moor affords us an opportunity to rewet and rewild the meadow, which had been intensively grazed for many years. This will create more habitat for bog asphodel and cotton-grass, snipe and woodcock.

Stunning for walking, the habitat Gun Moor contains is what makes the Peak District Moors of international significance, so it is really important that the Trust was able to purchase and protect it.

The terrain is fairly hilly but there is a good circular path route around the site. Gun Moor is home to many species including snipe and curlew, which are on the brink of localised extinction. Special species such as lesser redpoll, a scarce breeding bird species with a bright buzzing call and cuckoo can be spotted on the site. An evening visitor may be lucky enough to see a roding woodcock over the wooded areas. Flowering cotton-grass and bog asphodel can be seen in the wet heath areas in June and July.