{"id":404270,"date":"2025-09-07T03:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T03:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404270\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T03:36:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T03:36:15","slug":"you-can-visit-a-woodland-where-monkeys-roam-free-and-it-is-absolutely-magical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404270\/","title":{"rendered":"You can visit a woodland where monkeys roam free and it is absolutely magical"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a great time visiting one of the UK’s largest primate habitats – here’s what it was like<\/p>\n

Vita Molyneux<\/strong> Travel reporter<\/p>\n

04:00, 07 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

\"VitaThis was the perfect day out (Image: Vita Molyneux)<\/p>\n

During a recent visit to the Peak District and Stoke-on-Trent, I stumbled upon a true gem in the heart of the Midlands. The Trentham Monkey Forest<\/a> is the UK’s largest primate habitat, home to 140 endangered Barbary Macaques that freely roam the woodland.<\/p>\n

It’s an experience that’s worth every penny, and it is just over an hour’s drive from Liverpool city centre<\/a>. Stepping through the park’s double gates feels like entering another world. Dense tree cover<\/a>, winding paths and a growing sense of anticipation filled me.<\/p>\n

I was eager to see monkeys, and I wanted to see them immediately. Despite the park being busy, the paths were spacious enough to manoeuvre past groups of children and families – particularly if you’re accustomed to navigating London during peak hours as I am.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes of walking and several false alarms (I wasn’t wearing my glasses and kept mistaking ducks for monkeys), we found ourselves in a clearing within the trees, reports the Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There, separated from us by only a low log fence, were at least seven Barbary macaques with their tiny babies.<\/p>\n

The proximity to the animals was unexpected – it was truly enchanting. With approximately 140 monkeys residing in the forest, they’re never far away.<\/p>\n

Upon entering the forest, visitors are shown a brief video advising not to approach within three metres of the animals. However, it seemed no one had shown this video to the monkeys.<\/p>\n

Whilst my partner and I were observing one of the monkeys casually grooming itself on a log, another sauntered past us on the path, so close we could have reached out and touched it.<\/p>\n

Since it approached from behind, we didn’t have time to step aside, instead, we got an up-close view.<\/p>\n

\"AThis guy distracted us while another monkey walked right behind us(Image: Vita Molyneux)<\/p>\n

They roam the paths, groom each other in the grass and clamber high above you in the towering trees. As we strolled, a light drizzle began – but that didn’t deter us or the monkeys in the slightest.<\/p>\n

This year, the monkey forest revealed that an impressive eleven new babies have been born in the forest – a testament to the rehabilitation efforts of the park.<\/p>\n

Scattered throughout the park are guides who are always willing to stop for a chat and inform you about the monkeys and their habits, and there are also hourly feeding talks.<\/p>\n

Also dotted around the paths are various informative signs about the monkeys, their habits and how their natural habitats are being destroyed, making these animals extremely endangered.<\/p>\n

However, within the park, the monkeys live in peace, and it’s evident they are genuinely content in the 60-acre woodland they call home.<\/p>\n

\"TwoThe park has welcomed 11 new babies this year(Image: Vita Molyneux)<\/p>\n

For just \u00a313.50 for an adult ticket, the park offered fantastic value.<\/p>\n

We only spent about an hour and a half there as we had to hit the road back to London, but outside of the monkey habitat there is a cafe, informative exhibits, picnic spaces and a children’s playground – if we had more time I would have loved to wander and explore further. I suppose this means I’ll just have to return!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I had a great time visiting one of the UK’s largest primate habitats – here’s what it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[933,748,393,4884,179,183,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-404270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-travel","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115160926673691369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}