Delamere Forest has also been designated an SSSI for its fenland habitat. The white-faced darter, a species of dragonfly rare in the UK, and marsh fern and white sedge, wetland plants that are rare in Cheshire, are found here. Delamere Forest is a popular recreational area that is used by walkers, cyclists, mountain bikers and horse riders. It is also an outdoor concert venue. The twin medieval Forests of Mara and Mondrem were created within the county palatine of Cheshire by the Norman Earls of Chester in the late 11th century. However the area might have earlier been an Anglo-Saxon hunting forest.
Delamere Forest remained wooded well into the 14th century. It retained a population of wild boar and wolves. The remaining part of the southern part of the Forest of Mara remained classed as a hunting forest until 1812 when an Enclosure Act was passed disafforesting the remaining forest (that is, returning its legal status to ordinary land) and transferring ownership of the remnant half to the Crown and half to surrounding major landowners. In April 1821, the King's Bench determined that Delamere was one of four new parishes within the old Forest of Mara during a case about a pauper from Oakmere.