Ladycross Nature Reserve occupies the exhausted parts of a hand-worked sandstone quarry that is still active and has produced building, paving and roofing stone for at least 250 years. The Reserve has been developed over the last 40 years, and since 1997 the Friends of Ladycross community organisation has managed it. It borders on the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, at a height of about 350m above sea level, with extensive views over the Tyne Valley to the north and Blanchland Moor SSSI on the south. It is surrounded by Slaley Forest, a Forestry Commission commercial and amenity woodland.