Peaks over 100 metres (330 ft) are found in the south within Sherwood Pines, and in the north by Windmill Planation/Bradmer Hill where the A6075 and B6035 meet by the boundary.

The place-name Clipstone seems to contain an Old Norse personal name, Klyppr, with tun (Old English), an enclosure or farmstead, so 'Klyppr's farm or settlement'.

[15] The National Mapping Project data as provided by English Heritage shows a number of cropmarks recorded from aerial photography in the northern quarter of Kings Clipstone parish, representing rectilinear field systems associated with smaller stock enclosures and perhaps domestic sites.

Typologically, and from their orientation, it is assumed that these are part of the brickwork plan field system from the late Iron Age, which stretches across the Sherwood Sandstones.

[16] Pottery of the period is known from Kings Clipstone due to Philip Rahtz's excavation in 1956[17] and Trent and Peak Archaeology's watching brief and fieldwalking in 1991,[18] however the context of the finds has never been understood.

[20] Four pieces of late Saxon shelly ware pottery were recorded in 1991[18] during fieldwalking of Castlefield, although it is unlikely that these represent anything more than a background scatter associated with the manuring of the open fields.

These four pieces of pottery are actually Potterhanworth Ware, dating to the 13th–15th century[21] Prior to Domesday, the two manors of Kings Clipstone were held by Osbern and Ulsi and the value was set at 60 shillings (£3).

[25] King John's Palace is the ruined walls of a former medieval royal residence previously used for hunting trips into Sherwood Forest.

This was also the location of the Great Pond which contained fish and wildfowl (in modern times it is locally called the Dog and Duck Meadow).

On 11 March 1603, James I granted the manor of Clipstone to Lord Mountjoy (the Battle of Kinsale victor in 1601), the 7th Earl Shrewsbury.

From that time, the estates remained in the same family for 350 years, passing from Shrewsbury to the Dukes of Newcastle and Portland through marriage or death.

[5] In 1767 the Duke of Portland was involved in a number of prosecutions of local people for entering the forest park and causing disorders.

The Forestry Commission was set up by the government in 1919 in response to a shortage of wood and in 1925 they obtained a 999-year lease at the park from the Welbeck and Rufford estates to plant and harvest trees, originally for war purposes, with the aims of the body becoming more preservation and leisure orientated in later years.

Following a public consultation ending in March 2010,[32] the request was granted and enacted by the district council in April 2011, renaming the parish in the process.

The long distance Robin Hood Way path and Route 6 of the National Cycle Network pass through the north and east of the parish.

Sherwood Forest Miniature Railway is sited on the former 'water meadows' land used as an irrigation scheme to improve crop yield.

[35] Activities within the forest include: The High Marnham track run by Network Rail passes to the north of the village.

There was previously a Clipstone railway station along this route just south of Gorsethorpe, primarily for goods which was closed completely in 2003.