The Cheltenham Badlands is a 36.6 hectare landscape of deeply eroded gullies and rills situated on well-weathered Silurian aged red shales in southern Ontario, Canada. The site afforded the opportunity to observe natural and human impacted erosion rates over the last four decades. Topographic, ground LiDAR and structure-from motion surveys show that between 1973 and 2014, maximum lowering (degradation) in the main portion of the property was up to 3.2 m with average annual rates of lowering that vary between 0.7 and 2.5 cm per year. Specific sediment yield at the site is approximately 27,000 tonnes per square km per year or at least two orders of magnitude larger than “normal” rates for this region. There is no strong evidence to show if rates have been changing over the last 40-50 years but there is strong indication that gullies in lower gradient areas of the main site are becoming stable as they become filled. The illite and chlorite rich clay-shales of the badlands are subject to moderate swelling and then shallow surface cracking during dry conditions followed by surface wash and gully wall debris flows. Aspect and winter snow distribution influences erosion rates locally. Cross-section results in the steeper upper slope areas pointing towards a pattern of gullies deepening at a greater rate than ridge tops. Until 2017 the area was subject to very heavy human foot traffic. Experiments show that walking and sliding in the gullies may have accounted for up to 25% of the annual sediment loss.