Читать книгу Hillwalking in Shropshire - John Gillham - Страница 9

INTRODUCTION

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows:

What are these blue remembered hills

What spires, what farms are those?

… In valleys of springs of rivers

By Ony and Teme and Clun,

The country for easy livers,

The quietest under the sun

Two verses from ‘A Shropshire Lad’ by AE Housman, in which he yearns for his home county

Shropshire lies at the heart of England but well away from the cities, the smoke and the noise. It is an extremely rural county with only two sizeable towns – Shrewsbury and Telford. Stand on any of its mountains and you’ll see a patchwork of greenery; pastures divided by hedgerow and woodland copses. It’s undulating country, never truly mountainous but with sufficient distinctive peaks and rocks to keep a walker happy for years.

The county is divided into two by the River Severn, which meanders from the Welsh hills into Shrewsbury, where it forms a wide loop before threading through a wooded gorge at Ironbridge and, beyond Bridgnorth, out into Worcestershire. To the north and east of the great river the landscape is one of flat, fertile pastures; to the south and west it’s one of fine but little-known hills. The latter area has been designated the ‘Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Beauty’. Most but not all of the walks in this guide are here.

From the magnificent town of Ludlow, the River Teme cuts a fine valley, winding through the south Shropshire countryside to Knighton and the Welsh borders. Here Offa’s Dyke takes us over green ridges to the Kerry Hills and the small town of Clun. Around here, many of the hills are topped with Iron Age forts which will enliven the day and spark the imagination.

From Ludlow you can look east to Titterstone Clee Hill – a rakish, rugged escarpment crowned by towers and white radomes and a fine viewpoint with some craggy slopes. It’s scarred with mines and quarries, so if you love industrial archaeology then you’ll love this place, as well as Brown Clee Hill a few miles to the north. Brown Clee is the highest hill in the county and its industrial scars have been softened by forests in the east.

The most spectacular scenery, however, lies to the north and east between the wooded limestone escarpment of Wenlock Edge and the plains of Shrewsbury and the Severn Valley. Here are three distinct ranges: the Stretton Hills, the Long Mynd and Stiperstones. The Stretton Hills are steep-sided whalebacks of volcanic origin, with tremendous ‘free-striding’ ridges. Caer Caradoc is the highest of these and has a huge fort on top, but the Lawley offers the purest of the ridge-walks.

On the other side of Church Stretton is the Long Mynd, a broad 7-mile (11km) heather ridge cut deep in the east by several crag-fringed, steep-sided batches (small valleys), which provide superb walks to the tops. Across the wide valley of the East Onny lies Stiperstones, another long heather ridge but this time studded with shattered rocky tors. Manstone Rocks on Stiperstones is the second highest peak in Shropshire.

The hills get smaller as you go northwards towards Shrewsbury, but the volcanic hog’s back that is the Wrekin makes one last stand. Although covered with forest, there’s just enough open ground and lots of rocky outcrops to make this a top priority on a hillwalker’s to-do list.

Manstone Rock on Stiperstones (Walk 14)

SHROPSHIRE GEOLOGY (BY RONALD TURNBULL)

Nowhere else as small as Shropshire has so much geology going on. Within the county, 11 of the 13 geological periods are exposed. The fourth of them, the Silurian Period, was first uncovered along the England-Wales border by Roderick Impey Murchison in the 1830s; it takes its name from the Silures tribe, who under Caractacus may (or may not) have fought the Romans at Caer Caradoc. Of the Silurian’s four constituent epochs, two (Ludlow and Wenlock) have Shropshire names.

For comparison, the Lake District is made of three basic rock types, of two geological periods. A single Shropshire hill, the Wrekin, has no fewer than eight different rock types, from six separate periods.

Squashed-up Shropshire

The UK (provided you don’t look too closely) has a relatively simple rock structure. North and west takes you deeper and more ancient: from the clays of London down through the Chalk, the Coal Measures, all the way to the ancient continental crust of the Scottish Highlands. Shropshire compresses most of this sequence into the width of a single county. We’ll survey the county from its eastern edge, where the most recent rocks form fairly intelligible layers.

The top (youngest) rocks here are from the Triassic and Permian periods. This ‘New Red Sandstone’ forms Shropshire’s north-eastern lowlands and no notable hills. It is seen as the pale brown Grinshill Stone used in the handsome buildings of Bridgenorth, Shrewsbury and Wellington.

Next down in the sequence, and next west in the county, the Carboniferous Period formed the Coal Measures at Ironbridge, and also the tops of all three Clee Hills, with old bellpit workings on top of Abdon Burf.

Below the Carboniferous lies the Old Red Sandstone. It forms the lower slopes of the Clee Hills and down into Corve Dale; the reddish stone was quarried at the beautifully named Devil’s Mouthpiece.

Below the Old Red Sandstone

These Devonian-age sandstones form a thick, featureless and almost fossil-free layer across the kingdom. For the early geologists, ‘below the ORS’ meant rocks that were deep, twisted, ancient and mystifying. It was in the Wye Valley and in Shropshire that Roderick Impey Murchison started to make sense of what he would name the Silurian Period.

Wenlock Edge and Hoar Edge show knobbly reef structures and layered sea-floor limestone; some beds are made up of small tubular crinoid (sea-lily) fragments. Patches like nylon dish-scrubber are ancient coral. Shells are also common.

For casual fossil-hunters, the best places to look are fresh scree and stream pebbles around Wenlock Edge. But also keep your eyes open in villages – especially old drystone walls – for shells and for the wiggly lines that were worm burrows.

Church Stretton crumple zone

Down to the west from Wenlock, there’s just space to squeeze in the Ordovician Period around Cardington at the base of Caer Caradoc. And then we arrive into the Church Stretton crumple zone. Here, rocks of the earliest geological periods – Ordovician and Cambrian – are embedded within crumpled and mashed ancient crust stretching back into the Precambrian.

Ordovician rocks pop back up as the tottering towers of Stiperstones. The ancient earth movements have tilted it almost upright; after 500 million years of hard times, the stones have just been broken up a bit more by freeze-thaw of the Ice Age.

Even older stones, from the Precambrian, make the Long Mynd’s grey-to-black sandstone. It’s folded and tilted almost vertical in the rocky stream hollows running down to Church Stretton.

The great Church Stretton fault, running south-west towards Ludlow and north-east to Newport, has not only moved rockforms sideways past one another; it’s also moved them up and down. To west of the valley and its railway line, ancient rocks have been moved downwards, while east of the line everything has moved up. And so the very old grey sandstones of the Long Mynd look across Church Stretton towards the even older, and quite different, volcanic rocks of Hope Bowdler Hill and the Lawley.

Volcanoes of Uriconia

Uriconium Cornoviorum was the Roman town on the site now occupied by Wroxeter. The Uriconian Volcanics started off as a chain of volcanic islands, which were then crushed and mangled in a continental collision. So Wrekin and Earl’s Hill, Caer Caradoc, Lawley and Hope Bowdler Hill have the same origin as Lakeland or Snowdonia, albeit 100 million years earlier on. And these rugged hills east of the Stretton valley show the same mix of black basalt, grey andesite and pale grey to pink rhyolite; the same sort of lava flows and volcanic ash that make Snowdon or Scafell.

Scrambled Shropshire is difficult indeed when it comes to puzzling out how the various rock types fit together. But, by the same token, these small hills are a superb sampler of a dozen sorts of stone, from the sea-floor coral and limestone of Wenlock Edge through the white quartzite Stiperstones, to the volcanic ash of Caer Caradoc and the ancient mangled crust that makes the Long Mynd.

Volcanic rock on Caer Caradoc (Walks 21 and 24)

History

The first known settlement in Shropshire is at the Roveries near Lydham, just north of Bishop’s Castle. Although the fort is Iron Age, evidence has been found of a Neolithic (Stone Age) settlement dating back to before 2000BC. Shropshire, like most of England at this time, was heavily afforested and the Stone Age people forged highways such as the Portway across the region, erected stone circles and standing stones and buried their dead in raised barrows (tumuli) on the ‘open’ ridges. Axes and other flint tools have been found all over the county.

The first evidence of tree clearing comes from the people of the Bronze Age (2000BC to 800BC). In the Iron Age period (800BC to AD43) the Celts put down roots and began to construct hilltop forts and settlements with roundhouses. Examples of these will be found on many of the walks but the most famous include Caer Caradoc, the Wrekin, and Bury Ditches. In Shropshire the Cornovii tribe ruled and probably had their capital on the Wrekin hillfort. The tribe cleared large swaths of the valley woodland into fields where they grew cereals, peas, beans and cabbages.

The Cornovii, led by Virico, were here when the Romans came to the area in AD47. The Romans, under Governor Aulus Plautius, attacked the Wrekin fort and eventually overpowered it, but Virico must have put up a good fight as the Romans named their city at nearby Wroxeter Viroconium in honour of their enemy. The conquerors rapidly built forts of their own, along with roads such as Watling Street to link them. The Cornovii disappeared into history.

The Roman city of Wroxeter

After the Romans abandoned Britain in the fourth century, much of what we call Shropshire today became the Welsh Kingdom of Powys, and later Pengwern. These border grounds were the scenes of many a battle. In 656 the region was overrun by Saxons and became part of Mercia. In 765 the Mercian King, Offa, built Watt’s Dyke to repel the Welsh before advancing with his troops to take Shrewsbury. In 779 he drove them back into the hills and constructed the Offa’s Dyke earthwork border between Chepstow and Prestatyn. The border has changed little since those days.

When the Normans conquered England in 1066 Wild Edric, a Saxon nobleman, owned much of Shropshire, which was at this time known as Scrobbesbyrigscire. He fought hard to repel the enemy but eventually had to surrender to William the Conqueror. Much of the land, including Shrewsbury, was ceded to Roger de Montgomerie. Over the next two centuries powerful castles were built at Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Clun, Bridgnorth and Bishop’s Castle. Many monasteries and abbeys were also built at this time, including those at Shrewsbury, Much Wenlock and Buildwas.

The once powerful Ludlow Castle (Walk 3)

There were frequent skirmishes between the Plantagenet kings and their Norman barons. When King John was crowned, the Shropshire noblemen opposed it. At this time the Welsh were making inroads into the county too, with Prince Rhys flattening Clun Castle and Prince Llewelyn the Great taking Shrewsbury Castle. In 1216 King John took the castles of Clun and Oswestry, only to have John FitzAlan take them back. In revenge King John had Oswestry burned to the ground and took Clun once more. FitzAlan would be a thorn in the monarchs of England’s side for many years.

The Percy Rebellion against Henry IV came to a conclusion at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 when the Lancastrian king defeated Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur) of Northumberland. The battle was immortalised by William Shakespeare’s play Henry IV.

By the late 14th century Ludlow had over 1100 inhabitants and had become one of the more formidable towns in England. In 1472 Edward IV founded the Council of the Marches, whose power was centred at Ludlow Castle. The council presided over much of Wales and the counties of the English Marches.

In Tudor times Shropshire’s population doubled and it developed a vibrant economy. Shrewsbury became an important cattle market at this time, and the wool and cloth trade flourished, while the navigable River Severn became crucial to transportation of these goods.

Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1535 saw the destruction of scores of ecclesiastical buildings such as the abbeys of Buildwas, Wenlock, Shrewsbury and Ludlow. The next hundred years also saw many periods of plague, with 10 per cent of the population being killed by one epidemic in 1604.

The people of Shropshire were largely Royalists. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1642 King Charles I visited Shrewsbury and Wellington, where he made the Declaration of Wellington, promising to uphold Protestantism, the laws of the country and the liberty of Parliament. Shrewsbury was forced to surrender in 1644, and the Royalist strongholds of Ludlow and Bridgnorth were captured in 1646. In 1689 the Council of the Marches was suspended and Ludlow’s importance waned.

The 18th century brought the Industrial Revolution. Coalbrookdale in the Severn Valley is generally regarded as its birthplace. In 1708 Adrian Darby leased the Coalbrookdale furnace and started iron-smelting with coke. John Wilkinson, a precision engineer of Broseley, built cylinders for early steam engines and also produced the first iron boat.

Under instructions from Adrian Darby III, Thomas Telford designed the first cast iron bridge in 1779 to link the important industrial towns of Broseley and Madeley in a place now known as Ironbridge. The 30-metre bridge still spans the Severn to this day and the two towns became known throughout the world for the production of tiles, clay pipes and bricks. The Ironbridge Gorge Museums (www.ironbridge.org.uk) are a must see if you’re in the area.

The coming of the canals and then the railways accelerated the march of industry, and quarrying and mining were now practiced on a large scale in order to feed the new industries with raw materials for roads, factories and furnaces.

The New Towns Act of 1946 gave rise to a plan that would eventually create Telford, Shropshire’s largest town and one which would re-house people from the slums of Birmingham. The town was built on derelict industrial sites of Dawley, Oakengates, Shifnal, Wellington and the Ironbridge Gorge. The scheme was supported by the construction of the M54 motorway, a new railway station and a huge shopping centre, and also by the encouragement of new industries to the area.

Plants and wildlife

Common heather, or ling, grows prolifically over the acidic soils of the Stiperstones and Long Mynd ridges, with bell heather thriving on the drier, sunnier hillsides. In wetter peaty uplands you’ll find the cross-leaved heath, cotton grass, bog asphodel, sphagnum moss and, less commonly, the insect-eating sundew. The heathers are often interspersed with bilberry, known as whinberry throughout the county. Stiperstones has cowberry and crowberry too.

Red grouse are common on the heather moors, as are ravens and buzzards, and the blackbird-like ring ouzel can be found here too, along with skylarks, meadow pipits and redstarts. Well camouflaged grayling butterflies can be found on the heath, along with green hairstreaks and emperor moths.

Peacock butterfly seen on Wenlock Edge

Red Kites, whose UK population was for over a century confined to a small area of Mid Wales, have been re-introduced to the Shropshire Hills and are a common but beautiful sight. The author counted over a dozen in the skies above the Bury Ditches one day.

Mat grass, which is so unpalatable to sheep, is found on poor acidic grounds of the Long Mynd and the Clee Hills. The batches or small valleys that penetrate the western side of the Long Mynd have been overgrazed and the bracken and gorse have spread across sheep-shorn grass slopes. On the shady side of the batches you may well be able to spot wood sorrel and rare oceanic liverworts. Dippers can be seen bobbing up and down across, and diving into the streams of the batches.

The Wenlock Edge and the hills around Oswestry are of limestone, often ravaged by quarrying and mining. Here, herbs such as wild thyme, wild basil and marjoram flourish. On or near the coppiced woodlands of the Wenlock Edge you’ll see not only bluebells and garlic but herb Paris, violets, the yellow bird’s-nest, primroses and orchids – including the quite rare bee orchid.

Getting there

Covering an area of 3,487 square kilometres (1,346 square miles), Shropshire is the largest of England’s inland counties and, as such, routes to Ludlow in the south of the county would be very different to those to Llanymynech in the north. For people coming any distance, the transport infrastructure of the region is based on Shrewsbury, which is used in the following sections as a hub.

By bus

The 410 National Express service runs from London to Shrewsbury via Birmingham and Telford. See www.nationalexpress.com for timetable and ticket details.

By rail

London Midland (www.londonmidland.com) run direct trains from Birmingham New Street to Shrewsbury via Telford. The Heart of Wales line (www.heart-of-wales.co.uk) runs from Swansea to Shrewsbury, stopping at some of the smaller towns along the way. Arriva Trains Wales (www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk) run regular direct trains from Manchester to Shrewsbury, as well as direct trains from Chester to Shrewsbury via Wrexham.

By car

From the north west there are two ways. The first uses the M6 and M54 motorways via Telford, then the A5 to Shrewsbury. The second – better at busy times – leaves the M6 for the M56, M53 and A55 around Chester, followed by the A483 and A5. From the north east you would take a combination of the A1M and A1 to the M1, which you would leave near Nottingham for the A50, A38 then the A5 just south of Lichfield. From the south east the M40 and the M42 take you south of Birmingham to Bromsgrove, where the A448 Kidderminster road followed by the A442 take you to Bridgnorth and then the A458 continues to Shrewsbury. The M5 serves the south west well. Leave this at Junction 6 north of Worcester, where the A449 joins the south east route at Kidderminster.

Getting around

Like most rural areas, Shropshire’s bus services are sketchy. Links between the major towns of Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Telford are frequent and villages in between such as Much Wenlock, Church Stretton, Craven Arms and Ironbridge benefit from this. However, the out-of-the-way places such as Stiperstones and the Clun Valley are not so well served. A car or taxi would be a distinct advantage, especially outside the summer months. Detailed travel information can be found at www.travelinemidlands.co.uk

By bus

The following services cover the larger settlements featured in this book:

1 Oswestry to Shrewsbury (Arriva)

88 Telford to Much Wenlock (Arriva)

96 Shrewsbury to Telford (GHA/Bryn Melyn)

99 Bridgnorth to Telford via Ironbridge (Arriva)

141 Bridgnorth to Ludlow (R&B Travel)

292 Ludlow to Kidderminster via Clee Hill (Diamond Buses)

435 Shrewsbury to Ludlow via Church Stretton, Craven Arms (Minsterley Motors)

540 Shrewsbury to Cardington via Church Stretton (Boultons)

552 Shrewsbury to Stiperstones via Pontesford and Snailbeach (Minsterley Motors)

553 Shrewsbury to Bishop’s Castle via Pontesford, Pontesbury (Minsterley Motors)

576 Shrewsbury to Oswestry (Bryn Melyn)

738 Ludlow to Knighton (Arriva)

740 Ludlow to Knighton (Arriva

X11 Ludlow to Builth Wells via Knighton (Roy Browns)

A Long Mynd and Stiperstones shuttle bus runs from late April to the end of September on weekends and bank holidays. The circular route calls at Carding Mill, Church Stretton, Shooting Box (Long Mynd ridge), Bridges, the Bog visitor centre, the Stiperstones Inn, Snailbeach, Pontesbury and Dunkley Nap (Long Mynd ridge).

Looking down Ashes Hollow, the Long Mynd (Walk 20)

By rail

Arriva Trains Wales (www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk) provide services from Shrewsbury to Ludlow via Church Stretton and Craven Arms, and from Shrewsbury to Knighton via Church Stretton and Craven Arms.

By taxi

If you’ve travelled to the region by public transport you may find yourself in need of a taxi to get to and from the more remote start/end points covered in this guide. Below is a selection of the area’s taxi companies, with whom you can arrange pick-up and drop-off:

Oswestry Cabs, tel 01691 661663

Ultimate, Telford, tel 01952 813636

A1 Taxis, Telford, tel 01952 414141

AAA, Shrewsbury, tel 01743 244555

Woodhouse, Church Stretton, tel 01694 723105

Arms Cars, Craven Arms, tel 01588 672734

Bridgnorth Taxis, tel 01746 765000

Ludlow Taxis, tel 01584 876666

Knighton Taxis, tel 01547 528165

When to go

You can walk in Shropshire at any time. Winter, when the snow has fallen on the hills, gives the hills a new dimension and most sogginess in the ground will be replaced by a crunch under your feet. When the sun is out the atmosphere is often crystal-clear and you can see for 50 miles in every direction. Some of the vegetation will have died back, making progress along the paths easier. Woodland paths may however be slippery at this time.

Spring is a delightful time, when nature is vibrant with new life and colour. The bracken is still red, and in the woods the vivid chrome green of the new leaves contrasts with the abundant spring flowers, which have poked their heads up above last year’s leaves.

The Iron Bridge at springtime (Walk 31)

In summer the days have lengthened, making it possible to do much longer walks or evening walks, taking in the sunset. The ground at this time has dried out, although you’ll find that low-level paths may be a little overgrown. Make sure you take your waterproof leggings at this time for dew-drenched vegetation can soak you quite quickly, as can farmers’ crops, which might well be tall. Mid to late August is the best time to see the heather blooming on Stiperstones and the Long Mynd.

In autumn the nights draw in again, but the flame colours of the bracken and the woods add great beauty to the landscape. Bilberry leaves have turned red and the heather to dark russet. Together they mix with the grasses to create a tapestry of colour any tweed designer would be proud of.

Bases for the Shropshire hills

The range of accommodation available in Shropshire is wide. However, accommodation providers are always changing and so it would be impractical to provide a complete listing here. A selection of campsites, hostels, the long-established inns and hotels is provided in Appendix B, and up-to-date accommodation lists and availability can be found at www.trivago.co.uk, www.laterooms.com and www.booking.com.

Ludlow

Ludlow, in the south of the county, has good road links to Knighton and Craven Arms and good bus and train links with Craven Arms, Church Stretton and Shrewsbury. The market and tourist town has plenty of shops, a large supermarket, several hotels, inns and B&Bs and two campsites. It’s well known for its restaurants, has a theatre, and you can visit the castle and the museum. With riverside walks and so much of interest, this is a great base for southern Shropshire.

South-west Shropshire

There are no sizeable accommodation centres for those wanting to explore the Clun and Teme valleys. The biggest is the market town of Knighton just over the Welsh Border. Knighton has quite a few shops, a handful of B&Bs (including a couple of inns), and is on the Heart of Wales railway line with links to Ludlow, Craven Arms, Church Stretton and Shrewsbury. The next largest centre with a couple of inns and B&Bs is Bishop’s Castle.

Bridgnorth

The historic market town on the banks of the River Severn has good road links to Telford, Ironbridge and the Wenlock Edge and bus links to Much Wenlock, Ludlow and Telford. The town has many hotels, inns, B&Bs and shops, including a large supermarket. There’s a campsite on the hillside at Stanmore, just over a mile to the east. The town is crammed with history and things to see and do, including the Severn Valley (steam) Railway.

Church Stretton

Deservedly the most popular base for the Shropshire Hills, Church Stretton is a busy little town surrounded by characterful hills, including the Long Mynd, Ragleth Hill and Caer Caradoc. There are regular buses and trains along the valley to Shrewsbury and Ludlow and there are plentiful inns, B&Bs and one hotel. There are campsites at nearby Leebotwood and Little Stretton.

Church Stretton and Caer Caradoc from the Long Mynd ridge (Walk 22)

Much Wenlock

Much Wenlock lies on the northern end of the Wenlock Edge just five miles south-west of Ironbridge and the Ironbridge Gorge. This splendid small market town has quite a few small shops for stocking up and a few pubs and cafés. It has a really good campsite (the Sytche) and several inns and B&Bs.

Stiperstones region

There are no real walkers’ centres for the Stiperstones area; just a handful of small villages and country inns. See Appendix B for contact details.

Telford (including Ironbridge)

The new town of Telford is known for its by-pass, its roundabouts and its huge shopping centre. It has several large chain hotels, which can, if booked in advance, work out to be inexpensive. Bus links are quite good. Ironbridge in the Ironbridge Gorge is far nicer though, and there are many cafés and shops here in addition to the inns and B&Bs. A visit to the museums highlighting the area’s fascinating industrial heritage is a must. There are lots of good short walks too.

Maps and GPS

Ordnance Survey maps

While OS Landranger maps – which have been used for the route maps within this guide – are fine for the hill sections, it is recommended that you also carry a more detailed OS 1:25,000 Explorer map with you. The following maps cover the walks and the relevant sheet number is specified at the beginning of each route description:

201 – Knighton & Presteigne

203 – Ludlow Tenbury Wells & Cleobury Mortimer

216 – Welshpool & Montgomery

217 – The Long Mynd & Wenlock Edge

218 – The Wyre Forest & Kidderminster

241 – Shrewsbury

242 – Telford & Ironbridge

Using GPS (global positioning system)

These days GPS units are excellent companions, whether they be 7-inch tablets or specialist units like Garmin and Memory Map. The GPS tracks for all the routes in this guide can be downloaded by visiting the Cicerone site: www.cicerone.co.uk/member

In recent years GPS units have become quite sophisticated and nowadays they usually include OS mapping for the UK. They are a very useful addition to your equipment, especially if you’re caught out in hill fog on the mountains.

In addition to the dedicated GPS units there are apps for iPhones, Android and Blackberry smartphones and tablets too. Viewranger and Memory Map are the best known, and their maps are stored on your phone rather than being online ‘in the cloud’ (like Trailzilla maps). Remember, if the maps are in the cloud and you don’t have a phone signal, then you don’t have a map.

Most dedicated units come with map packages. Some come with complete OS Landranger 1:50,000 maps for the UK, while others just include National Parks. OS Explorer maps are better and you can buy DVDs covering the whole of the UK – although they are expensive. The other way of doing this is to go online and download the exact area you want (both Memory Map and Viewranger facilitate this). You can always add to the area you bought later.

All units will need charging at the end of the day. Dedicated GPS units can usually last at least eight hours, and most have facilities to attach battery cases to keep them topped up. If you’re using a smartphone as a GPS, be aware of the battery life. You may need at least one spare battery or you’ll have to use the app sparingly – that is, when you’re unsure of where to go next – so it doesn’t run down unnecessarily.

A word of caution here: GPS devices should be used as a supplement to the maps, as their battery may lose power unexpectedly.

Safety

Although nowhere in Shropshire is really remote, it is extremely important that all walkers are fully equipped and practised in the use of map and compass. If bad weather such as a blizzard comes in quickly then trouble can occur in a matter of minutes.

Make sure to take enough food and water – keep additional emergency rations in the corner of your rucksack. Not taking enough food is the quickest way of becoming tired, and being tired is the quickest way of sustaining an injury. Good breathable waterproofs are essential. Remember: getting cold and wet will render the walker vulnerable to hypothermia, even outside the winter months.

It is important to wear good walking boots. Shoes have insufficient grip and ankle support on difficult terrain. Even the lower-level sections can become slippery after rainfall. It is a good idea to pack some emergency medical supplies (such as plasters, dressings, tape, painkillers); there are plenty of good kits available.

Using this guide

Listed in a box at the start of each walk is the following information: start/finish point (including grid reference), total distance, height gain, difficulty rating, length of time required (note that this is an approximation; times will depend on the individual walker), a brief description of the terrain you can expect to encounter, the OS Explorer map you should carry with you, refreshment options and any parking advice. Distances are given in miles (familiar to all), with kilometres in brackets. As OS maps and their contours are metric these days, height gain is given in metres as well as feet.

The map extracts included in this guide are from the 1:50,000 OS Landranger series, increased to 1:40,000 for greater clarity. To aid navigation, places and features of the landscape that appear on these map extracts are highlighted in bold within the route descriptions.

Shropshire’s beautiful hills, while providing stimulating walks, are never over-demanding, so the grading system in this book has been kept simple: easy, moderate and hard. Those who regularly walk and scramble up the high mountains of Snowdonia and Scotland will find all the Shropshire walks fairly easy by comparison as there are no scrambles and no rocky arêtes.

 Easy walks are mostly quite short and never have steep climbs.

 Moderate walks may have steady or short steep climbs but there is nothing difficult.

 Hard walks may be long or may have steep climbs or slightly awkward bits, for example narrow, occasionally slippery paths.

Appendix A comprises a route summary table and Appendix B provides contact details for a selection of accommodation providers in the region. Please note, however, that accommodation options are likely to change over time.

The view to Stiperstones from the north side of Adstone Hill (Walk 18)