Stiperstones

Stiperstones is in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and much of it is also a National Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Conservation Area.

It is regarded as being of international importance for its heathland habitats, and it also has flower-rich grassland, marshland and woods of oak, birch and rowan.

Conifers were planted on Stiperstones from the 1940s onwards, spreading a sombre shroud of dark green over what had previously been a colourful cloak of heather, whinberry, cowberry and crowberry.

Since 1998, most have been felled and removed thanks to ‘Back to Purple’, a joint project involving Natural England, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, the Forestry Commission and local landowners.

This has been hugely successful; heather and whinberry flourish once again, and the unsightly Gatten Plantation which disfigured the south-eastern flank of Stiperstones no longer exists.

The plantations round Nipstone Rock have gone too. Exmoor ponies and Hebridean sheep have been drafted in to maintain the restored heaths through grazing.

Two other wonderful nature reserves are also explored in this walk, both of which belong to Shropshire Wildlife Trust.

Brook Vessons is a beautiful place which has developed on the site of long-abandoned smallholdings. The only clues to its past existence are the mossy, tumbledown walls of former green lanes and a series of low banks which acted as field boundaries.

North of Brook Vessons, The Hollies has what are believed to be the oldest holly trees in Britain.

Stiperstones was an industrial site for nearly 2,000 years, during which time it was mined for lead, an activity which only came to an end in the 1950s.

Snailbeach Mine has been preserved and the former spoil heaps now support wild flowers.

The site is fascinating to explore, and there’s more industrial heritage at The Bog, which requires only a short detour from the walk.

FACTFILE

START Snailbeach, on a minor road off A488 Shrewsbury to Bishop’s Castle road, south of Minsterley; grid ref SJ372022.

LENGTH Eight miles/13km.

MAPS OS Explorer 216, OS Landranger 126/137.

TERRAIN Moorland, scree, pasture, woodland, marshland; moderately hilly.

FOOTPATHS Hard to fault, except that one bridleway needs waymarking.

STILES None.

PARKING Snailbeach village hall.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT Train to Shrewsbury, then Minsterley Motors 552 to Snailbeach. Also, on summer weekends, until 29 September only, Shropshire Hills Shuttles operates from Church Stretton (accessible by train, via Hereford, or by bus, via Ludlow) to Snailbeach; travelshropshire.co.uk, shropshirehillsshuttles.co.uk, nationalrail.co.uk, 08457 484950, Traveline 0871 200 2233.

REFRESHMENTS Café at nearby Bog Visitor Centre.

DIRECTIONS

1 Take a footpath left of Lordshill Lane and climb towards Snailbeach Mine. Turn left at the top of the path, then shortly turn right on the Shropshire Way and follow it through the mining site and up to the Cornish engine house. Turn right at a sign for Resting Hill chimney and then climb through woodland. The chimney is soon on your left, hidden in trees. Keep climbing, leaving the wood and continuing through pasture to the top of Resting Hill. Cross a field to a gate giving access to the National Nature Reserve (NNR).

Follow the left-hand fence.

2 Turn right when you meet a well-defined track. Ignore branching paths and you’ll quite soon pass the first big tor, Shepherd’s Rock. Keep straight on at the junction near the rock, marked by a cairn. Walk the full length of Stiperstones, keeping to the crest of the ridge. As you approach the southern end the view is spoilt by a car park below left. An obvious path runs down to it, which you may wish to take if you want a short cut. Otherwise, keep to the more difficult but more rewarding path along the rocky crest and turn left to the car park at the bottom (or turn right to visit The Bog Centre).

3 Walk through the car park to join a bridleway. After about three-quarters of a mile, an unsigned path forks left. Take this path, which leads to a fenced enclosure for ponies, then follow a waymarked path to the left, climbing to a gate giving access to the NNR. Turn right and walk to another junction at a gate. Turn second left, towards Shepherd’s Rock. Stop just short of the rock and turn right on a path marked by a small cairn.

4 Leave the NNR but continue across similar terrain on a bridleway. Pass through Brook Vessons then return to the NNR.

When you have passed an NNR information panel, look for a narrow path going right to a hidden gate. Return to Brook Vessons and turn left on a bridleway. When you reach a rushy area the bridleway is hard to follow but bear slightly right if you can, or just continue straight on then turn right when you meet a fence. There are two gates in the fence and you want the lower one, which is metal, with faded, illegible waymarks. Follow a trodden path across the next pasture to a gate.

5 Go to a gate in the far left corner of the next field – the path is supposed to take a zig-zag route, going first right, then left. Once through the gate you’re back on open access land, in another nature reserve, The Hollies. Turn right to find a path which rises gently to meet a stony track. Turn right and stay on the track at a junction. Pass the lovely and unusual Lordshill Baptist Chapel, leave The Hollies and proceed to a junction. Turn right on Lordshill Lane, which soon swings left and descends through woodland to Snailbeach.