Long Mynd

Few things are more dispiriting, so it's fortunate that no matter how long it takes the land to dry out after January's rain, there are ways of avoiding the worst of it. One way is to head uphill, but even then you have to choose your hill with care - cultivated hills won't do, and hills in dairy country are not ideal. What you need is sheep pasture, woodland or moorland, so you can't go far wrong with this beautiful walk on the Long Mynd as it features all three, but especially moorland. The paths are well-defined and the ground is mostly firm, even stony in places, so it doesn't degenerate into a bogtrot, as some moorland walks can. In any case, it's all access land, so if one path is boggy you can choose another.

The Long Mynd derives its name from mynydd, a Welsh word meaning mountain. It's not a mountain; it's an undulating plateau cut by steep-sided valleys. The ground cover is heather, whinberry, bracken and wiry moorland grasses, below a sparse scattering of stunted, wind-contorted hawthorns, hollies and rowans. It's sometimes referred to as the last wilderness in the Midlands, but it's no more a wilderness than it is a mountain. It has been subject to human use for millennia, as an abundance of prehistoric remains demonstrates.

There are Bronze Age tumuli and dykes, an Iron Age fort and a road called the Port Way which has run across the top of the Mynd for about 4,000 years.

The Mynd was once covered by oakwoods but these had been cleared by the Iron Age when it was used for summer grazing. By the Middle Ages it had become permanent sheepwalk, and remains so to this day. Most of it is owned by the National Trust, but local farmers retain grazing rights. By the 1990s the Mynd had become seriously overgrazed and the heather for which it was once famous was disappearing. The creation of numerous car parks had done further damage. Since 2002 farmers have been compensated for reducing livestock numbers, while the trust has closed many of the car parks and has helped to fund seasonal shuttle bus services. Already, heather has reclaimed many of the damaged areas.

This is just one of several Shropshire landscapes where heather moorland is being restored - on Stiperstones, for instance, thousands of conifers have been felled and replaced with heather.

You can see Stiperstones from the top of the Long Mynd; Cader Idris too on a clear day. When it's duller you may have to be content with a panorama stretching from the Malvern Hills to the Wrekin.

DIRECTIONS1 Make your way to The Square, go past the church and straight on into Rectory Field. Walk to the top left corner then turn right by the edge, soon entering Old Rectory Wood. Descend to a junction and turn left, soon crossing Town Brook, then climbing to a gate on to the Long Mynd. Go forward beside the brook to meet some iron railings, then continue in the same direction with the brook on your left. The path climbs imperceptibly at first, then more steeply as it heads away from the brook. Eventually, path and brook meet again near the head of the latter.

2 Cross the brook and proceed 50m to a junction marked by the first in a succession of pink-banded posts. Follow these posts, gaining height very gradually and ignoring branching paths. After ascending a slight rise you'll see the summit of the Long Mynd ahead on the left. Meet a road about 100m left of a junction. Turn left, ignore a path to Little Stretton and go straight on when the road bends left, joining a bridleway. At the next junction turn left to reach the summit. Continue in the same direction to rejoin the road, then turn right.

3 Turn left on a footpath to Little Stretton. It begins as a wide track, and you should go left when it forks. The onward path is visible ahead, cutting across the shoulder of Round Hill. Go straight on at another junction then descend to Cross Dyke (a Bronze Age earthwork). Beyond the dyke the path ascends briefly, but soon levels out, and then begins its descent, eventually following a brook to Little Stretton.

4 Cross the brook at a footbridge by a ford and turn right on a lane, but only for a few paces, then take a footpath on the left. Climb by a field edge to the top corner then turn left, following the top of a slope to a pasture. Follow the right-hand edge until the path enters woodland. Descend to Ludlow Road then join a bridleway which climbs into woodland and emerges at the far side to meet a track, which becomes a road. As it bends to the right there is access on the left to Rectory Field and Church Stretton.

FACT FILEStart: .Church Stretton, grid ref SO453936.

Length: 7 miles/12km Maps: OS Explorer 217, OS Landranger 137.

Terrain: Heather moorland, with gentle slopes.

Footpaths: Excellent Stiles: Three Parking: Easthope Road car park, Church Stretton.

Public transport: You can go all the way by train, changing at Hereford, but fares are high on this route; it's much cheaper to go by bus as far as Ludlow (295/292, changing at Kidderminster) then by bus (435) or train from there; Rail Enquiries 08457 484950 or www.nationalrail.co.uk or www.traveline.info or Traveline 0871 200 2233.

Refreshments: Church Stretton, Little Stretton.

PLEASE NOTE This walk has been carefully checked and the directions are believed to be accurate at the time of publication.

No responsibility is accepted by either the author or publisher for errors or omissions, or for any loss, accident or injury, however caused.