Short walks with photos and a Google map.
They’re everywhere now – must check out the local bluebell wood. Today we’re on Wenlock Edge, walking a circular route from Aston Munslow. There’s quite a variety of other blooms beside the paths and tracks – a riot of colour (I may be exaggerating). But for sheer quantity, the bluebells win, hands down.
A short circular walk from Much Wenlock, across the edge and down to Homer (it’s near Wigwig…). In a week or two, there should be lots of orchids in the woods – the early purple variety. Too early to see any today? There were one or two, in amongst the emerging bluebells – early early purple perhaps?
Wednesday: the fine weather continues, and we’re on Brown Clee again. We’ve walked this route, from the picnic place near Ditton Priors, on previous occasions. Today we’ll walk anti-clockwise – up through the woods to the summit, and back past Boyne Water, to follow the estate road back to the start. A most pleasant way to spend the afternoon!
Wednesday afternoon on the Wrekin: it’s always worth walking the few yards beyond the trig point and toposcope. Everyone goes to the summit; few go beyond it. The rocks above the Needle’s Eye provide a quiet viewpoint for the Severn valley and the south Shropshire hills. It looked like it might be a bright and sunny afternoon – it was, once we were on our way down again…
We’ve done it before, but last time, the Hall was only open at weekends. Now, it’s open (March to October – closed in the winter) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays too. There’s a tea room, with some tables and seats outside – and it’s just nicely half-way on this walk – perfect!
There are only four buses each day, but the Arriva no. 88 service is ideal for this one (and there’s entertainment value in the negotiation of some of Broseley’s narrower streets, where “anywhere” is the rule for car parking).
There are several possible routes from Benthall Hall to Broseley; most involve field paths and tracks before walking through the streets. On this occasion, we walked down surfaced lanes, to enter Broseley by the “Fiery Fields”.
NOTE for tea drinkers: the tea room is inside the hall, which would require payment of an admission charge; the outside area is not accessible though the hall, but whether one should pay, I’m not sure – we’re members anyway. The Hall is well worth a visit – but muddy feet (and ours were) would not be appreciated…
Bus timetable | Benthall Hall NT
The Long Mynd’s eastern valleys are several and varied – some are valleys, some (most) are batches. There’s a dale and a gutter too – and a couple of hollows. If we count the side valleys off those main valleys… Perhaps not. I’ve been exploring the Mynd for many years, but until very recently, I had not quite digested one rather odd fact born out by the 1:25,000 map: many (perhaps most) of those side valleys have names – except for Ashes Hollow, whose side valleys are nameless. (I’m sure they’re not, but there are no names on the map).
Ashes Hollow runs down to Little Stretton. Next, joining Ashes at its foot, is Small Batch (aptly named), then there’s Callow Hollow. Ashes Hollow is perhaps the next-best known after Cardingmill (Valley), not least due to the camp site occupying its last few yards. Callow is one of the least known, despite being of comparable scenic value, largely because, until relatively recently, there was no easy access to its foot. We met no-one else on foot throughout the walk (just one cyclist, and a farmer in his pickup). And, like so many of these valleys (batches, hollows etc….), once we’re just a few yards in, there’s nothing man-made in sight, until we reach the plateau and the road.
A short wander from the car park at Benthall Hall.
There’s a real sense of wilderness on these border hills. Shropshire lies on the opposite bank of the Teme, but Beacon Hill could easily be somewhere much more remote. It could have been quite tricky too, if Shropshire’s fog hadn’t given way to a cloudless sky as we headed west into Powys.
The walk would have been a very wet one a month ago – there’s plenty of evidence of February’s dyke-filling downpours, where animals have churned the ground in some of the wetter places. But mostly it’s really good underfoot – springy turf and heather moor, with delightful peaty pools reflecting the sky’s deep blue. It’s quiet too – apart from one or two vehicles on the lane up from Beguildy, the only sounds are from the sheep and the birds. And yes – this is red kite country, though they’re never quite close enough for the camera.
Two bright, sunny afternoons – too good to waste…
Monday: a walk from Linley to Bridgnorth. I had a lift to the starting point, for a walk which should be well-timed for a lift home again. Down in the valley, out of the wind, I began to wonder if I should have left my jacket behind. The old railway track would provide a reasonable surface if the river-bank path was too sticky – in the event, it wasn’t bad at all.
Tuesday: A walk to Benthall Hall – an old favourite. The tea-room at the hall was a bonus – hadn’t realised it was open mid-week, so early in the season…
Nothing fishy about this walk… The Pike is a rocky ridge which provides a quick route up to the Long Mynd plateau, for this (relatively) high level route. We look back to Badbury Ring, the hill fort on the edge of the golf course, before heading west to pick up the Portway and the path to Pole Bank, highest point of the Mynd. We can stay on the plateau until the last minutes of this walk, when the path descends steeply to the edge of the woods fringing Church Stretton. Now it’s just a short walk back to the car, descending the track back into Cardingmill Valley. It’s only six miles in total, but we spent most of the afternoon on it – it was too good to hurry, much better to stop and look around, and enjoy the day.
