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Walk to highest point takes
us along the Shropshire Way
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After a bit of a break, our first "County Top" for a few months, and the first of 2019. At 540 metres, Brown Clee Hill is the highest of the Shropshire Clee Hills. We were staying in Ludlow, and having taken advantage of all the lovely food on offer (esp. the French Pantry the night before) we needed some exercise.
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Misty start to the walk. Unable to see
the tops of the Clee Hills ahead.
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We set off from Abdon village and eventually made it onto Clee Liberty Common despite taking a slightly wrong turn and getting chased down the road by some truly vicious farm dogs. We followed the old quarry road up to Nordy Bank, the only one of three iron age hill forts which remains. The fort has ramparts up to 3 m high and you can still climb up them and pretend to be an iron age guardsman. At this point the mist was beginning to burn off and we could see the horseshoe of our walk open up before us.
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| Inquisitive lambs |
Further up are several telecommunications masts due to the hills' height relative to the rest of the area. The Clee Hills are reportedly the highest land mass going east until the Urals, and during World War II twenty three German and Allied airmen were killed in numerous separate incidents when their planes crashed into it, and we walked past a memorial to the dead on our way to the summit.
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Transmitter above the old quarry workings.
Highest point now just visible in the distance
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Brown Clee Hill was the site of more WW2
aircraft crashes than any other hill in the UK
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A topograph has been erected at the top engraved with a few lines of poetry by AE Housman. I think they're probably from A Shropshire Lad. This seemed like an excellent spot for lunch, after which we began our descent round and down back to Abdon.
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Close-up of topograph confirming the height
at 540m, the highest point in Shropshire
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Dual transmitters and topograph pillar on
top of Brown Clee Hill
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Looking west - the mist starts to clear, but the
Stiperstones and Long Myndd still not visible
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As we'd made good time there was still enough daylight for a drive across to the very welcoming Stiperstones Inn and a quick circuit of the Stones themselves and the Devil's Chair.
