Gallery

The most accessible of the numerous stream valleys running from The Wrekin to the River Severn. In Chermes Dingle you’ll find rare wet woodland habitat and a geological story of international importance that began in prehistoric seas nearly 500 million years ago.

At 677 million years old, Little Hill is the oldest of the Wrekin Range. The summit of this steep-sided southern bookend is surprisingly easy to reach and its summit invariably offers far less crowded views over the Shropshire countryside than its larger northerly sibling.

The ancient village of Little Wenlock began life as an outlying estate of Much Wenlock Priory and was a local centre in the Industrialisation of east Shropshire from the 1600s onwards. Today, its brownfield heritage provides varied habitat features for some increasingly scarce wildlife.

Nowhere in the Wrekin Forest is the effect of stone quarrying more apparent than Maddocks Hill. Years of extraction has laid low its centre but created many new opportunities for plants, animals and insects amid this interesting brownfield site.

Sandwiched between The Ercall and The Wrekin, it’s easy to miss St Lawrence’s Hill and its relic heathland hilltop. Nearby, you’ll also find the Dairy Pit — a mysterious grouping of earthen mounds with a haunting heritage!

Famed for its exposures of Precambrian and Cambrian rock, The Ercall is a geological site of international importance. However, its old quarries provide a varied range of brownfield habitat for an incredible array of plants and insects, while the area’s ancient oak woodlands are equally valuable for local wildlife.

The northwest base of The Wrekin provided for many years the background for a military firing range. Although a gun has not been fired here for several decades the site remains as a well-preserved testament to the hill’s role in training generations of young recruits.

The forest landscape south of The Wrekin is a varied patchwork of pastures, woodland and stream valleys all leading to the floodplains of the River Severn. The area plays a pivotal role in the ecology of Britain’s longest waterway and offers stunning views of the Shropshire hills.

Twenty counties are visible from The Wrekin’s summit but the view is far from the only show in town atop the iconic hill. From fiery beacons, folklore and myth to television broadcasting there is far more to the hilltop than initially meets the eye.

Limekiln Wood sits atop some of the most varied soils in Shropshire and enjoys a botanical heritage just as rich. However, plantlife is only part of the story in an area that played a pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution and has the scars to prove it!