Photo by: Gordon Dickins

Wrekin Wildlife Sites

The Wrekin Forest stands at the northern edge of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) but there are many individual sites around the hill possessing other official landscape designations reflecting their importance to wildlife, geology and local history. In this section, you’ll find introductory guides to some of the best the area has to offer.

Chermes Dingle

Chermes Dingle

Among the most accessible of the wooded stream valleys transporting rainwater from the Wrekin Forest to the River Severn, Chermes Dingle is equally notable for its fossil-rich geology. Its rocks tell a profound story of planetary evolution in ancient seas newly teeming with marine life.

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Limekiln Wood

Limekiln Wood

Limekiln Wood has the most diverse soils found anywhere in Shropshire and a botanical heritage to match. With over 150 plant species, this former medieval deer park and key site in the Industrialisation of Shropshire is a wood quite unlike any other.

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Little Wenlock Benchwalks

Little Wenlock Benchwalks

An opencast mine within living memory, the brownfields comprising the bench walks around the village of Little Wenlock are now a wildlife-rich haven. Wet grassland, ponds and wildflower meadows are all part of a mosaic supporting some increasingly hard-to-find species.

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The Ercall Reservoirs

The Ercall Reservoirs

Fed by The Wrekin and built to supply the thirsty townsfolk of nearby Wellington with drinking water, the Ercall Reservoirs have now outlived their civic origins. Now a focus for local fishermen they also serve a wide community of wildlife and are an especially important breeding site for toads.

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The Ercall

The Ercall

It may be the smaller sibling of The Wrekin but what The Ercall lacks in size it makes up for in stature. Telling a story of life on Earth revealed in few other places on the planet its old quarries provide a regionally important backdrop for a range of wildlife.

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The Wrekin Hilltop

The Wrekin Hilltop

A centre of local life for three thousand years and counting, the heather heathland of The Wrekin hilltop is also a significant wildlife refuge. Add an ancient hillfort, iconic TV transmitter and centuries old beacon and its easy to see why it has captivated generations of visitors.

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