Shropshire
12.2km/7½ miles 5½ hours
1 SO357978 From the car park take the track south towards the next lane. Keep an eye out for old lead mining landmarks, including the gunpowder store, tunnels and an old incline. Cross the lane and join a track leading into a forestry plantation, with a pool on the right – this is another reminder of the lead workings. Follow the track south-south-west and, at the end of the trees, keep ahead to join a field path leading south past Rock Cottage. Carry on for another 300m to a stile leading to a narrow lane. Turn right and follow the lane for 700m until it bends left and turns downhill. Keep ahead on a track and go through a gate to climb open slopes to the top of Black Rhadley Hill.
2 SO342955 Return to the gate, cross the lane and take a path into forestry. Some of the slopes ahead have been cleared of trees and there is further evidence of times past – the scree slopes below a prominent crag called The Rock are actually old mining spoil. Cross a track and head north-east over restored heather moorland to Nipstone Rock. Much of this area has been cleared under a valuable conservation programme called ‘Back to Purple’ that has seen dark conifers replaced by newly planted heather seedlings. Cross a second track and follow the path north-west along the edge of a forestry block, soon emerging into a field. Keep ahead to a small gate, cross the lane and go through another gate onto the southern slopes of the Stiperstones. Just east of here, laburnum trees can be seen growing wild in the hedgerows – it is said they were planted by lead miners who chewed the seeds as a drug!
3 SO362976 Fork right and follow a bridleway leading east towards a car park. Pass through a gate at the north end of the parking area and walk north on a track-cum-bridleway with views across the broad valley of the River East Onny. Pass through another gate and continue through Gatten Plantation, where the track becomes enclosed in scrub woodland. Pass through a gate at the end of the trees and soon fork left on a track towards the crest of the ridge (signed Shropshire Way). Go through a gate onto open moorland and fork right on a track through large bilberry bushes (rich picking in July and August). Continue to meet the path on top of the broad ridge and peer down into the steep defile of Perkins Beach.
4 SO373999 Turn south on a wide path towards the unmistakable Devil’s Chair. The path becomes surprisingly rocky as it swings to the east of the outcrops and continues south to the highest point at Manstone Rock, where scrambles up to the trig point can be made as easy or hard as you wish. The wedge-shaped hill in the west is Corndon Hill, just over the border in Wales, while the muscular slopes of the Long Mynd dominate views to the east. Continue south on the rocky path and after 400m, at the distinctive outcrop known as Cranberry Rock, turn west, downhill, across rough moorland.
5 SO365981 Head for a junction of tracks where the Black Ditch, a historic feature which was possibly defensive, runs along the foot of the slopes. Fork right on a track and descend to the lane leading back to The Bog. The visitor centre has excellent displays on the history and wildlife of the area – and the cakes are good too.