SHROPSHIRE SIX SUMMITS
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The Hills

The summits of Corndon Hill, Stipperstones, Long Mynd, Caer Caradoc,
Brown Clee and Titterstone Clee detailed below:

Corndon Hill

Elevation 513M (1,683ft)
Prominence 201M (659ft)
Parent Peak Stiperstones
Listing Marilyn
Location Powys, Wales
Range Shropshire Hills
OS Grid SO306969
Corndon Hill lies a mile across the Montgomery border, in Powys, Wales.

But it is inseparable from the Shropshire Hill massif as it is surrounded on three sides by the county of Shropshire.

Corndon Hill is often used as a
​launch site by paragliders

Stiperstones​

Elevation 536m (1,759ft)
Prominence 357m (1,171ft)
Parent Peak Plynlimon
Listing Marilyn
Location Shropshire
Range OS Grid

The principal tors are named as follows from North-East to South-West:


Hepherd’s Rock.
Devil’s Chair.
Manstone Rock.
Cranberry Rock.
Nipstone Rock.

The Rock.

Manstone Rock is the highest of these at 536m (1,759ft), and is topped with a trig point. The Devil’s Chair is the larget and best know.
The Stiperstones is a distinctive hill in the county of Shropshire.  It is a quartzite ridge formed some 480 million years ago.  During the last Ice Age the summit stood out above the glaciers and was subject to constant freezing and thawing which shattered the quartzite into a mass of jumbled scree surrounding several residual rocky tors. At 536m (1,179ft) above sea level it is the second highest hill in the county, surpassed only by Brown Clee Hill (540m (1,772ft)).  

The Stiperstones ridge is a good place to view the upland landscape of the Shropshire hills, particularly the Long Mynd to the East, and also gives extensive views towards the North Shropshire plain and the hills of Mid Wales.

Long Mynd

Elevation 516m (1,693ft)
Prominence
Parent Peak
Listing
Location
Range
​OS Grid





The Long Mynd is a heath and moor land plateau that forms part of the Shropshire Hills in Shropshire. The high ground, which is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, lies between the  Stiperstones range to the west and the Stretton Hills and Wenlock Edge to the east. Much of it is owned and managed by the National Trust.

The Long Mynd, which is approximately 7 miles (11 km) long by a maximum of 3 miles (4.8 km) wide, has steep valleys on its eastern flanks while its western side is marked by a slope that rises in a steep escarpment from the wide valley of the River East Onny. It is surrounded by the principal settlements of Church Stretton, Little Stretton and All Stretton, Pulverbatch, Smethcott, Woolstaston, Asterton, Myndtown, Wentnor and Ratlinghope.
​
The two highest points on the Long Mynd, Pole Bank (516 m (1,693 ft)) and Caer Caradoc (459 m (1,506 ft)), are both classed as Marilyns.

Caer Caradoc

Elevation 459m  (1,506ft)
Prominence 279m (889ft)
Parent Peak Stiperstones
Listing Marilyn
Location Shropshire
Range Shropshire Hills
OS Grid SO477953
Caer Caradoc (Welsh - Caer Caradog) is a hill in the English county of Shropshire. It overlooks the town of Church Stretton and the village of All Stretton and offers panoramic views to the north towards The Wrekin, east to Wenlock Edge, and west over the nearby Long Mynd. On a clear day it is possible to see the hills of north-east Wales to the north, the high-rise buildings of Birmingham to the east, Worcester Beacon in the Malvern Hills to the south-east, and Hay Bluff in the Black Mountains, Wales and the peaks of the Brecon Beacons, to the south. Caer Caradoc is hill G/WB-006 in Summits on the Air. This Caer Caradoc is not to be confused with that 1 km to the west of Chapel Lawn village near Bucknell, Shropshire.
​
Caer Caradoc rises sharply and steeply up out of the narrow valley in which the town of Church Stretton is situated, known as the Stretton Gap. It is the highest point on a high, narrow, northeast–southwest "whaleback ridge", sometimes called a hogsback ridge. The Wrekin is a very similarly shaped hill and on the same alignment, some 10 miles (16 km) to the north-east. Caer Caradoc may be fairly easily climbed from Church Stretton town but the ascent/descent is steep.  

Brown Clee

Elevation 540m (1,770ft)
Prominence 373m (1,224ft)
Parent Peak Plynlimon
Listing Marilyn 
Location Shropshire Range
OS Grid SO593865
Brown Clee Hill lies five miles north of its sister and neighbour, Titterstone Clee Hill. The highest peak of the hill is Abdon Burf, at 540 metres high with Clee Burf at 510m.
Much more of Brown Clee Hill is private land than on Titterstone Clee, and large areas are covered with coniferous plantations. The eastern expanse of the hill is in possession of the Burwarton Estate under ownership of Viscount Boyne, whilst the western fringes of the hill are owned by various private land owners and the parish of Clee St. Margaret.
The common land features the remains of where an Iron Age hill fort once stood.

Nearby towns are Ludlow, Cleobury Mortimer, Church Stretton,  Broseley, Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock.  
Several air traffic control radar masts on the summit of the hill can be seen for many miles around. They, along with the ones on top of Titterstone Clee Hill build up a picture of all the aircraft in a hundred mile radius.
​
A toposcope (recently built) points out local landmarks and is sited at the summit.

Titterstone Clee Hill

Elevation 533m (1,749ft)
Prominence 232m (761ft)
Parent Peak Brown Hill Clee
Listing Marilyn
Location Shropshire
Range Shropshire Hills
OS Grid SO591779
Titterstone Clee is the third-highest hill in Shropshire,
​beaten only by the nearby Brown Clee Hill (540 m) and Stiperstones (536 m). Much of the higher part of the hill is common land, used for the grazing of sheep, air traffic control services and both working and disused quarries. The summit of Titterstone Clee is bleak, treeless and shaped by decades of quarrying. Many of the industrial structures still remain, and lend to the ghostly atmosphere of the hill top, especially during the prolonged winter fogs that descend over these hills.

Investigations have led to some individuals to claim that Titterstone Clee was once an active volcano. However, this was conclusively shown to be incorrect in the 1930s when exposures clearly revealed an intrusive origin for the igneous rock which is found beneath the higher ground. Locally this is known as "Dhu Stone" (Welsh for Black Stone); geologically it is an olivine basalt, sometimes coarse enough to be a dolerite.
​It appears to have been intruded as a sill between sandstone layers within the unconsolidated strata of the Middle Westphalian soon after deposition of the latter.
The weather on Titterstone Clee Hill can be particularly hazardous, with locally infamous fog and drizzle being commonplace. Snow and ice can also cause problems in winter, as well as gales.

Most of the summit of the hill is affected by man-made activity, the result of hill fort construction during the Bronze and Iron Ages and, more recently, by years of mining for coal and quarrying for dhustone (dolerite) to be used in road-building. Also, many derelict quarry buildings are scattered over the hill, now used only by sheep sheltering from the worst of weather but interesting from an industrial archaeology point of view as very early examples of the use of reinforced concrete. Combined, these give the summit of the hill an eerie, other worldly feel.
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  • Home
  • History
    • The First Six summits Walk
  • The Hills
  • The Gallery
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2013
  • Contact Us
  • Other useful sites
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