Stiperstones

The Stiperstones is a sharp ridge of quartzite rock in Shropshire’s uplands. It stands 536 metres above sea level, the second-highest hill in the county, topped by jagged tors that catch the light at dawn and dusk. The ridge runs for eight kilometres, its skyline marked by rocky outcrops named Shepherd’s Rock, Devil’s Chair and Nipstone Rock. During the last Ice Age the hill lay at the edge of a glacier, which froze and thawed the rock into scree slopes and freestanding pillars. The quartzite formed nearly half a billion years ago, long before the land took its present shape. The hill is a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, home to red grouse, curlew and the rare ring ouzel. A project called Back to Purple has removed thousands of conifers to restore heather moorland, turning the summits purple in late summer. From the ridge walkers see the Long Mynd to the east and the North Shropshire plain to the west, with Mid Wales on the horizon. The tors themselves are patterned with stone stripes left by ancient freezing and thawing, some of the best examples in England. At the foot of the hill the Bog Visitor Centre occupies the old village school and explains the area’s lead-mining past. The mine once thrived because layers of rock had been crumpled by tectonic movements, exposing lead veins. Now the old buildings shelter bats and birds, while reservoirs hold aquatic life. Two waymarked circular walks start nearby, one called Mucklewick Walk and the other Flenny Bank Walk, leading through restored grassland and heath. The Devil’s Chair remains a landmark wrapped in local legend, said to be haunted by the ghost of Saxon earl Wild Edric.