Distance: just under 8.5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

Circular walk from Church Stretton Railway Station, up Carding Mill Valley to the peak of the Long Mynd plateau, along the top via the sumitt at Pole Bank, then back to Church Stretton through some of the most beautiful and striking valleys in the Shropshire Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Little Switzerland. Big Common

13 miles south of Shropshire’s county town Shrewsbury, which forms the western most tip of the relatively populous strip of the county extending along the M54 motorway and the railway line from Wolverhampton, lies the altogether different world of the Long Mynd plateau.

In the 19th Century this dramatic upland and the surrounding ridges and peaks was nicknamed “little Switzerland” and a tourism industry centred upon the town of Church Stretton in the valley where the railway line between Shrewsbury and Hereford, and the A49 run, got going.

This relatively low lying area is peppered with 19th and early 20th Century looking vaguely alpine looking buildings to this day, and it remains a popular day trip destination for people from the more populous parts of Shropshire and the western reaches of the West Midlands conurbation to this day. 

Ascend two or three hundred metres from the National Trust car park at Carding Mill Valley and you fully enter the realm of the Long Mynd Commoners.

Since the 1960s the plateau, and much of the surrounding land has been owned by the National Trust. However, the management of the land primarily sits with the Commoners, who have collectively tended and farmed the steep slopes, wild tops and sharply defined valleys since at least the 13th Century.

With a total area – known to have been farmed since at least the late Iron Age – of 21 square miles, Long Mynd is large as surviving areas of common land go. Its historically remote location and relatively inhospitable landscape have made it, like other areas of the far west of the Midlands region like Castlemorton Common, unattractive to potential enclosing landlords from the 16th Century onwards.

This has enabled the Commoners distinctive forms of land management, stewardship and animal husbandry to have survived into the 21st Century. It is a relatively light touch approach. The Commoners hardy flocks of sheep and ponies graze very selectively, leaving large expanses of bush, bracken and heather which form the habit for all manner of species including ground nesting birds which struggle to maintain a toehold in more intensively farmed areas.

Notably the individual Commoners flocks, due to a custom called hefting, keep to their own designated sections of the hills. A sense of territory passed down between generations of sheep. 

The polar opposite of tragedy, the common’s heritage of humans, animals and the landscape co-existing with a relatively high degree of symbiosis, makes the Long Mynd Plateau one of the most beautiful and distinctive parts of the western Midlands region.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

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This circular walk up the Long Mynd plateau begins from Church Stretton Railway Station.

If arriving at Church Stretton from the north, having travelled via Shrewsbury upon alighting, exit left out of the station onto a short cul-de-sac road running up towards a petrol station on the left hand side.

Upon reaching the main road which the petrol station fronts onto, turn left.

Walk a very short distance, then turn left again walking along a tree lined section of road.

This leads towards the town centre passing over the railway line once more.

Soon you are walking up a road lined with tall shops constructed during the town’s 19th and early 20th Century tourism heyday. This includes several distinctive and imposing bank buildings, all now closed and seemingly disused, all apparently built at around the same time in more or less the same style, but presumably by different banks.

Presently you reach a crossroads.

Turn right here, and leave the town centre behind heading into a residential area.

After some distance on your left there is an adjoining road leading past a smattering of houses. As the signposts located near the road betray, this is the way to Carding Mill Valley, the best known way up onto Long Mynd, and an immensely popular day out in its own right.

Keep walking along the road.

Presently it turns into the National Trust Car Park for Carding Mill Valley.

After following the road-cum-car park along the valley floor for some distance you come to a cluster of buildings, some in early 20th Century Alpine style, which form the National Trust’s base of operations around the Long Mynd plateau. There is a tearoom and cafe here.

Continuing on past the buildings the valley begins to narrow.

Keeping on the road you begin to gently ascend towards the top of the plateau.

Initially the track is quite wide, however, upon reaching the bottom of the Light Spout waterfall, where it twists to the right, and you cross the stream, it narrows and becomes rockier.

The final part of the ascent to the top of Long Mynd is quite steep, up a well worn rocky path.

Near the relatively flat top of the plateau the views back down Carding Mill Valley towards the valley floor and the lower distant peaks, looking back into eastern Shropshire, are striking.

Upon reaching the top of the plateau keep walking straight ahead along the path you followed up from Carding Mill Valley.

After some distance you come to another bridleway running along the ridge which marks the top of the plateau.

Here, turn left.

Follow the bridleway as it runs to the left for some distance.

At a junction with another bridleway keep walking straight ahead.

Then walk a bit further along the bridleway.

Presently you pass a small car park adjacent to one of the steep, narrow, public roads that wind up and across Long Mynd.

On the far side of the road keep on walking straight along the gravel bridleway track.

As well as amongst walkers and horse riders Long Mynd is very popular with cyclists, and on the incredibly warm mid-August day I walked the route I actually saw rather more of them than I did other people on foot.

After some distance as the path steadily slopes uphill, you see the distinctive white beacon of a trig point in the distance.

This trig point is at Pole Bank, the highest point (516 metres above sea level) of the Long Mynd.

Having reached the Pole Bank trig point keep walking straight as the path slowly starts to descend.

There is a spectacular view right across the plateau to valleys and peaks in the far distance on either side.

After a short distance you reach a road known as the Portway. The section of the Portway you come to is a narrow tarmacked stretch, but there is also an ancient unpaved section, still visible but not open to traffic which runs to the north.  

Upon reaching the paved road turn right.

After a short distance you approach a small copse of hardy looking trees inside an enclosure. An unusual sight up on Long Mynd where trees are rare.

It is possible to enter this woodland. There is a handy shelter, recently built, where I sat out of the midday sun to eat my lunch.

The shelter is a useful facility as there is very little cover on top of Long Mynd. The trees themselves have a lot of dung and pellets from the Commoners sheep and ponies, a sign that those animals appreciate the shade as much as humans do.

Just after the copse stands a car park. Upon reaching it look to your left for a path through the undergrowth.

Once you find it, turn left and begin following it down as it twists steadily downhill and slightly to the right.

Presently you reach a more substantial path.

Here turn right.

It is possible to make good time heading steadily across the plateau towards its eastern edge along this track.

Off to either side stands some of the most impressive scenery of the walk. It is easy to see how the area got its nickname of “little Switzerland”.

Passing through the dramatic landscape, keep following the path as it undulates slightly with the contours of the hilly country you are crossing.

After some distance the path curves to the right before descending a fair way.

It then curves back to the left, continuing to steadily lead downhill.

Before beginning a steeper descent back towards the valley where Church Stretton lies.

As you head off Long Mynd back towards the valley floor there are superb views of the Stretton Hills due east of where you are walking, including the distinctive Caer Caradoc.

The path gets steadily steeper as you descend, with quite a bit of loose scree which requires caution.

Nearing the bottom of the slope you reach farm land.

Soon you come to a gate into a small wood.

You follow the path through the trees and out onto a land beside a campsite.

Follow the lane downhill for a short distance.

After a little way you come to a ford, with a footbridge to its left hand side.

Cross the ford by the footbridge.

A very short distance further on, on the left there is a footpath on the other side of a stile.

Cross the stile and head left up a fairly steep footpath, with steps part way up.

This leads up onto a ridge, where you head to the left and follow the path along passing through a gate.

Keep following the path heading straight ahead.

Once in the field as directed by a footpath signpost keep walking straight ahead across the field.

On the far side you come to a track leading into woodland.

Keep walking following the track into woodland. Passing through a gate along the way.

Shortly after the gate the path narrows and swings to the right, heading quite sharply downhill.

This brings you out onto a road lined with mid-20th Century houses on the edge of Church Stretton.

Turn left here and walk a very short distance along the road.

Soon off to your left there is a track sloping uphill past the gate leading onto a house’s front drive.

Here turn left and walk up this sloping track.

Keep walking past a metal device put in to stop cars and motorbikes and onto a footpath.

Continue along the footpath as it runs through the woods above the residential outskirts of Church Stretton.

Soon this path narrows for a short distance.

Leading out onto a semi-paved road with scattered houses along it.

Follow this track walking straight ahead for a short distance.

Soon the road becomes fully tarmacked.

Presently it curves around sharply to the right.

Remain on the road as it heads slightly to the left.

A little further on you emerge onto a road of mid-20th Century houses above the historic centre of Church Stretton clustered around the parish church and market place.

Follow the road as it winds downhill towards the centre of the town.

Soon you reach the road running into the centre of Church Stretton on the edge of the town’s historic core.

Turn left here and begin walking back into the town centre.

From the town centre it is a very short walk back to the railway station. This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

From Church Stretton there are trains north towards Shrewsbury, many of which continue on towards Manchester or North Wales. As well as south towards Ludlow, Leominster, Hereford and South Wales, as well as towards Swansea down the Heart of Wales Line. Trains to the rest of the Midlands, via Telford, Wolverhampton, Smethwick and Birmingham depart from Shrewsbury. Trains to the rest of the Midlands via Worcestershire and Birmingham depart from Hereford. Church Stretton is not especially well served by buses, but at the time of writing in August 2022 there was a service, hourly until the evening, running between Ludlow and Shrewsbury. There are also weekend and bank holiday shuttle buses around the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (at least during warmer times of the year).