Distance: 5.5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Circular walk up Caer Caradoc a 459 metre tall hill topped with a impressive Iron Age hillfort in the heart of the Shrophshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Walk starts and ends from Church Stretton Railway Station.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

I am Caractacus?

Caer Caradoc is a long thin ridgeback hill set just north of Church Stretton and the Long Mynd Plateau right in the heart of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Wenlock Edge runs off to the south, an18 mile long limestone escarpment, running all the way to the Ironbridge Gorge on the southern edge of Telford.

Like many famous, prominent hills in the western Midlands region, including the Wrekin and the Malvern range, Caer Caradoc is made of ancient precambrian rock.

In common with these other hills it also has a long association with the human cultures that have resided in the Shropshire Hills over the millennia. Much like modern walkers and other outdoors lovers, people throughout time have been drawn to the hill by its size, distinctive shape and prominence in the landscape.

Bronze age and iron age people built impressive, and still pretty well preserved, even after at least two thousand years of dereliction.

Local legend has it that Caer Caradoc is where the Celtic king Caractacus made his last stand resisting Roman attempts to conquer his kingdom. The story goes that he hid in the impressive cave near Caer Caradoc’s summit after being defeated in battle and the hillfort’s defences overwhelmed. To this day the cave – created by volcanic activity hundreds of millions of years ago – is known as “Caractacus’ Cave”.

There is no archaeological evidence to prove or disprove that Caractacus and his army did make their last stand at the Caer Caradoc hillfort. Historians think it unlikely though, because Tacitus, the primary source for Caractacus’ life and campaign of resistance, mentions a river in his account and there is no river (only numerous small streams) nearby.

Regardless, the hillfort in its strikingly wild and beautiful location, is one of the most interesting ancient sites in the Midlands region, as well as being one of the jewels of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This circular walk to the top of Caer Caradoc 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, an immensely popular day out in its own right.

Passing the turn off for Carding Mill Valley and the Long Mynd you continue walking down the road through the suburban outskirts of Church Stretton.

Along the way you walk past a mineral water bottling plant on your left.

Presently on your left – just after the pavement finishes annoyingly – there is a footpath running uphill off the road.

Turn left and head up, then along; this footpath.

It runs behind the back of some of the houses lining the road beyond.

After some distance, having crossed a road you come to a gate leading out onto a field.

Following the path straight across the field. Partway across just after a copse of dark green trees, the edge of the village of All Stretton comes into view on the far side of the field.

Keep on walking across the field until you come to a stile next to a gate leading out onto the road through All Stretton.

Having crossed the stile and reached the road, turn right.

Then after a very short distance turn left up a very narrow road past several houses.

Follow this road along for some distance.

Presently you approach the main road, here turn right. Walk towards the main road.

Upon reaching the main road turn right again.

Walk a short distance down the main road looking for a footpath sign off on the left hand side of the road.

Once you reach the footpath turn left down it. Follow the footpath as it curves around to the left, then right again towards a stile, where it then runs across an open field.

On the far side of the field there is another stile leading into a small copse. A stream runs through it crossed by a wooden bridge.

On the far side of the stream turn left and begin walking down a lane.

Just before you pass a house on the left there is a stile set in the hedgerow.

On the far side of the hedgerow follow the path in the direction of the Welsh Marches Railway Line running north towards Shrewsbury.

Heed the sign to beware of the trains as you cross, trains travel very quickly.

Having crossed the railway line walk across the field in front of you.

On the far side there is a stile. Cross the stile onto the grass verge beside the A49 road running north to south. Take care crossing the road, which can be pretty busy.

Once across the road there is another stile leading into a field which slopes up towards woodland.

Inside the woodland there is a track leading off to the left. Follow this track for some distance until you reach a gate up a slight bank leading into a field.

Walk through the gate and start crossing the field beyond walking uphill. Keep close to the fence, hedge and a little brook to the left of the field.

At the top of the field there is a stile. This marks the edge of the “access land” around the upper part of Caer Caradoc. By this stage in the walk, whilst you are yet to do any serious climbing, you are already at around 250 metres above sea level. Just over half way to Caer Caradoc’s 459 metre summit.

Having crossed the stile turn left and follow the path as it meanders across healthland on the edge of the cultivated area of Caer Caradoc’s slope for quite some way.

Presently after a fair distance there is a very well worn path running off to your right.

Turn right here and begin walking higher up the slope. The path here is steep, climbing rapidly but easily manageable.

Unfortunately the day in late November when I walked the route was pretty misty, especially at high altitudes, though it felt like it was potentially sunny without the mist. So whilst immediate visibility was fine, there were no views.

After walking uphill for some distance the path levels off. Ahead of you there is a gate and a fence line.

This is the sign that you have reached Caer Caradoc’s famous and distinctive ridgeback. Turn right here and begin walking up the initially quite gentle grassy slope.

To the right of the slope you soon find where numerous others have walked before you. Follow these impressions uphill. Given the weather conditions my attempt to climb the hill had vibes which were more J.R.R. Tolkien than A.E. Housman, but I imagine that the views most days are spectacular. Both north into flatter terrain and side to side towards Wenlock Edge and Long Mynd.

After scrambling uphill for some distance you encounter your first obvious rampart.

From that point it is a little further uphill, climbing up the former fortifications, until you near the relatively flat summit.

Here there is a final little rocky outcrop – pretty easy to climb – which leads onto a long promontory running across the flat land at the top of Caer Caradoc.

Cross the top of the hill. Given the weather conditions when I was up there I was mindful that I should be careful of where the edge was. I did not fancy plummeting one hundred metres or more off the steep top of the hill.

Picking my way forward I found a well trodden path heading downhill along a steady gradient, a bit less steep than the way up. Like the route up this is fairly straightforward to follow as numerous feet have been there before you.

Presently a well made farm track running along the bottom of the wild upper part of Caer Caradoc comes into view.

Keep following the path downhill making for the farm track.

A little way from the bottom a track running off to the left comes into view.

Turn left and follow this track downhill – it zigzags a bit – to a metal gate onto the farm track.

Once on the track turn right and begin following it as it runs downhill.

After a fair distance, including crossing a ford – handily accompanied by stepping stones – you approach a gate across the track.

Having passed through the gate, walk a little further along the track. Church Stretton reappears in front of you on the horizon.

Soon there is a clear path running off to your left hugging close to a fence line. Turn left and follow it.

Keep on walking following the path along the line of the fence. There is a bridleway sign pointing towards a holloway at one point. Ignore this and remain in the path along the side of the field. Whilst technically the holloway might be a right of way, in practice it is also home to a stream, and gets trickier to walk along the further you walk along it.

After some distance walking around the edge of the field you reach the bottom near the edge of Church Stretton.

Turn right here and walk a short distance towards a stile leading onto a farm track.

Once on the track turn left and begin walking into Church Stretton.

The farm driveway track soon turns into a public road and soon you are walking past suburban houses.

Presently you come to a junction with a post box opposite you. Take a slight right here and then turn to the left down the adjacent road.

Then follow the road some distance until you reach a main road.

Turn right here and walk towards the A49 on the edge of central Church Stretton.

Here there are crossing lights opposite a multifaceted petrol station containing both a branch of Greggs and a Costa Coffee, as well as a convenience store.

Once on the other side of the road turn left. Immediately after the petrol station there is a road running off to the right.

Turn right and head down the road. A short distance away at the bottom of the road stands one of the entrances to Church Stretton 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 December 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).