Distance: 8.6 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: hard
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Walk from the village of Stiperstones across the western Shropshire countryside to Chirbury near the Welsh border via Mitchell’s Fold the county’s best known Bronze Age stone circle.
The Story
Route Notes
Getting Back
A Peripheral Stone Circle Linked to a Central Myth
Standing on windswept grassland 280 metres above sea level, arrayed against the backdrop of the incredibly prominent Corndon Hill, just over the border with Wales, Mitchell’s Fold is amongst the Midland’s most dramatically situated prehistoric stone circles.
Like so many of its counterparts Mitchell’s Fold is on the very edge of the Midlands region, less than a mile from Shropshire’s western boundary with the Welsh county of Powys. There are various theories for why this is the case, from the general lack of readily quarriable stone in more eastern parts of Great Britain leading to ancient peoples creating stone circles, henges and other monuments from wood and earth, to ancient stone monuments simply being less likely to be damaged or dismantled in the relatively remote and sparsely populated uplands of the Cotswolds, Peak District and south Shropshire hills.
Archeological investigations indicate that Mitchell’s Fold was constructed between 2,000 and 1,400 BCE during the European Bronze Age. The reason for its construction and the purpose it served for its builders, is as ever with prehistoric remains, utterly obscure and inscrutable, but it is reasonable to conclude that it was a religious or ritual location.
Mitchell’s Fold is considered to have been a large stone circle approaching 30 metres in diameter. Indeed, it is thought that its modern name probably derives from its size, “Mitchell’s” likely being a corruption of “Mycel” or “big” in Old English. Analysis of the surviving stones in the circle indicate that it was constructed from material quarried from Stapley Hill where the monument sits, indicating that the builders did not go far to obtain the stones. Today 15 stones remain in situ and it is thought that the monument as built comprised 30.
Long before today’s national boundaries were imposed Mitchell’s Fold appears to comprised part of a landscape of stone circles. These days Shropshire’s only other stone circle the Hoarstones are found a mile and a half away, while closer by, just half a mile to the south, across the Welsh border lie the remains of the Whetstones. This one impressive stone circle was destroyed by explosives in the 1860s, just before legislation on the protection of ancient monuments brought in the early 1880s, would have outlawed such an act. Fragments of the stones can still be seen in situ.
Purportedly, despite rather different attitudes towards ancient stone circles prevailing today, in the summer of 1995 a local farmer used a mechanical excavator to fell several of the Mitchell’s Fold stones. They were charged and convicted of willfully damaging an ancient monument and the stones were sympathetically restored.
Like many of its counterparts elsewhere on the fringes of the Midlands and elsewhere in the UK and beyond, there are myths and legends associated with the Mitchell’s Fold stone circle. Most prominent amongst them is the role it plays in the Dun Cow’s origin myth. This legendary creature associated with fecundity and abundance is generally considered a central Midlands myth originating in northern Warwickshire and south east Staffordshire. However, in some tellings the beasts origins lie at Mitchell’s Fold, and in typical stone circle mythology fashion concern a witch.
The story goes that back in the mists of time a giant with magical powers lived in the vicinity of Corndon Hill and possessed a miraculous cow which would give milk endlessly. One day a witch snuck up and through the powers of dark magic succeeded in draining the cow dry of milk. In distress the cow fled the Welsh Marches hurrying to north Warwickshire where in time it recovered and became the Dun Cow. Back in Shropshire the giant upon discovering the loss of its cow punished the witch by turning it to stone and then erecting a circle of stones around it to keep the witch in a cursed frozen state for eternity. Mitchell’s Fold is the result of this, and the myth is a fascinating connection between the stone circles on the Midland region’s periphery and a famed legend from its interior.
Route Notes
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 route from Stiperstones to Chirbury, via the site of the 3,500 – 4,000 year old Mitchell’s Fold Stone Circle, begins from the bus stop beside the Stiperstones Inn.
At the time of writing in June 2025 this was where the 552 bus from Shrewsbury terminated. The service did not run on Sundays, but there was a weekday bus getting to Stiperstones just before 11:00 and a Saturday one arriving for 09:15. A more frequent service under the same route number operated to Ploxgreen a couple of miles to the north just south of Minsterly, from where it is fairly easy to walk along lanes and footpaths to Stiperstones village.
Having alighted, the bus walk straight ahead along the road through the village, which parallels the towering Stiperstones ridge.
Carry on along the road, taking care as cars can travel fast along the road which has tight bends, heading uphill into the trees.
Presently you reach the little hamlet of Tankerville. The impressive ruins of the village’s Victorian lead mine, part of the same mining field as Snailbeach to the north, are visible from the road.
Just beyond Tankerville you head right off the road and follow a clearly defined footpath along an overgrown green lane.
Soon you reach open fields which you cross. It is here that you first sight Corndon Hill in the distance before you.
Descending to reach a road once more, you turn right heading uphill past a large farm.
A little way past the farm you walk straight through the small, tightly clustered, and unusually named village of Shelve.
Heading uphill beyond Shelve you reach a mature Forestry Commission pine plantation.
Here, just inside what looks like a layby, you pick up a wide well marked path through the trees heading downhill, that is more pleasant to walk along than the road, and which enables you to cut the corner.
On leaving the woodland, taking care, rejoin the road and head along the lane once more.
This soon brings you outside beside the A488. Here turn right, Corndon Hill looming large on the horizon above the relatively flat ground around it, until you turn right down a driveway.
Leaving the driveway pick up a footpath which runs through a pine plantation.
Soon there is a stile on the left which leads you out onto the scrubby land on the side of Stapeley Hill. This is open access land, so follow a desire line path clinging close to the fence separating the pine wood from the open hillside, and begin to ascend.
Presently you pick-up a farm track which runs up and over the crest of the ridge.
On the far side of the ridge turn left, following a bridleway track that runs just below the crest of the ridge, across the scrubby moorland at the top of Stapely Hill.
Soon with Corndon Hill and the equally distinctive little Lan Fawr rising beside it, full beam in front of you, you arrive at the Mitchell’s Fold stone circle.
Having visited the circle, take one of the paths running to the right off the top of Stapeley Hill and follow it to the right until you reach a green gate.
On the far side of the gate turn right and pick up a moderately worn path following the fence line, until you reach a place where the path steeply descends through the undergrowth.
Presently upon reaching a stand of trees above a large farm you reach a path which runs along the edge of the uncultivated land. There is a way of cutting the corner by crossing a stile and heading downhill through the field to you right but when I walked the route the corresponding stile at the bottom of the field was in such a poor state of repair as to be impassable.
Continue along the path crossing moderately rocky ground until you reach a gate which leads to a steep, well worn but narrow path through bushes down to a driveway leading away from a house.
Clamber over a stile and head down the driveway on the far side until you reach a country lane.
Once on the lane turn right and start walking along the lane.
Soon you reach a large farm. Here, turn left down a lane.
You follow this lane which is pretty quiet past some scattered farms and outlying houses all the way to Chirbury where the walk concludes.
As you descend you see Chirbury and the distant larger settlement of Montgomery just inside Wales straight ahead of you.
You walk through a wooded dell and on the far side the lane you are walking along converges with another busier one. After this point there are typically more cars so take care.
You cross a bridge over the River Camlad and continue walking uphill, nearing the edge of Chirbury.
You emerge onto the side of the busy A490. Taking care, as it is very busy with fast moving cars, turn right and enter Chirbury.
Chirbury is a small village with a historic centre. Been in a remote situation though, it has an importance for the outlying farms, houses and hamlets which belies its size, and means that it retains a post office – cum – village shop cum – cafe, just around the corner from the church and the pub (the latter was awaiting new tenants when I visited in June 2025).
The village’s bus stop is beside the shop, and it is here that the walk ends.
Getting Back
Chirbury at the time of writing in June 2025 was served by two bus services calling several times a day. The 558 which called four times in each direction (the latest towards Shrewsbury being at 13:30 and 17:30) from Montgomery to Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury has regular trains towards northern England, the West Midlands conurbation, and destinations across Wales. The other bus was the 81 between Welshpool and Newtown. Both Welshpool and Newtown are on the infrequent Heart of Wales mainline railway, as well as having bus services across the country and to parts of the English Welsh Marches. This was less frequent than the 558, the last service of the day towards Newtown calling at 13:27. There was a later bus but calling at Montgomery which is no on the national railway network.