ARS off to Shropshire

The Saturday's ARS (Audlem Ramblers Society) route is 10.5miles with approximately 750m of ascent taking in three hills; The Lawley, Caer Caradoc and Hope Bowdler.

These hills lie on the opposite side of the A49 to the more popular hills around Church Stretton and provide fantastic views over the surrounding landscape. The walk starts in the village of Cardington which is a five minute drive from the A49.

The start point is the Cardington village hall car park – postcode SY6 7JZ. If we aim to reach there at 10.00am this means leaving Audlem car park at about 8.50.

The walk is likely to take about 6 hours which allows for an hour stoppage time for lunch and other breaks. I reccied the walk last weekend and the final part of the route from Willstone Hill didn't work out so I've changed it but this hasn't altered the overall length of the walk.

Description of the walk

The first part of the walk is a pleasant stroll through grass fields towards the village of Enchmarsh. After passing through the village we follow a bridleway towards Hoars Edge.

The route then follows a quiet country road for approximately 1.5km to the bottom of the first hill – The Lawley. There is a steep ascent of about 100m to the plateau along the top of the hill and then there is a relatively flat path along the ridge which offers fine views in all directions on a clear day.

At the end of the ridge the path drops down to Comley Farm, crosses a side road and then follows the public footpath through a few fields to another side road. We walk along the road for a short distance (200m) and then take the path on the RHS towards Caer Caradoc which is the highest point on the walk at 459m.

The climb is steep to start with and then flattens out in the middle with a steep section to finish. The summit is crowned by an Iron Age hill fort. It is this which the hill is named after – Caer Caradog in Welsh meaning Caradog's fort. Local legend has it that this was the site of the last stand of Caractacus against the Roman legions during the Roman conquest of Britain, and that after the battle he hid in the cave near its summit.

Once at the top there is a high level path which follows the top of the ridge for 1km to Three Fingers Rock. The route then drops down to the bottom of the valley, crosses the stream and then follows the bridleway along the side of Helmeth Hill heading towards Hope Bowlder Hill which is the final summit of the day.

The route follows the path which undulates along the top of the ridge to Willstone Hill and drops down to the village of Willstone. The route then follows a footpath through the fields back to the starting point in Cardington.

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