After a few posts from Wales we return to England with a little walk in Shropshire at Nipstone Rock, an hour north of where I am based in Eardisland, Herefordshire. In the 1960s all the hills around here were planted with conifers, but now the Shropshire Wildlife Trust together with the Forestry Commission and others have cut down the conifers and returned the land to its original character, a large heathland with wonderful colours of purple. I visited in late September when the heathland was beautiful.
Nipstone Rock itself is a Quartzite Tor at an altitude of 450 metres, high enough to offer excellent views of the surrounding landscape and also high enough to make it quite cold on this beautiful September day, when the wind swept through the heathland with nothing to protect you. But you don’t feel that, when you just look at the pictures afterwards.
I commenced my walk by climbing up to the Rock it self and then I walked along the ridge and descended down into the slopes below and then back again before descending into the little area where my car was parked. I let the images speak for themselves. Green fields and forests, purple and rusty-coloured heather and grey quartzite rock tors offered a feast for the eye.
