From the top of Caer Caradoc to The Lawley

Thank you for all you kind comments on yesterday’s events. They were all very much appreciated.

We met up with Christine’s son and partner for an hour or so after breakfast before leaving for Church Stretton. They’re a lovely couple and we hope we’ll keep up with them in the future.

We stayed last night in the Old Orleton hotel. Most of its ling life it was an inn, between 1900-1960 is was a farm house which is how I knew it. When the farmer retired the place returned to being an inn - first the Falcon, now the Old Orleton. It was odd staying there with views of the house where I grew up.

At Church Stretton we had a mammoth an demanding walk up Willstone Hill, on to Caer Caradoc and then to The Lawley. All hills from my childhood but I’d never walked them. We only visited Carding Mill Valley on the Longmynd. The view all around were magnificent, Wenlock Edge, Aymestry Edge, Ape and Corve Dales, Longmynd, the Wrekin, Church Stretton Gap and the North Shropshire Plain, 2800 feet of ascent and 8.5 miles.

We’re in Bishop’s Castle tonight and the Castle Hotel which is just as good as the Old Orleton. Plenty of local ales to accompany dinner.

The extra is of Church Stretton, the Longmynd and Carding Mill Valley, one of many batches or hollows carved into the east face of the Longmynd