For walks a bit further out of Chester, my default tends to be to head into deepest darkest North Wales, but I’ve been exploring Shropshire more this year and discovering some fantastic walks. This walk, Nesscliffe Hill, is my favourite so far and I hope to bring you lots more like it!
To make my life easy I’m not going to give my usual step by step walking instructions because Shropshire council have already done it for me in this leaflet here! I used it on my visit and found it very clear and easy to follow so I’m quite sure you will too!
I’m guessing most of you won’t have heard of Nesscliffe before, so to give you some location info, it’s about 10 miles southeast of Oswestry, 9 miles north of Shrewsbury and 40 miles south of Chester.
It’s a 70 acre site of woodland and heathland, with some amazing views, sandstone quarries, a hermit cave, beautiful trees and a few rope swings dotted about.
The walk starts in the free car park pictured below.
The first point of interest you come to is the Iron Age fort Nesscliffe Hill Camp. In all honesty it’s a hill with some rubble on it so imagination will be required but the kids spent quite a while here running around it.
As you move on from here you’ll come to a stunning view point with views over Shropshire and the Welsh Hills, it’s a great place to stop for a snack whilst you admire the view.
From here you head downhill to the Tea Tents Picnic Area, this large clearing was where they used to hold tea dances back in the day. There were a couple of rope swings when we visited so no need to explain what we spent most of our time doing here!
Do head back into the trees a little as there are some beautiful sequoia trees dotted around - if you touch the bark it feels all spongy as it’s designed to protect the tree from fires.
It’s also a great place for den building and there should already be some pre-built ones if, like me you can’t be bothered to make one from scratch!
Head further on passing through yet more beautiful wooded areas, descending down to the quarries where you’ll find Kynaston’s Cave.
The story goes that in the late fifteenth century Humphrey Kynaston, the son of the High Sheriff of Shropshire was found guilty of murder and declared an outlaw by Henry VII. Kynaston then moved into this cave and led a Robin Hood life, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. The locals afforded him protection and eventually he was pardoned by Henry VII. There are 2 rooms in the cave, one which he slept in and the other his horse Beelzebub, unfortunately you can’t access the cave or the steps which lead up to it, so you just have to make do with viewing it from below.
We spent a long time just playing amongst the quarries from here onwards, on a summer’s day the orange of the sandstone rock against the blue sky and giant redwoods were beautiful.
After a walk back through the woodland to the car, we stopped for food down the road at The Old Three Pigeons which had just had a refurbishment and made for a pleasant lunch.
All in all it’s less than 2 miles but allow plenty of stops for playtime. This was one of the best walks I’ve done in a while for kids and we’ll definitely be back. Hope you enjoy it!
