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| More of a brook
than a river walk. For anybody who has yet to sample the
delights of the Long Mynd in Shropshire, Ashes Hollow provides
a perfect introduction. Not as popular or accessible as
Cardingmill Valley but then not as crowded either. You can
park in the village of Little Stretton; there’s a couple of
pubs or you might be able to squeeze into the lanes. |
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| Take the lane
next to the Ragleth Inn heading towards a camp site. Where the
tarmac runs out you are faced with a ford and a little
footbridge which takes you into the fields and the start of
the valley proper. |
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| Head north with
the stream on your right. Where the fields turn into a narrow
valley path you come across a recently refurbished house that
used to sell ice cream when I was a boy. |
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| A footbridge takes you onto
the right bank of the stream. 700m from the house you cross to
the left bank on new stone bridge. |
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| The valley here
is squeezed between the Grindle and Yearlet hills and gets
quite narrow. It’s tricky in wet weather but recent
conservation efforts have made the path fairly pedestrian. You
have to hop across the stream at one point but it’s little
more than a step these days. |
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| When you see a
rocky outcrop ahead, you have reached the first major fork.
You need the left valley but the easiest route starts 20m up
the right hand valley and climbs some steps to a high level
path. |
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| The lower path
is more precipitous and certainly more interesting but they
both meet again in 200m. The rowan trees (or mountain ashes)
here are festooned with bright red berries until quite late in
the year. |
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| Round the next
corner the valley widens and you will see Narnell’s Rock
directly in front of you. Take the more obvious fork to the
right. After prolonged rain, lengths of the path turn into
streams. |
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| At the next big
confluence you get a choice of route. The right valley takes
you up the easier route to Boiling Well and a longer walk back
along the road. I’m going up the slightly less used left
valley towards Pole Cottage. Jump the stream where you see a
grassy path stretching away to the left. |
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| If you are here
in August you are getting into whinberry territory – it will
take you hours to pick even half a pint and they stain your
hands purple but they are delicious with apple in a crumble.
Stay with the path and the leftmost valleys from here on. It's
rocky, steep and muddy and sometimes it’s not clear which
side you should be on. |
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| Bit by bit, the
path levels off as you approach Pole Cottage – when pine
trees hove into sight on the skyline you know you are on the
right track. Watch out for boggy ground. If the surface looks
too green and flat to be true it’s probably concealing a
good welly’s worth of quagmire. |
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| Turn left along
the road and past the car park. After 150m you see a green
path to the left snaking over Round Hill. This the route back.
Ahead of you is the Midlands Glider Club and there are often
para-gliders leaping off the edge. When you come to a big
green junction, turn left and head east. |
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| The smaller path
on the left hugs the edge of Round Hill and gives you
spectacular views back into Ashes Hollow. |
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| As you round the
corner the path ahead crosses a col and flips over to the
right side of Grindle and skirts the edge of Callow Hollow
(well worth a visit some other day). |
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| Across another pass between
Callow and Grindle and you enter Small Batch valley. Little
Stretton lies below nestled under Ragleth Hill. |
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| Through the gaps
in the hills you can see the Wrekin far to the north, lined up
with The Lawley and Caradoc hills. Small Batch joins Ashes
Hollow at the ford by the campsite where you started. |
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