Adstone to Wentnor and Bridges & Ratlinghope

We had arrived yesterday at our wonderful holiday cottage, "The Byre" in the hamlet of Adstone, and yesterday evening we had climbed a short distance onto Adstone Hill, and enjoyed the lovely views down to Adstone, across to the Long Mynd, and other Shropshire Hills to the south. The weather forecast for today was not great, with rain forecast for most of the morning, so we decided to stay in the cottage until lunchtime, in the hope that we'd manage part of the documented Adstone Walk this afternoon. We did rather better than that! Around 10 am, I realised that it wasn't actually raining, so we decided to walk south from the cottage, down the very narrow access road, to Wentnor. We did this, and I don't think we were passed by any cars for the whole of the mile to Wentnor. We walked through the village, past the Crown Hill to the pretty Church of St Michael and All Angels. 

We decided to take a risk with the weather, and to return to the cottage by a more circuitous route, so from Wentnor we now headed east on a road signposted to Pulley Moor and Medicott, but also, shortly after the junction, with a signpost pointing in the direction we were going and saying "Dangerous Hill". I was never entirely sure whether the dangerous hill was what we then descended; I think it probably was, though occasional cars were negotiating it fine, and after a bend on the descent there was then a good straight stretch of road. At a cross-roads we turned left for Adstone; but don't attempt to take a car this way! The road was reasonable for the first half mile or so, past Moorhouse. Up on a hill in front of us and to the left was a group of buildings and we realised that, in contrast to the immediate approach to the cottage in the car, and the views from Adstone Hill above it,  here we were looking up to Adstone. The road was deteriorating markedly and, after passing through a gate and round a bend to the left, it deteriorated further. However, it was a lovely walking route. After following the road round a bend to the right and passing through another gate,  there we were, back at the cottage. This had been a nice circular route and it was just starting to rain, so our timing had been perfect. 

We set out walking again after lunch, just as the rain was stopping.  After a short but distinctly uphill walk back along the access road to Adstone, the road turns left (to descend towards Wentnor) but our route over Adstone Hill to Bridges was through a gate on the right. There are two tracks from here, and the one we wanted was the right-hand one of the two, marked as an "other route with public access" on the OS Map; finding the correct route on the ground in circumstances like this is where the OS App comes into its own. Because of the weather, the views weren't as glorious as they had been when we came up here yesterday evening, but the weather was improving all the time and it was very pleasant walking. We continued to climb, soon heading along an avenue of trees. After passing the brow of the hill, the green dots of the "other route with public access" turned right towards Coates Farm, which we could see below us. However, we wanted to continue on the footpath along the ridge. Here, some walkers coming the other way were very helpful in showing us the correct way to go, which was slightly to the right and then back left to the spine of the ridge.

I enjoyed the descent down the grassy slope and we continued down a steeply decending road past Overs and Onny Bridge Farm to "Bridges".  The naming round here is more than a little confusing.  "Bridges" (or "The Bridges") seems to be the name of the pub, rather than the location,  though the pub is sometimes known as the Horseshoe Inn! The name "The Bridges" is a reference to bridges here over the River Onny, some of which remain, and a number of people were sitting outside the pub on tables by the river. Bridges is actually part of Ratlinghope, but the two feel like separate hamlets - and we were heading next to the place marked as Ratlinghope on the map, where the church is. 

Past the pub, we turned right onto the road towards what I’ll call Ratlinghope proper, now on the Shropshire Way main route, and we soon passed Bridges Youth Hostel. The walk along the road was pleasant enough, but after a few hundred metres we turned left onto an absolutely delightful footpath which followed the river along a wooded valley. Mind you, even the river doesn't know what it's called: is it the River Onny or Darnford Brook? As we approached Ratlinghope we could see a campsite on the right and shortly afterwards we left the Shropshire Way again and descended a track to a ford. The track was very muddy, but fortunately there was a footbridge alongside the ford. After crossing it we continued past some stable buildings, though we could see the pretty little Ratlinghope Church behind. We turned right into a minor road, passing the access to the Church (we went to take a closer look) and Brow Farm and its campsite, which looks like a lovely place to stay if you’re camping.

We continued straight ahead on the road, ignoring the steeply climbing road up to the Long Mynd on the left and the road back to Bridges on the right, and climbing steadily. Eventually we reached Coates Farm, expecting a steep climb from here back onto Adstone Hill, but actually it wasn’t that big or steep a climb. We retraced our route over Adstone Hill and back to the cottage, again getting back there before the rain returned. Comparing the official Adstone Walk route with the combination of our morning and afternoon routes today, I see that our outward legs both morning and afternoon (along the spine of Adstone Hill) are shared with the Adstone Walk, but our return legs are different. I’m sure the rest of the official route is nice, but it is difficult to see how it can be better than the lovely walks we had.

Following leg of Shropshire Way (anti-clockwise) from Bridges