Ludlow Park and Ride to Titterstone Clee Hill

We woke to a misty morning and it remained hazy all day. However, the Sun came out and it was dry all the time we were out walking. This was a lovely, varied walk, somewhat shorter than we'd have preferred, but with a big climb at the end. We started by driving to what would be the end of our walk, Titterstone Clee Hill. We'd struggled to find parking in appropriate places, so it was a relief to find a car park here,  at SO593776, in a former quarry almost at the summit. We left Richard's car here, and drove back to the Ludlow Eco Park and Ride (SO528746) car park in my car. We set off walking about 9.30am. 

As I'd started to write up the previous leg of the Shropshire Way last night, I'd become aware of some quite significant differences between the route as shown on our paper map (OS Explorer Sheet 203, copyright 2015 - and the version that is still being sold in 2024); it turns out only the cover has been altered since 2010) and that on the OS Maps App on my phone. The first of these differences was that the paper map had the route heading behind the Park and Ride car park, while the correct route follows the road through the village of Sheet, before turning off onto a path across a field and down to a stream. There were views ahead of us to Caynham Hill, though the Sun's direction made photography difficult and, before climbing to the hill fort on Caynham Hill, we descended to a water company construction which includes a bridge over Ledwyche Brook and some pipework.

As we climbed through attractive woodland towards Caynham Camp, our mapping difficulties intensified.  I was using my walking poles, which meant that I either had to stop every time I wanted to check the OS map, or hold both poles in one hand. which somewhat defeats the purpose of having two poles. In doing this, I managed to slightly twist my already problematic knee. Meanwhile, Richard uses Open Street Map, which is usually pretty good (though where there is a choice of routes, it doesn't show which is the named path you're trying to follow) but in the wood, Open Street Map showed the route incorrectly. So for the rest of today we reverted to stopping every time we wanted to check the OS App, and in the evening I marked up the paper map so that should be at least approximately correct for future legs. It was all rather frustrating, but the  iron age Caynham Fort was delightful when we got there.

We continued to meander our way across an attractive undulating landscape, though at one stage neither the signposting nor any of the mapping available to us helped us to find the route, We headed across a field as we thought the signposting indicated, but we couldn't find our way out! We walked along the field boundary and eventually we found the Shropshire Way again, and our route finding woes were then behind us.  We reached Knowbury Church around lunchtime and YES, there was a bench on which to sit. My family history research has engendered a curiosity when I am in a graveyard; there were an unusually large number of modern gravestones here, and while we were eating, a woman arrived with strimmer and set about clearly the area around what was clearly a significant gravestone for her.

We look a path alongside the Churchyard and climbed to a grassy hillside beyond. As the guidebook explains "the marked route on the map shows the path descending north westwards to the roadside before angling back to the gate ... but walkers have been seen striding freely across the brow of the hill to the same point"; reader, we were such walkers, striding freely. We passed to the south of Farden and crossed the A4117, then followed Dhustone Lane, the road we'd driven along earlier. Again to quote from the guidebook: "this lane goes all the way to Titterstone Clee's summit but we're not going to take the easy way".

We headed across open countryside, though within sight of the old workers' cottages we'd driven past in the hamlet of Dhustone; this area was heavily industrialised, with both mining (for coal beneath the surface) and quarrying (for dolerite, also known as dhustone).  There were some yappy dogs at Shop Farm and a woman chained one of them before we passed. From this point the landscape became wilder and more industrial, and I enjoyed it for that.  We zig-zagged to cross a stream and continued to the old incline, which once carried the narrow-gauge railway that was used to transport stone down the mountain.

We climbed up onto the incline which climbed steeply, and so did we! After stopping for a rest several times, we reached the old quarry workings on a plateau beneath the summit. We then climbed up to another plateau (presumably created by quarrying) that now houses the car park, so that was the end of today's walk. We collected the other car and returned to Toot View, getting there before a spectacular thunderstorm. Later on, the owner of the cottage and her daughter popped by to welcome us.

Following leg