To Hopesay from Craven Arms and return

Today was our final day of walking on our first holiday purposefully on the Shropshire Way, and we didn't have far to go: we wanted to link up from Hopesay (where we'd reached yesterday) and Watling Street to the west of Craven Arms (we'd walked from here to Stokesay on a circuit from the cottage earlier in the week).  For today, we planned a circuit using minor roads to Hopesay and returning on the Shropshire Way; this meant we'd be going up not down the steep incline of Hopesay Hill from Hopesay. We also realised that we could easily extend the walk into Craven Arms on the "main route" of the Shropshire Way, leaving us free to start our next walk in Craven Arms and therefore to use to use the train for the return leg from Ludlow.  The final realisation was that we could make use of a permissive riverside path by the River Onny to the east of Craven Arms. as described in the "Riverside Ramble" in the series of Shropshire Hills Discovery Walks that we had in the cottage. So the final overall plan was: from centre of Craven Arms walk to the east to the River Onny then  follow  the permissive path by the river to the north to Newington; follow minor road (labelled as Long Lane and Cycle Route 44) to the west to Round Oak; take minor road to Hopesay; follow Shropshire Way back to Craven Arms.

We parked (free) in the Corvendale Road car park (SO434828) and walked to the east from the town centre along Corvendale Road, the B4368., to the river. Craven Arms was built as a railway town and it is not particularly attractive, but it is surrounded by beautiful countryside. We descended to the west of the river, for a pleasant kilometre or so of riverside walking. The section opposite the hamlet Halford was particularly attractive, there is a weir here with the pretty little church of St Thomas behind. Further north, we followed a straight-ahead route which led down to a meander - with no way forward - so we had to retrace our steps. Then, at Newbiggin, my sense of direction went completely bonkers; I wanted to turn right which would have led us across the river, completely the wrong direction. Fortunately, Richard got it right and after crossing the main road (the A49), we set off along Long Lane.

Initially we thought we'd made a rather bad choice of route, as we were passed by rather a lot of cars. However, just past a level crossing, virtually all the cars turned into a little industrial estate. This was a timely reminder that, whilst we'd been walking for half an hour or so, it was still only around 9am. We left Craven Arms behind us and climbed, though delightful countryside. After a mile or so, we thought we were seeing things, there was a cow wandering across the road in front of us; yes there was, then another and another. The ladies were returning to their field after milking; we stopped for a chat with the (also female) farmer. 

The views got better and better as we climbed, with the land falling a away near Sibdon Wood, and an attractive hilly landscape beyond and indeed in all directions.  We reached the "easy" route up the ridge of Hopesay Hill; that would have been a good way to walk, but it wouldn't have linked up with where we had reached on the Shropshire Way, so we continued on the road. What we didn't realise at the time was that Wart Hill was just up to our right; later on we found ourselves on another of the  Shropshire Hills Discovery Walks, this time the "Wart Hill Wander". Meanwhile we continued to a junction at Round Oak, where we turned left onto a very minor road at a rather nice fishy signpost!

After passing the fish farm, we eventually found ourselves back at Hopesay Church, and we revisited the lovely churchyard and sat on the bench we'd found yesterday for a break. However, Hopesay Hill beckoned. The climb was steady, but not as bad as I'd feared it might be.  Around  SO391831 the route is not quite as shown on the map; we turned left onto a track as shown, but there was then no onward route up the hill to the right, so we retraced our steps back to the point at which we'd reached the track, and the straight-ahead route was fine. More excitingly, we again encountered the Heart of Wales  line Trail; I am loving the Shropshire Way but the Heart of Wales Line Trail is also very tempting...

All the way up the hill, there were stunning views back to Hopesay and we also tried (not terribly successfully) to identify a grand-looking house we'd see when looking down the valley from the north (shown in the photo at the top of the page). From Hopesay Hill, we continued through the undulating landscape to the north of Oldfield Wood. We eventually stopped for lunch, sitting underneath a tree to the south of the historic hamlet of Sibdon Carwood.  The hamlet is apparently based around  Sibdon Castle (actually a 17th Century Manor House) and St Michael's Church. The final part of our descent to Watling Street was unfortunately through fields of oil-seed rape, the smell of which (as always) upset me.

We followed the route of Watling Street back to the parking place we'd found on our circuit from the cottage on Monday. We continued on the route of the Shropshire Way, this time happy to stay close to the Heart of Wales Line, and we continued into Craven Arms and to the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre.  The Discovery Centre was a bit disappointing, but we bought ginger beer and sat outside to drink it, watching a school group who were playing rounders nearby. We then continued to the Tuffins Supermarket, a most peculiar place, but they sold us tissues, strawberries and petrol, as required. We returned to our car and returned to the cottage for a final lazy evening, with a good soak in the hot tub! It had been a wonderful holiday.