Bishop’s Castle
OS216 SO324886
The book titled this walk ‘Life and Death in Bishop’s Castle’. I am not certain why, must be something to do with the battles between the Welsh and English?
We began in the quirky, colourful town of Bishop’s Castle. The little town is South West of Shrewsbury and, apparently the smallest town in the country, and has an eclectic collection of cottages painted from purple to yellow.
The description of the walk, can be found here, but it’s rather clinical explanation does no justice to the countryside it covers. The most difficulty we had was at the beginning, as the ‘fields’ had turned in to allotments, littered with an odd assortment of detritus, the old bike included. Once clear we walked along an ancient Green Lane up to the Kerry Ridgeway, where there was another ‘map moment’ as we looked down into ancient woodland. Everything was a little hazy and the clearest view was of the prolific sheep and colourful mangles.
From the Kerry Ridgeway there were views, even on this hazy day, over to the north and across the Camlad river valley. The village of Church Stoke could just about be seen, but otherwise the only evidence of human habitation was the odd farm.
What the book does mention is the fondness of our farmers for starting scrap metal yards. One excelled himself with the digger festooned in ivy. How much do these things cost?
The open pasture treated us to an ornithological show as we walked into a field of Fieldfares and Lapwings, neither of which did us the courtesy of letting us close, but their aerial display and chatter was entertaining.
The penultimate section of the walk, prior to joining the Shropshire Way, is in another valley with a small stream the only thing to interrupt the silence.
The topography of the walk, with its mix of ridge ways and valleys, illustrates just how sparsely this part of the Shropshire is. There was a sense of tranquil isolation and big sky views which previously I have only experienced in much more remote mountainous areas. Certainly worth the hike. 
