Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today, Angela and I visit The Wrekin, one of central England’s best loved hills, located close to Telford.

We arrived early on a sunday morning and were surprised to find quite a few cars already parked up in the lanes. Well, we shouldn’t have been, because it is a very popular spot with spectacular 360 degree views. After some driving around we found a new car park – The Donkey Field car park, operated by RingGo. It took quite a while to pay because of the poor mobile signal on my phone.

It was a short walk from the car park to the start of the trail that would wind it’s way steeply up the hill. We passed a café on the ascent called the half-way café – typically it was closed because we were walking quite early in the day.

As you would expect, in olden days, there was an iron age fort located on the Wrekin.

Some people were descending down the path already – they must have been very early birds! Eventually, the broad track showed signs of less gradient – the top was close.

Close to the summit there was a radio mast and we started to see the distant views.

Also at the summit there is a trig point and a toposcope.

Having taken some photos we moved away from the summit and took a seat on rocks for a short break and paused to admire the views.

After our stop we headed down the opposite side to that we had ascended. If we thought the way up was steep this path was much steeper and I regretted having left my walking poles in the car. Having nearly slipped a few times on the slippery path we were pleased to arrive in one piece at the bottom.

Our walk continued through wooded tracks around the base of the Wrekin and then we headed to Limekiln wood and Ercall wood. Walking through the woods was nice because we were able to enjoy some shade. The woods were part of a medieval hunting forest. Within the forest are the hollows of small pits where coal and limestone were dug.

The Ercall was extensively quarried from the 19th century and the abandoned faces reveal some of the oldest rocks in the country and wave ripples from a 540-million-year-old seashore.

After an 8-mile walk and 1,700 ft of ascent we arrived back in the car park. I had been wanting to go up the Wrekin for some time, so it was nice to tick that off the list. We had great weather for the walk and the views were fabulous.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶