Sar Lou Adventures

Midlands Marilyns Challenge – Callow Hill, Shropshire Hills 336m/1102ft

Callow HIll, sat in the sprawling Shropshire countryside, forms part of the Shropshire Hills but is possibly less popular than nearby Long Mynd, Caer Caradoc and The Wrekin.

Surrounded by farmland and woods, atop the 336 m (1,102 ft) Marilyn class hill is Flounders Folly. This landmark stone tower stands80 feet above Callow Hill, overlooking nearby Wenlock Edge and visible for miles around. Flounders’ Folly was built in 1838 by Benjamin Flounders but fell into disrepair in the 20th century. Having been restored in 2004-5 by the volunteers of the Flounders’ Folly Trust, it is now open to the public once a month so people can climb the stairs to the viewing platform at the top to enjoy 360º views to the Malverns, the Black Mountains, Cader Idris and many more. Specially commissioned illustrations that run round the viewing platform enable visitors to work out exactly what landmarks they are looking at in the landscape.

A short walk downhill sits the Ordnance Survey trig point, but was restricted from a good old trig slap by a barbed wire fence. It may have been a grey drizzly day for us on our hike, but we chose to ascend via the steep path on the northwestern side of the hill, and descended via the gentler but longer route on the northeast side. The steep slope was quick a tricky choice, with wet clay mud slopes and fallen trees making the going slow and slippery. The gentler slope was fine under foot but had many fallen trees and overhanging dead branches, presumably from the recent snowfall. The land is managed by the Forestry Commission, so we reported it in the hopes it will be cleared to prevent anyone being knocked out by falling dead branches!