Sar Lou Adventures

Midlands Marilyns Challenge – Corndon Hill, Wales 514 metres/1,685 ft

While Corndon Hill technically sits just across the England/Wales border in Powys, its popularity and draw to people visiting the Shropshire hills is undeniable. Surrounded on 3 sides by Shropshire and vast acres of farmland, topographically it also sits within the Shropshire catchment area of EC02 Clee-corndon. That’s the end of the excuses I’ve got to include this much loved Welsh hill (along with Moel Y Golfa) as part of my Midlands Marilyn Challenge anyway!

At just shy of 514 metres (1,685 ft) and with two main routes to choose from from the north side of the hill, your options are farmland paths or, well, farmland paths. The steepest ascent is a straight up and down and known from being a leg burner, but when we visited, the fields the path passes through included a herd of cows, which my fellow dog walkers will know are not to be messed with when you have dogs in tow.

As a result of the grumpy looking cows and it being our second hill of the day, we decided to take the longer route which circles around the southern and eastern sides, giving brief but stunning views of nearby Roundton Hill, Todleth Hill and Lan Fawr. The weather unfortunately wasn’t on our side, with heavy wind, rain, low cloud and zero visibility as we got further up the hill. A classic example of how the weather at the car park can be entirely different from the summit!

With some very confused sheep looking on as we trudged through the endless cloud bank, we made the summit, gave a quick trig slap and made a quick descent. Even the cairn and bench on top couldn’t tempt us to stay any longer than we had to in the utterly grim conditions, but it’s definitely been added as a mental not to revisit on a clear day. The views when they occasionally peeked out of the grim weather looked amazing, and I’ve heard many a story about how much people love returning to Corndon Hill, at least when the weather is right!