Craven Arms, Nortoncamp Wood and Stokesay Castle, 27th September 2026

Both walks started at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre in Craven Arms.  After crossing the River Onny and climbing up to the edge of Nortoncamp Wood, the two groups separted, the long- walkers climbing up to the Norton Camp - a renowned double rampart and ditch of Iron Age defences which may be over 2500 years old and the short-walkers taking a lower path overlooking the valley of the Onny.  

Both groups then dropped down to reach and cross the River Onny to reach Stokesay Castle by different routes before  returning to the Discovery Centre with its interesting museum where you can meet the Condover mammoth, a popular, replica skeleton of an adult male mammoth discovered in 1986 in a local quarry.

River Onny

Guard of honour as the fast group catch up with the short-walkers

Distant view across the River Onny of Stokesay Castle

Lime kilns near one of the many local limestone quarries

Bridge over the Onny

Approaching Stokesay Castle (English Heritage)

Gatehouse to Stokesay Castle, one of the best preserved 13th-century fortified manor houses in England

Lunch outside Church of St John the Baptist (1150)

  

Replica of the Condover mammoth