Shropshire Hills


The Shropshire Hills is an upland area and one of the natural regions of England. They lie wholly within the county of Shropshire and encompass several distinctive and well-known landmarks, such as the Long Mynd, Wenlock Edge, The Wrekin and the Clees.
The Shropshire Hills lie south of the county capital of Shrewsbury between the Welsh border and Much Wenlock, extending as far south as Ludlow. To the north they are bounded by the Shropshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain, to the east by the Severn Valley and Mid Severn Sandstone Plateau, to the southeast by Knighton and the Teme Valley and to the southwest by the Clun and North West Herefordshire Hills.

Environment

The Shropshire Hills are listed as Natural Area No. 42 and also as National Character Area 65 by Natural England, the UK Government's advisor on the natural environment. The NCA covers an area of and measure around from west to east and north to south. The dominant pattern of the hills is a series of southwest to northeast ridges, scarps and valleys. They are characterized by steep, rounded 'whaleback' hills, often crowned with open moorland, with woodland dressing the steeper slopes. There are scattered farms in dales and sheltering in valleys; larger settlements being confined to the Stretton Valley and A49 corridor.

Major summits

Roughly a half of the NCA lies within the Shropshire Hills AONB. In addition, the region contains two Special Areas of Conservation and a national nature reserve as well as 73 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the latter totalling. Its major watercourses are the rivers Corve, Onny, Severn and Teme and the Ledwyche and Rea Brooks. The average elevation is ; the highest point is Brown Clee Hill at.
Significant summits in the Shropshire Hills include: