Name: Nipstone Rock
Rating: 2

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Natural Monuments

Nipstone Rock

Natural Monuments

Nipstone Rock

Recommended by 49 hikers

This Highlight is in a protected area

Please check local regulations for: Shropshire Hills National Landscape

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Location: Worthen With Shelve, West Midlands Region, England, United Kingdom

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Best Hikes to Nipstone Rock

4.8

(25)

115

hikers

1. Stiperstones National Nature Reserve loop via Devil's Chair and Nipstone Rock — Shropshire Hills

20.1km

05:52

530m

Expert hike. Very good fitness required. Mostly accessible paths. Sure-footedness required.

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Expert

5.0

(6)

hikers

2. Nipstone Rock Nature Reserve & The Bog loop — Shropshire Hills

5.49km

01:35

130m

Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Easy

4.0

(1)

hikers

3. Nipstone Rock, Linley Hill & The Bog loop — Shropshire Hills

14.8km

04:15

360m

Intermediate hike. Good fitness required. Mostly accessible paths. Sure-footedness required.

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Intermediate

Tips

Kit P

January 22, 2021

The Nipstone Rock Nature Reserve is one of the most incredible parts of Shropshire to explore. Known for its shattered quartzite boulders and dramatic tors, there's a true sense of wilderness here. Whilst large parts of the area became a conifer plantation in the 60s, the Wildlife Trust and Natural England teamed up to restore the natural plants and habitats for the reserve's species.

Today, whinberries and heather abound, bringing with them all manner of birds, insects and mammals. The nature reserve is free to enter and explore, allowing dogs on leads.

Bryony Carter :Hike_This_Way

June 29, 2020

Nipstone Nature resereve sits at the tail end of the The Stiperstones and is one of Shropshire’s wildest places with craggy tors and rost-shattered quartzite boulders strewn on the ground. While a large part of the heathland ridge was designated a National Nature Reserve in the 1960s, areas outside its boundaries were engulfed by the fashion for conifers. Large blocks of spruce and fir were planted, blocking out views and destroying the places where red grouse, curlew, skylark, grayling butterflies and emperor moths once lived.

Some years ago Shropshire Wildlife Trust teamed up with English Nature (later Natural England), the Forestry Commission and others to restore heathland across the Stiperstones ridge through a project called Back to Purple. Today most of the conifers have gone and the purple flowers of heather along with juicy, dark whinberries have reappeared.

When the emperor moth caterpillar can creep from one end of the Stiperstones ridge to the other, the Back to Purple project will have achieved its original aim. The scheme has spurred on the felling of hundreds of acres of conifers planted in the 1960s and given heather and whinberry a chance to return. Conifer plantations were felled at Nipstone in 2001 and 2006 and the speed of recovery has been amazing. Already drifts of purple heather and bilberry are back, skylarks and meadow pipits nesting among the tussocks. An 11-acre swathe of oaks, rowan and ash has been planted, creating new foraging habitat for bats and birds.

Species
Emperor mothHeatherSkylarkMeadow pipitEnglish oakRowan
Contact us
Shropshire Wildlife Trust
Contact number: 01743 284280
Contact email: enquiries@shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk

Bryony Carter :Hike_This_Way

June 29, 2020

Nipstone is open to the public all year round, there is also grazing sheep on site at times.

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Elevation 430 m

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Saturday 18 October

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Max wind speed: 11.0 km/h

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See hikes here

Take Me There

Location: Worthen With Shelve, West Midlands Region, England, United Kingdom

Nipstone Rock

1. Stiperstones National Nature Reserve loop via Devil's Chair and Nipstone Rock — Shropshire Hills

2. Nipstone Rock Nature Reserve & The Bog loop — Shropshire Hills

3. Nipstone Rock, Linley Hill & The Bog loop — Shropshire Hills

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