Norton Camp Climb – Shropshire Hills Discovery Walks

Walk directions

1. Start

   Walk into the Onny Meadows and take the first turn, left, past the Community Garden. Follow the path ahead through Newton, keeping right to follow the narrow lane to a white metal bridge across the River Onny.

2. Step 2

   Cross the river and head out across the middle of the field, just to the right of the electricity posts ahead. Please keep your dog on a lead in this field as there are usually livestock. Just before you reach the hedge turn right to cross the tiny stream on a small footbridge and follow the hedge-line on your left, uphill along the line of a sunken lane. Cross the stile next to a gate and follow the track through Whettleton Farm to reach a small gate on to the road.

3. Step 3

   Turn right along the road. Take the next footpath left, just past a large house. Follow the path as it begins to climb steeply up into Norton Camp Wood.

4. Step 4

   Take the left hand fork at the Y-junction, climbing along the edge of the wood to eventually head rightwards up a sunken track.

5. Step 5

   Keep straight on along the narrow path then continue climbing as the path curves round to the left and then through clumps of rhododendrons and past a pheasant enclosure on the right. You emerge onto a forest track with a view of Norton Camp’s double ramparts ahead.

6. Step 6

   Turn left onto the track which curves to follow the edge of the hill fort. There’s a short track off to the right, one of the fort’s entrances, which leads to the large pasture which makes up the interior of the fort these days (private land). Almost opposite this track is a gateway on the left from which there are wonderful views to Brown Clee (on the left) and Titterstone Clee Hill.

7. Step 7

   Continue along the track, following the outer edge of the camp until you reach an old house. There is another entrance to the fort here. Go on between the house and an old red brick building along a permissive path that keeps following the curves of the ramparts. Keep going on ahead back into the wood until you reach a junction and a stile over on the left hand side.

8. Step 8

   Cross the stile and follow the narrow path as it winds along the top of the escarpment in the wood. There are glimpses of views across to the rest of the Shropshire Hills through trees on the right. Keep following the narrow path, staying away from the edge of the cliffs below.

9. Step 9

   The path winds away from the edge eventually bearing left then turning right to descend more steeply to ‘Rotting Lane’. Keep right and ahead down the track which is now a bridleway.

10. Step 10

    Rotting Lane joins a forestry track that, still descending, heads left then curves right to reach a metal gate. Pass the gate and follow the track to the bottom of the hill.

11. Step 11

    At this point you turn right, away from Park Croft, to begin the return route back, northwards, to the Discovery Centre along the forest track.

12. Step 12

    After 250 metres, and, before a house on the right, zig-zag up to the right onto a track on a higher level. Turn left along this track and follow it left in the same direction around the bottom of the wood for some distance. There are views to Stokesay Castle through the trees after a while.

13. Step 13

    When you reach a corner with a stile, gate and fence on the left climb the stile to take the footpath down into a field below. Follow the footpath along the hedge-line down to the road below.

14. Step 14

    Turn right along the quiet road back, northwards towards Whettleton again. You can either return using the route you started on taking the small gate on the left at Whettleton Farm OR to take in a lovely stretch of the River Onny follow steps 15 and 16.

15. Step 15

    At a gateway on the left before the farm look for the stile on the right hand side of the gate. The footpath cuts diagonally across the field to a stile in the fence roughly in line with Stokesay Castle on the horizon. Cross the stile into the riverside pasture. Skirt left, round to the riverside footpath. Head right, along the riverside, upstream.

16. Step 16

    Follow the river, then the path climbs up and then through a couple of kissing gates. Keep left and drop down a bank to a small footbridge. Cross the field to the white metal bridge where you started the walk. Retrace your steps back through Newton to the Centre.