New Shropshire Way loop gets launch date
The revamped Shropshire Way will launch its northern loop later this year.
Shropshire Council’s Outdoor Partnerships team has been working on the project since 2016 when it was decided to simplify the route into a figure of eight comprising two circular walks.
The northern loop takes in 70 miles, passing from Shrewsbury to Whitchurch, via Wem, across to Ellesmere, past Oswestry, and via Nesscliffe back to the county town.
Helen Beresford, volunteers manager for the Outdoor Partnerships team, said it was hoped it work would be completed in time for a September launch.
A new website was also being developed to support it.
She said: “We hope it can be used as a product to bring people into Shropshire, just like Offa’s Dyke does.
“The website will include accommodation details and the like, and a guide book is being created.”
The Shropshire Way was devised in 1980 in association with the Ramblers to create a route from the Sandstone Trail in the north of the county to Offa’s Dyke in the south.
An extension to include Clun and Stiperstones was included in the early 1990s before it was developed in the north in 2010.
Ms Beresford continued: “Wanting to complete that route was pretty impossible – it was hard to follow and in some places there were waymarks pointing in three or four different directions. You couldn’t have realistically completed it.”
The revised route, which was developed alongside the Shropshire Way Association, also includes redesigned waymarkers to distinguish it from the other routes.
The south route takes in 120 miles including Shrewsbury, Church Stretton, Bishops Castle, Craven Arms, Ludlow, Much Wenlock and a new section passing through Wellington.
It was launched last September and is divided into 10 ‘day walk’ sections.
By Emily Lloyd, Local Democracy Reporter
