Stiperstones

Stiperstones

The Stiperstones is a distinctive hill in the county of Shropshire, England. The quartzite rock of the ridge formed some 480 million years ago. During the last Ice Age Stiperstones lay on the eastern margin of the Welsh ice sheet. The Stiperstones is a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest and is within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is a haven for wildlife, with birds that are normally associated with upland areas present, including red grouse, Eurasian curlew, peregrine falcon and the rare ring ouzel. A large area, known as the Long Mynd, covers much of the Shropshire Hills, but as you stand on the rolling hills and moorland of the Long Mynd and look North West, you see the almost menacing skyline of The Stiperstones. Characterised by its jarring jagged rocks that pierce the sky, The Stiperstones looks a very different hill to its neighbours. This difference is probably why the hill picked up a sinister myth: one of the large outcrops of rocks is called The Devil’s Chair, and local folklore says that when the clouds are covering the top of the hill, Satan is sitting in his throne up there.