Raby

The Wrekin is made of very ancient ‘Uriconian’ volcanic rocks (though its shape does not in fact come from having been ‘a volcano’). The north side of the Wrekin has lovely oak woodlands with associated wildlife, and there is rough grassland and fragments of heathland on the open hilltop.

The Wrekin hillfort, stronghold of the Cornovii, is a major prehistoric earthwork which cannot fail to impress, while the woods conceal relics of charcoal burning platforms associated with early industry in the Ironbridge Gorge.

Legend has it that the Wrekin was created by a giant who dropped a sack of earth, or was it two Giants quarrelling? Passing through the Needle’s Eye, a rock cleft near the summit, is supposed to be an initiation to be a true Salopian, or else a good omen for marriage.