Craven Arms: History and Trails

If you are considering Craven Arms for a hotel stay, its cultural history and trails can help you choose what to explore according to your interests. The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre combines an exhibition on regional history with opportunities for walking, cycling and geocaching. This lets you distinguish a cultural focus from a range of outdoor activities when planning your trip.

Culture and Regional History

The “Shropshire Hills Through Time” exhibition traces the region’s history from the time of the Condover Mammoth onwards. A panoramic film shows the surrounding hills, towns and rivers. The exhibition therefore offers two distinct perspectives: the region’s history and impressions of its landscape. Interactive features and games for the whole family complement the exhibition.

Walking

The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre is a junction for four routes on the Shropshire Way. The routes head north towards Church Stretton, south to Ludlow, west to Clun and east to Much Wenlock. This lets you distinguish the routes by direction and destination. In addition, the Centre provides six specially created leaflets for visitors featuring Discovery Walks, designed to help explore the surrounding landscape. The regional context also includes the fact that most of the land east of the River Onny, as well as the land in the far west of the Craven Arms study area, lies within the Shropshire Hills AONB.

Circular Walk and Orienteering in Onny Meadows

Onny Meadows has a circular walk of around 700 m that goes around part of the meadows. The path has a firm, generally level, surfaced base. There is also an orienteering course, which has been used for many events. The circular walk and orienteering course offer different ways to include Onny Meadows in your plans.

Cycling and Geocaching

Six circular cycling routes start from the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre. The Sustrans Route 44 runs alongside the Centre and connects Bishop’s Castle and Shrewsbury. This gives you a choice between circular routes starting at the Centre and a route connecting two named places.

The Centre’s geocaching offer includes a mini-trail and two further trails that lead into the countryside. If you are coming as a group, you can reserve a GPS device for geocaching before your visit. Include this reservation in your preparations if you would like to use the device.

Dining at the Centre

The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre café prepares food fresh on site, using locally sourced ingredients. Dining is therefore another of the options described for your visit.

Discover more destinations: Kinton, Hinton, Pant, Weston Rhyn, Halford, Broseley, Criggion, Ellesmere.

For the broader travel overview: Shropshire.