We had promised ourselves a walk or two over the Christmas holiday period - which more-or-less guaranteed the fortnight of heavy rain... However, on the first Saturday of the new year, the rainy weather stepped aside for a cold frosty spell, preceded by a sprinkling of snow. At last!

We parked by the village hall at Snailbeach, and headed up through the now-preserved remains of the lead mines, over the ridge to Lord's Hill, with its quaint chapel. From here, we began the gentle ascent of the long ridge, passing through "the Hollies" with the scattered twisted trees. Patchy mist drifted around, but by the time we found some reasonably comfortable rocks for lunch, the mist had cleared, and the views began to open out towards the Long Mynd and, to the west, Corndon Hill and the Welsh mountains.

We wandered as far the the Devil's Chair, the highest point of the ridge at around 1750', before retracing our steps a little way to the path down to Perkins Beach. The air became bitterly cold as we dropped into the shade in the deep valley, and we were much relieved by the warm fire at the Stiperstones Inn (not that we needed an excuse).

Revived, we followed the hillside path through snow-sprinkled gorse to the foot of Crows Nest Dingle (I'm not sure why it's not a beach - all the other valleys are so-named). The old Snailbeach District Railway ran to a headshunt just up from the dingle, and we gained the old railway track here for the short walk back to the engine shed, thence back to the car for some hot soup and the short journey home. An excellent end to the holiday!

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