2 walks - Moderate, 10 and 11 miles
Exclusive hire of a youth hostel in mid-winter was a new venture for the club, to banish all those January blues! It was very successful and was fully booked within days of being advertised. Clun youth hostel is a beautifully restored water mill and still has much of the old machinery in place, giving the building plenty of character. Clun itself is a delightful little town in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has an other worldly feel, situated as it is at the western edge of England - close to the Welsh border. The town nestles around a Norman castle and a packhorse bridge which is centuries old. The narrow streets feature two lovely old inns and several cafes.
The first of the walks was to the west of Clun towards Wales and included parts of the Shropshire Way and Offa's Dyke Path and returned along part of the Jack Mytton Way. The second walk explored the hilly country to the east of the town, including Bury Ditches hillfort with its superb panoramic views (on a clear day), Walcot Park (with its ancient trees), Clunton Hill and back along the Clun valley.