Caer Caradoc Hill
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| Caer Caradoc Hill | |
|---|---|
 Caer Caradoc |
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| Elevation | 459 metres (1,506 feet) |
| Location | Shropshire,  England |
| Range | Shropshire Hills |
| Prominence | 271 m |
| Parent peak | Stiperstones |
| Topo map | OS Landranger 137, 138 |
| OS grid reference | SO477953 |
| Listing | Marilyn |
Caer Caradoc is a hill in the English county of Shropshire. It overlooks the town of Church Stretton and the village of All Stretton and offers panoramic views to the north towards The Wrekin, east to Wenlock Edge, and west over the nearby Long Mynd. On a clear day it is possible to see the beginning of the hills of Snowdonia to the north, the high-rise buildings of Birmingham to the east, Worcester Beacon in the Malvern Hills to the south east, and Hay Bluff and the beginning of the Black Mountains to the south.
Caer Caradoc rises sharply and steeply up out of the narrow valley in which the town is situated and known as the Stretton Gap. It is the highest point on a high, narrow, northeast–southwest "whaleback ridge", also sometimes also called a hogsback ridge. The Wrekin is a very similarly shaped hill and on the same alignment. Caer Caradoc may be fairly easily climbed from Church Stretton town but the ascent / descent is steep; a good way of climbing it is to do a linear walk from along the aforementioned ridge, including the nearby summits of Ragleth Hill and The Lawley to gain the best perspective on each [1]. Otherwise, the ascent of the hill and return is some 7 miles from the town.
The hill is volcanic in origin, like the Wrekin etc, formed of narrow ridges of resistant Pre-Cambrian rock, thrust upwards by movements deep down along the Church Stretton fault. This fault runs from Staffordshire to South Wales and can be seen on OS maps as a line of springs on this hill.
The summit is crowned by an Ancient British Iron Age or late Bronze Age hill fort. It is this which the hill is named after - Caer Caradoc in Welsh meaning Caradoc's fort. Local legend has it that this was the site of the last stand of Caractacus. Others say his last stand was in the locality but this was one of his fortresses.
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