A dog walking area run by Forestry England.
Location?
Not far from the Battle Field Loop walk which we covered in this blog.
Just off Newport Road, Shrewsbury SY4 4PW
Follow the signs for Dogs Trust Roden and then take a right turn passed the quarry and it is the next car park you come to.
You can also get more details here: Haughmond Hill | Forestry England
Car parking is reasonable compared to Delamere Forest, another of the Forestry England sites which we are close to.
Up to 2 hours will cost you £2 and over 2 hours is £4.
When we visited only the old school coin payment machines were working but it looks like card payments will be coming soon. In the mean time if you haven’t got cash you can use the RingGo app (far too modern and beyond me!).
Footwear needed?
Although there are primarily gravel paths to follow I would be wearing sturdy trainers as a minimum if not hiking boots. Some of the paths are steep and some ankle support is a must!
We did this walk on a busy Saturday afternoon, arriving at 1pm and finishing our walk shortly before 3pm. Although it was October and raining at the start of the walk it was surprisingly busy when we first got there.
Off / On lead?
This was one of my favourite things about this walk. Dogs are required to be on lead at the start of all the walks, and around the car park and café area. There are numerous signs (see below) advising when you can take your dog off lead and when they need to be back on lead.
Top marks for Forestry England for that, though sadly it was inside of the dog on lead area that an off lead dog rushed over to greet my two dogs. Though made less difficult than normal to handle as I simply pointed to the sign and asked the gentleman to pop his dog back on lead again.
Distraction Level: Medium
At the start and end of the walk many of the different routes join onto the same path. This means they are busy. There were many dogs and children so for reactive dogs these parts aren’t ideal, but they are manageable if you’re willing to step off the path and use the trees for cover! The prams don’t tend to be in the thicker forest area, so it is workable.
Alternatively, if you visited in the early hours of the morning I would expect there to be less families visiting and you would have an even more enjoyable walk.
From the car park (which also has a café and toilet facilities) the dogs and I managed to start on the wrong path. I was wondering when we had been walking for about 20 minutes why we had not seen any of the coloured signs yet but it didn’t really matter. What we had actually done was added on a Quarry View Point extension to our walk.
If you didn’t want to have the feeling you were lost then there is actually a PDF of the different routes here.
We then re-joined the blue route “Wilfred’s Walk” which is 5.4km / 3.3miles long and finished that loop round back to the car park.
The blue route itself was wonderful. The sunshine came out and for most of the walk through the forest we did not see another person never mind another dog. The dense woodland is always Maisy’s favourite type of walk and both dogs stopped to sniff a lot. I even popped some videos up of their little sniffari onto TikTok.
If your dog is still proofing their recall, then this is an ideal place to use your long line and practice their recall in a more distracting environment. The sights, smells and sounds of the woodland will be great for generalising the training you have been doing, but with the walk being the longest and least popular you won’t have the added difficulty of children and lots of other dogs.
What I would say is that this loop is too long for new puppies. Unless you’re willing and able to carry them then youngsters would be better suited to the shorter loops rather than walking for prolonged periods on this type of ground.
Some of the views from Toposcope viewpoint and the site of Nancy’s cottage were stunning.
Although you can see from Maisy’s ears that it was a bit windy up the top, so I’d recommend wrapping up especially if you visit in winter!
When you approach the viewpoints, it does tend to get busier again as people gather for picnics and photo opportunities. Although it does not specifically state that dogs need to go back on lead, personally I would. As there are great views, you are high up and the land does drop away sharply in parts. Unlike near the quarry viewpoint this is not fenced off. For safety I would have dogs back on lead, especially if they tend to chase wildlife (there were many birds and squirrels) or if they may be tempted to help themselves to a ham sandwich from someone’s picnic!
The walk took us about an hour and a half, but we stopped for lots of photos and sniffs. Next time I’m heading to Shrewsbury I will be deliberately stopping for another walk here. The dogs loved it and so did I!
If you have some other dog walks in Shropshire that you would recommend, we try then please do pop them in the comments below.
And don’t forget to tag us in your photos on social media if you go and try this walk!
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