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The Stiperstones () is a distinctive hill in Shropshire, England. The quartzite rock of the ridge formed some 480 million years ago. During the last Ice Age Stiperstones lay on the eastern margin of the Welsh ice sheet. The hill itself was not glaciated though glaciers occupied surrounding valleys and it was subject to intense freezing and thawing which shattered the quartzite into a mass of jumbled scree surrounding several residual rocky tors. (2025). 9781861268037, The Crowood Press. ISBN 9781861268037 At above sea level it is the second-highest hill in the county, surpassed only by Brown Clee Hill (). Stiperstones' summit ridge is crowned by several jagged outcrops of rock, which may be seen silhouetted against the sky.
Manstone Rock is the highest of these at , and is topped with a trig point. The Devil's Chair is the largest and best known.
The Stiperstones ridge is a good place to view the upland landscape of the Shropshire Hills, particularly the Long Mynd to the east, and also gives extensive views towards the North Shropshire plain and the hills of Mid Wales.
Much of the ground around the tors is covered by head, a gravelly and bouldery deposit arising during the present Quaternary period and deriving from the rocks immediately beneath it. There are also some isolated peat deposits in places. Of particular note is the patterned ground surrounding the tors; some of the best examples of the periglaciation features known as stone stripes and polygons in England.
Recently, a project called Back to Purple has commenced, to clear some of the hill of remaining plantations of coniferous and wooded areas, restoring the land to Ericaceae-based heath, with seasonal purple-flowering heather covering the summits around the tors and enhancing the views of the Stiperstones from the surrounding peaks and valleys. Back to Purple is managed by a partnership of Natural England, Forest Enterprise and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. Their work has so far seen removal of thousands of pine trees and other conifers, including the whole Gatten Plantation (still shown on Ordnance Survey maps) and the previously covered Nipstone Rock has emerged from hiding. Thousands of heather seedlings have been successfully planted to supplement natural regeneration. To balance this out and complement it further work below summit level has also aimed at restoring grasslands, rich in herbs, hay meadows, wet flushes which produce bog cotton, Heath Bedstraw and the rarer Mountain Pansy and natural woodlands.
The area around the Stiperstones is rich in Mythology and folklore relating to the rocks of the Devil's Chair. According to one legend, the ghost of Wild Edric, a Anglo-Saxons earl who held lands that were confiscated after 1066 and successfully defied the Normans, for a time at least, rides the hills whenever England is threatened by invasion. The Stiperstones feature in the literary works of Mary Webb, who drew it as The Diafol (translated from Welsh, "Devil's") Mountain in her novel The Golden Arrow (1916), of children's author Malcolm Saville, and in a jazz work commissioned by Music at Leasowes Bank, written and performed by the Clark Tracey Quintet. D.H. Lawrence used the Stiperstones and the Devil's Chair in particular as a setting for his novel St Mawr (1925).
The Half Man Half Biscuit album 90 Bisodol (Crimond) contains a track entitled "Descent of the Stiperstones".
An exaggerated version of the Stiperstones is included as a location in the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
The Bog Visitor Centre is the main facility for visitors to the Stiperstones. It is housed in the former village school and retains its old interior design. It provides historical information about the past workers, mining, and present-day work to restore the landscape. Facilities at the centre include toilets and car parking (with facilities for the disabled including reserved parking, toilets and ramps). Activities include walking, with two main circular walks called Mucklewick Walk and Flenny Bank Walk and a variety of riding routes.
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