This walk takes you through Hawkstone Park.

The park was one of the most popular tourist attractions in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, but fell into neglect and oblivion in the 20th century before being restored. The walk combines spectacular natural geology with romantic garden architecture from the Georgian period.

Hawkstone Park is an extraordinary landscape park in Shropshire with a spectacular geological landscape featuring cliffs, caves, gorges, and historic monuments.

The park covers approximately 100 acres (40 hectares) of forest with dramatic sandstone formations dating back over 230 million years to the Triassic.

The geology of Hawkstone Park was formed during the Triassic period, when the area lay between 20 and 30 degrees north of the equator in the supercontinent Pangaea. The climate at that time was dry and desert-like, comparable to the modern Sahara. The sandstone was deposited by braided rivers or by the wind as sand dunes.

A remarkable geological feature is the copper mineralization dating from the Tertiary, approximately 100 million years after the faulting. Hot fluids rich in copper and barite moved through the groundwater and crystallized in the sandstones, particularly along fault lines. In the caves, you can see green malachite stains (copper carbonate) as evidence of this earlier copper mining, possibly even dating back to Roman times.

The walk takes you past a series of remarkable sights that were created by the aristocratic Hill family in the 18th and 19th centuries:

The Monument: A 100-foot-high spiral staircase column with 150 steps, built in honor of Sir Rowland Hill, the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London. On a clear day, you can see thirteen counties from the top.

The White Tower: A tower-like shelter originally whitewashed with a fireplace for hikers in bad weather

Swiss Bridge: A rustic bridge designed as part of a Swiss scene, spanning a spectacular gorge. The gorge has likely eroded along a fault line.

The Grotto: A network of artificial caves and passages excavated from the soft sandstone. The walls were originally covered with shells and fossils, and the windows had stained glass. Here, you can clearly see the green copper stains in the rock walls.

The Hermitage: A sanctuary originally known as the "Temple of Patience" where visitors waited for their guide. It even housed a hermit and later a vending machine operated by the guide.

The Red Castle: A 12th-century medieval castle ruin from 1227, built by Henry de Audley. It is a rare example of a rock-hewn castle, hardly found in the British Isles.

The Cleft: A dramatic cleft that formed naturally as a fracture or joint line but was artificially deepened with chisels to allow visitors passage.

Fox's Knob: A sandstone pinnacle where you can see beautiful cross-stabilization – curved striped layers formed by shifting sands from migrating dunes in the desert.