Mynydd Hir

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A trip out to Church Stretton today turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than originally planned, as the road we normally take from the Bishop's Castle side was blocked for some unstated reason with as yet no diversion signs to guide us on an alternative route. Anyhow, we made our way up onto The Long Mynd, a seven-mile long and three-mile wide ridge, rising at its highest to 1,693 feet at Pole Bank. Parts of the narrow road that winds up and over at its middle are worryingly close to steep drops without fencing or walling to prevent the less-attentive driver from making a very rapid and probably fatal descent into the landscape below, although we avoided the steepest and scariest thoroughfare at the Craven Arms end of the ridge, which is OK when ascending - at least for the driver - but going down is a feast of brake dust, and in the old days, brake fade, as I found out years ago when I trashed a brand new set of brake-pads on the descent. If you're a nervous driver, you might think twice before attempting the crossing, although the views from the ridge are a breathtaking reward for the effort... 

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