The Ercall Woods

Today's walk is going to take us through the Ercall woods near the Wrekin in Telford.

The Ercall can be found by leaving the m54 at junction 7 turning right towards Little Wenlock and heading towards the Wrekin after a while passing the car park at the side of the road near the foot of the Wrekin we turn left into Ercall Lane go along this until you see sign for Ercall Nature Reserve.

Firstly a little about the area and the woods itself.

The Ercall quarries are renowned for their Geological interest with the rocks dating back some 560 million years and around 450 million years ago these rocks were 60* south of the Equator and today Geologists come from far and wide to appreciate their significance.

The grassy areas are areas where during the summer butterflies can be found theses include The Dingy Skipper,Green Hairstreak and Wall as well as being home for The brilliant Red winged Cinnabar and Burnet Moths.

On The upper slopes Tall oak trees Predominate; theses are termed sessile Oaks, as the acorns sit on the twigs without any stalks, while below the Oaks in the Acidic soil can be found such plants as Bilberry, Climbing Corydalis and Heath Bedstraw.

The Ercall woods in early spring is alive with many birds and often resound with birdsong ranging from the sweet song of the Wren to the wood pigeons and the yaffle of the Green woodpecker.

So lets us start our walk. We will be walk mostly on Woodlands Paths which are steep at first, along the top of the Ercall and then back past Ercall Quarries.

The walk should take around 1 1/2 Hours.

The Start of the walk is at the Entrance to the Ercall Nature Reserve, turn right along the road and walk pass the Buckatree Hall Hotal, 25 m later turn right along a footpath which is Gently uphill at first but does become steep later.

We follow this path up to the top of the Ercall, the path here swings left following the ridge of the hill,gradually descending.

Keep to the ridge, avoiding paths going down on the right, after a while the path will go under some large, spreading Oaks trees.

Soon the path Forks- we take the right hand fork descending from the ridge. As the sound from the nearby M54 traffic increases, but before you reach the fence in front of it, turn sharply right on to another path by the Holly trees we now follow this path going uphill a little until this path meets a wider path, here we turn left and walk downhill past the Ercall Quarries on our right. Here you will note an interpretation board and a poem on a rock which explain the Geological story of the exposed rock faces. After this we continue along the path until we are back where we started from.