Visit Whitchurch and Wem on your cottage holiday.

Whitchurch

Leave time for a visit to historic Whitchurch on your Shropshire cottage holiday; it’s home to one of the world’s oldest clockmakers, JB Joyce, whose time pieces keep the watch on towers, churches and other public buildings across the globe. Learn more at the Heritage and Craft Centre, or enjoy shopping for local specialities and fresh local produce at the town’s regular Farmer’s Markets. The pleasant green space of Jubilee Park is the place to head out for a stroll; no less than five of the county’s long distance walks, including the Shropshire Way, begin here, whilst the Llangollen canal offers alternative short walks and cycles. Nearby, the north Shropshire markets towns of Ellesmere, Wem and Market Drayton offer a variety of attractions.

If you enjoy a pint or two after a long day’s hike, then pretty Cleobury Mortimer, nestling on the side of scenic Clee Hills, is the place for you! With plenty of inns and pubs, the town’s microbrewery, Hobson’s, has been quietly producing award-winning ale for a number of years. Indeed, their ‘twisted spire’ beer takes its name from the town’s most famous landmark – the crooked spire of the parish church that dominates the local skyline.

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Shropshire’s famous poet, Alfred Housman, called Clun ‘one of the quietest places under the sun’, and many years on, the description still applies. He was not the only writer to draw inspiration in the quiet beauty of the South Shropshire hills, and today Clun offers visitors on a cottage holiday a lovely glance back at a time now long since gone by. The very entrance to the town shields it from the bustle of modern life; a narrow packhorse bridge guides the visitor into town, and to the discovery of its charm and history. Clun castle is one of the finest of the smaller Welsh Marches castles built in Norman times.

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Visit Oswestry and nearby attractions whilst on a cottage holiday. In the heart of the Borders, where Shropshire and the Welsh hills blend into one, Oswestry is an attractive market town within easy reach of a host of great family attractions. From walking to water and cycling to culture, there’s plenty to keep everyone busy in this region. For a town in the strategically important Welsh Marches, there’s many a castle, ruined and intact, to visit nearby.

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Make sure to spend some time in Ellesmere on your Shropshire holiday cottage break. A delightful town on the site of an ancient Roman settlement, Ellesmere centres on a beautiful glacial lake. There are many different ways to enjoy it; take a boat out on the water and indulge in a spot of fishing or bird watching, board a steamboat or watch for herons and other wildlife from the warmth of the Visitor Centre. Take a ramble along the lakeshore before following the Llangollen canal towpath into town, passing the home of the legendary engineer, Thomas Telford, en route.

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