Whilst looking for somewhere to stop off on route to our recent break in Shropshire, I came across Hawkstone Park Follies, a unique 100 acre country park near Shrewsbury. In the 18th Century this rocky sandstone landscape was developed into caves, grottos, towers and arches and became one of the most visited tourist attractions in the country.
It was in 1700 that King & Queens diplomat and Lord of the Treasury Sir Richard Hill inherited the Hawkstone estate and together with his younger brother John ,started making changes to the scenery. Over the years more and more turrets and towers were added until eventually the Hills family money ran out and by the Twentieth century Hawkstone was all but abandoned, overgrown and forgotten. Luckily in more recent years the area has been designated a Grade 1 listed park by English Heritage, allowing it to be restored to its former glory.
Dogs are permitted to visit as long as they are on lead, so we spent a couple of hours exploring the follies and then had lunch in the glasshouse tea room.
The park has a Troll trail especially for children. We found ourselves following it, completely by accident of course. 😉
We soon found ourselves regretting not bringing Hugo’s water with us. It was a humid type of day and Mr H was puffing and panting quite a bit. Unusually the park didn’t seem to have any brooks or ponds for him to dip in either. We decided to only look at a few more follies before turning back.
We did miss a few other follies such as The Hermitage and Foxes knob. Not sure what that is! Have you ever visited Hawkstone?
sunshine and celandines 
No trolls under the bridge?!? What about billy goat gruff?😊
That was us, trip trapping across the bridge. 😀
That looks like a lovely place to visit.
It was something different. Had never heard of it previously. X
An interesting read. Lovely photos. Could the plants growing on the rocks be navelwort?
Googling it, yes! Thanks Bea. 🙂 X
Bizarre place! Very interesting though.
Yeh, quite a find! X
Wow, that was interesting & probably worth another visit. Thanks for sharing & take care.
Hawkstone Park is a magical place to visit and I’ve been several times. The BBC used it as a Narnia location when they filmed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in the 1980s. I’m glad you had sunshine for your visit. x
Thanks so much for the comment. It does have a very magical atmosphere and I can quiet see why it was used in The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe. X
Poor Hugo. Hope he is ok? Love that you followed a troll trail. You do find some interesting places to visit. x
Oh yes he’s fine. He had some water at the cafe. I think him being a black dog makes him a hot dog. The follies were Definitely a better journey stop than a service station. X
Lovely photos. I have visited Hawkstone, I think it was about 12 years ago now, before my blogging days, but I remember having a lovely day there.