Used Six Castles Cycleway to go from Shrewsbury as far south as Ludlow, then cut cross country to overnight in Tenbury Wells, before heading back up to Shrewsbury via Cleobury Mortimer, Much Wenlock and Ironbridge.
In early October, quite a lot of mud on the roads as farmers got winter crops into the ground, and following heavy rain, there was a lot of surface water on some of the lanes as well. Generally the C-Road quality was pretty poor even by UK standards, we were glad to be on robust tourers with treaded 32mm tyres: skinny slicks would have been a nightmare on the hillier parts of the Six Castles and where farm vehicles have churned up the road surfaces.
Climbs around Churchstoke and Bishops Castle are serious but quite feasible with laden tourers, and the views from the tops are well worth the efforts. The same applies to the hills out of Ludlow, although again, some of the road surfaces in the Mortimer Forest leave quite a lot to be desired.
Bishops Castle and Ludlow both good stops with cakes and coffee readily available. Bishops Castle more characterful, Ludlow more conventional.
Once out of the Mortimer Forest, it was comparatively fast across the Teme floodplains to Tenbury Wells, where we stayed at The Bridge Hotel (good beds, burgers, beer, and a Beatles connection).
From Tenbury we headed East and then North East to Cleobury, very hilly countryside, with lots of short sharp climbs and descents. Once north of Cleobury it started to smooth out, with good fast roads to Much Wenlock, where the Barrow St Café is a good stop. Again smooth and quick to Ironbridge, and then along the Severn through Roman Wroxeter and back into Shrewsbury.
Six Castles is a good route, through some quiet and beautiful countryside peppered with interesting towns and historic sites. Plenty to see if taking it more slowly than we did. Surfaces detract a bit in places (you have to keep an eye on the road at all times), and as Richard notes, Shropshire is “not flat”: we climbed 2900m in two days, Six Castles alone is 1900m of that.
