A Geological Trail across Shropshire

The geology of Shropshire is remarkably diverse, the result of processes fundamentally caused by plate tectonic activity over a long period of time. Several periods of plates moving together, moving apart, and sliding side-by-side can be detected, from the late Precambrian onwards. Shropshire has thus often been at a boundary, at the edge, and this explains the diversity of rocks and thus landscapes.

You can discover some if this evidence by visiting the localities linked to this page (points on map or list), and can set them in context by reference to the geological map as you traverse from North to South across Shropshire. Yes, it is colourful, but remember that each colour represents a period of time that had its own distinctive character, as portrayed in the stratigraphic column (© London Geodiversity Partnership 2011). You can find out more about geological time here.

The sites are numbered in approximate order of increasing age as far as the Long Mynd, and then in decreasing age thereafter.