Haughmond Hill is a small, shallow hill in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. It is covered by woodland for the most part, although there is an open cast

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

(for stone aggregates) in use. Its proximity to the town of Shrewsbury has meant that it has become something of a forest park, with guided paths, car parking and picnic areas maintained in places. The rocky summit overlooks countryside and Shrewsbury itself. Haughmond Hill is made up of ancient

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing Turbidites wer ...

sediments from the late Precambrian era which once cascaded off the edge of a continent into the ocean that surrounded it. The villages of Uffington and

Upton Magna Upton Magna is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. (''Magna'' is Latin, meaning "great". Therefore, the translation of Upton Magna is "Great Upton".) Nearby are the villages of Uffington, Rodington and Withington, as well as the ...

lie below and the B5062, Shrewsbury to Newport, road runs through the northern half of the woodland.

Deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

can be found in the woods, which are mixed deciduous/coniferous and are to some extent used for

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...

to this day. The hill has several dubious connections with the

Battle of Shrewsbury The Battle of Shrewsbury was a battle fought on 21 July 1403, waged between an army led by the Lancastrian King Henry IV and a rebel army led by Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy from Northumberland. The battle, the first in which English archers ...

in 1403. ''Queen Eleanor's Bower'' is a small enclosure on the hill from which the wife of Henry IV of England supposedly watched the battle's progress. Finally, the "bosky hill" mentioned in Act V Scene i of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Henry IV part 1 ''Henry IV, Part 1'' (often written as ''1 Henry IV'') is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the battle at ...

is almost certainly Haughmond, which looms to the east of the battlefield: ''How bloodily the sun begins to peer''
''Above yon bosky hill?''
''The day looks pale''
''At his distemperature.'' Also nearby is Haughmond Abbey, now a ruin, and Ebury Hill, a prehistoric fort. The summit has the ruins of Haughmond Castle, a folly originally built about 1780 that collapsed in 1931.

References

{{Reflist Hills of Shropshire

See also

References