NIPSTONE

One of the most distinctive tors along the Stiperstones ridge, Nipstone has seen some changes over the last 40 years.

For centuries up until the 1960s this was heathland, a wild landscape of heather, bilberry and cowberry, that stretched along the entire Stiperstones ridge. But extensive conifer plantation in the 1960s changed its character, blocking out views and open spaces and shrinking the area available for wildlife. In recent years, however, the Back to purple project has restored wildness to large parts of the Stiperstones.

A large conifer plantation was felled at Nipstone in 2001 and the speed of recovery has been amazing. Already drifts of purple heather and bilberry are back, skylarks nesting in their cover. When the Trust acquired this land in 2006 we felled a similar-sized block of sitka spruce. This too will soon be heathland again, a haven for stonechats, meadow pipits and lichens like miniature corals.

Meanwhile the Back to purple idea has grown and we're now looking at ways of linking up nearby areas of heathland, such as the Long Mynd with lightly managed grassland and hedges so that wildlife can move freely between the two heathland hills.

A flock of Hebridean sheep graze on Nipstone. They are ideal conservation workers, gobbling
 

up the seedling trees that sprout on the bare ground left when the conifers came down. Without this hungry flock Nipstone would soon be a forest again.

This nature reserve was bought by Shropshire Wildlife Trust with support from the Countryside Agency, the Tubney Trust and donations from many of our members and supporters.

Please keep dogs on a lead during the bird breeding season.