Pictures of Clun

About Clun

Ancient town, surrounded by low hills, forests and streams which thousands of years ago were occupied by Stone-Age people. At the beginning of the Bronze-Age a trade route had been established across the Clee Hills, to the River Severn and on to the South of England. Clun was also an important part of Roman Britain but when the Romans departed, Shropshire became the scene of violent, bloody fighting, as man for man, the Celtic Welsh and Saxons fought the long and bloody battles of centuries.

The arrival of the Normans heralded a new dawn and in medieval times, the sombre landscape took on a fresh shape and acquired a lighter atmosphere. Castles were built to keep out the marraudering Welsh and thus, this charming town which had begun to develop as a settlement around a Saxon church in the 7th-century, began to flourish.

Late in the 12th-century, the wooden fortification built at Clun in the 11th-century was burnt down by the Welsh. The land then came into the ownership of the Earls of Arundel, who built a great stone fortress in the 13th-century. Now, naught but a romantic ruin sitting on a ledge above the town, the once impressive castle, continues as the town's most famous landmark.

Rising at the side of the River Clun from which the town takes its name, this charming little place offers much of interest. The 14th-century packhorse bridge crossing the Clun, is the oldest of its kind in Shropshire. No market exists but there is a pleasant Market Square around which are set a mixture of delightful buildings. There are Almshouses dating 1614 and Trinity Hospital was built at about the same time.

Small but lively, Clun offers an interesting experience for visitors. A local History Museum tells the story of the town and its people and each May, the town stages the Clun Green Man Festival, said to ensure the safe arrival of Summer. The town makes an ideal base for exploring Clun Forest, Bury Ditches, Offa's Dyke and distant Brown Clee Hill which at 1,800 feet is the highest hill in Shropshire.