Bishop's Castle

Hotel choice in Bishop's Castle itself is limited by the town's size, and what's available leans heavily towards historic coaching inns rather than modern hotel chains — think low beams, thick stone walls and a bar downstairs rather than a lift and a business centre. Several of the town's old pubs, including its brewery-owned inns, offer rooms above the bar, putting guests within a few steps of a pint brewed on the premises and the High Street's independent shops.

For a wider choice, including larger hotels with more facilities, Shrewsbury (around 20 miles north) and Ludlow (a similar distance south-east) both have a broader hotel scene, from period townhouse hotels to countryside options just outside the towns, and make sensible bases for anyone wanting to combine a stay in Bishop's Castle with time in Shropshire's larger market towns. Closer to hand, farmhouse bed and breakfasts and small guesthouses scattered through the surrounding villages offer a quieter, more rural alternative, often with views out towards the Stiperstones or the Clun hills, and tend to suit visitors whose main reason for coming is the walking rather than the town itself.

Bishop's Castle rewards slow exploration — most of what makes it worth visiting is within a five-minute walk of the top of the High Street.

• House on Crutches Museum — a timber-framed 17th-century building propped up on wooden posts over the pavement, now home to a small volunteer-run museum of local history, with free entry.
• The Three Tuns Brewery — brewing on this site since 1642, it claims to be the oldest licensed brewery in Britain still using its original Victorian tower brewhouse; tours and tastings can be booked, and the adjoining Three Tuns Inn serves the beer fresh.
• The Six Bells Brewery — a second working brewery in a town of barely 1,700 people, based at the 17th-century Six Bells coaching inn, with its own cask ales brewed out the back.
• Bishop's Castle Railway Museum — a small collection charting the short-lived and famously loss-making Bishop's Castle Railway, which ran from 1866 until 1935.
• Site of Bishop's Castle — little survives of the original 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle beyond earthworks and fragments of walling, but the high ground it occupied still gives good views over the town and surrounding hills.
• The Stiperstones — a dramatic quartzite ridge a few miles north-east, its jagged rock outcrops (including the Devil's Chair) rising above one of England's largest surviving areas of heather moorland.
• The Long Mynd — the heather-clad plateau above Church Stretton, within easy reach for walking, cycling or paragliding, and part of the wider Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
• Bishop's Castle Community Woodland and town walks — waymarked walks lead straight out of town into the surrounding countryside, reflecting the town's Walkers are Welcome status.

For a town of its size, Bishop's Castle punches well above its weight on food and drink, largely thanks to its two home-brewing pubs. The Three Tuns Inn serves beer straight from the brewery next door in a wood-panelled bar that has changed little in character over the centuries, while the Six Bells on Church Street brews its own ale out back and serves classic pub food, including a long-running fish and chip night. Independent cafes and a handful of small restaurants around the High Street offer more casual options, and the town's weekly market brings local produce into the centre.

Bishop's Castle is well placed for anyone looking to camp in the Welsh Marches, with the Shropshire Hills, the Stiperstones and the Clun Forest all within a short drive. As with the rest of England, wild camping without the landowner's explicit permission is not legal here, so campers need to book into an established site rather than pitch up on open hillside, however tempting the empty moorland above the town might look. Fortunately the area around Bishop's Castle has a good spread of small, independently run campsites and farm-based sites, many geared towards walkers tackling the surrounding hills or cyclists exploring the quiet Marches lanes.

The terrain here is proper hill-and-valley country: steep-sided, sheep-grazed, and criss-crossed by sunken lanes, so most campsites sit in sheltered valley locations rather than exposed high ground, which makes for a more comfortable pitch even when the weather turns, as it can quickly this close to the Welsh border. Facilities tend towards the simple end — basic amenity blocks, water points and honesty-box shops rather than swimming pools and entertainment complexes — which suits the quiet, outdoorsy character of the area and the walkers, birdwatchers and stargazers it tends to attract.

Late spring to early autumn is the most reliable camping season, with long daylight hours for exploring the Long Mynd or Stiperstones and a reasonable chance of dry weather, though the hills can catch any month out with sudden rain, so it's worth packing for four seasons regardless of when you go. For those who want a more sheltered or comfortable alternative, several nearby farms and smallholdings offer glamping in shepherd's huts, bell tents or converted barns, giving access to the same views and walking without needing to pitch a tent yourself.