The Bishop’s Castle Walking Festival was born in 1999 when a number of enthusiastic walkers got together to start a ‘Walking Festival’. The concept of this type of Festival started in Southern Ireland with great success. We all thought the idea was an ideal way of introducing walkers to the delights of the South Shropshire Hills.

Our first Festival was held in 2000 with six walks each day. That first year the Shropshire Hills showed us just how wet it could be but everybody enjoyed the challenge and a number came back the second year. In 2001, the year of Foot and Mouth, we held the Festival in October, which turned out to be very popular, but we decided to revert back to June. In 2005 we introduced a seventh walk each day. We also invited four visually impaired walkers to join us for which we arranged individual guides.
The Festival is run by volunteers with the help of the accommodation providers who now run the fringe events and also run the bookings system. The volunteers aim is to provide our guests with walks of interest and enjoyment in the ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. Safety is always to the fore and each walk has two leaders. .