Country diary: This humble slab is as old as sedimentary rock gets

The Long Mynd, Shropshire: Under an immense view sits a pale mattress of stone that seems to float in space and timeFeeling stodgy (solemnly dull) from the weight of gravity and the pooling of decay, we head for the hills. Above winding lanes, a high blue sky opens across the Long Mynd plateau, and stepping into it, we are unprepared for the sharpness of light and wind, and the immensity of the view.In those seconds before the senses settle, there is a kind of vertigo of overwhelming space, before a reacquaintance with this place leads us along sheep tracks to a green lane and a view facing east. Across the Stretton Valley to Caer Caradoc, the whoosh of vista swings north along the Lawley hill, through the wooded wave of Wenlock Edge to the Wrekin; the hills and plains stretch far below and we are up in a sky with wind-raked clouds crossing the fields of light. Continue reading...