THE HERMITAGE – BRIDGNORTH
The Hermitage is a series of cave dwellings cut into the weak, red sandstone that is typical of this part of the county. They can be seen in the hillside above the town of Bridgnorth and the River Severn.		There are lots of sandstones and so called 'pebble beds' in and around Bridgnorth. These form old river terraces above where the River Severn flows today.

This red sandstone and the thick pebbly layers that form the roofs of many of the caves come from a time when Shropshire was covered by a huge desert, much like the Sahara today. In the cliffs around Bridgnorth you can see the shapes left behind by massive sand dunes as they travelled across the hot, dry continent. The pebble beds were created by flash floods that rushed down from the mountains, bringing destruction in their wake.