Haughmond Hill is made up of ancient turbidite sediments from the late Precambrian era which once cascaded off the edge of a continent into the ocean that surrounded it.

The villages of Uffington and Upton Magna lie below and the B5062, Shrewsbury to Newport, road runs through the northern half of the woodland.

Finally, the "bosky hill" mentioned in Act V Scene i of Shakespeare's Henry IV part 1 is almost certainly Haughmond, which looms to the east of the battlefield: How bloodily the sun begins to peer Above yon bosky hill?

Also nearby is Haughmond Abbey, now a ruin, and Ebury Hill, a prehistoric fort.

The summit has the ruins of Haughmond Castle, a folly originally built about 1780 that collapsed in 1931.