[3] The principal ones are named as follows, from north-east to south-west: Manstone Rock is the highest of these at 536 metres (1,759 ft), and is topped with a trig point.

The tors are formed from heavily faulted Ordovician age, grey-white quartzose sandstones known as the Stiperstones Quartzite Formation.

Faulting narrows the outcrop of the Mytton Flags along the southern part of the Stiperstones ridge and the mudstones of the Hope Shale Formation with their interbedded volcaniclastics form much of the afforested ground to the west.

Much of the ground around the tors is covered by head, a gravelly and bouldery deposit arising during the present Quaternary period and deriving from the rocks immediately beneath it.

It is a haven for wildlife, with birds that are normally associated with upland areas present, including red grouse, Eurasian curlew, peregrine falcon and the rare ring ouzel.

Recently, a project called Back to Purple has commenced, to clear some of the hill of remaining plantations of coniferous and wooded areas, restoring the land to heather-based heath, with seasonal purple-flowering heather covering the summits around the tors and enhancing the views of the Stiperstones from the surrounding peaks and valleys.

Their work has so far seen removal of thousands of pine trees and other conifers, including the whole Gatten Plantation (still shown on OS maps) and the previously covered Nipstone Rock has emerged from hiding.

To balance this out and complement it further work below summit level has also aimed at restoring grasslands, rich in herbs, hay meadows, wet flushes which produce bog cotton, Heath Bedstraw and the rarer Mountain Pansy and natural woodlands.

According to one legend, the ghost of Wild Edric, a Saxon earl who held lands that were confiscated after 1066 and successfully defied the Normans, for a time at least, rides the hills whenever England is threatened by invasion.