Friday Walk - The Malvern Hills from Great Malvern [Malverns Trip]

Length: 20.6 km (12.8 mi) [shorter and longer versions possible, see below] 

Ascent/Descent: 1078m 

Net Walking Time: ca. 6 ¼ hours 

Toughness: 8 out of 10

Take the 09.52 Hereford train from Paddington (Reading 10.19), arrives Great Malvern 12.15. 

With a Network Railcard (valid to Worcester Stations only), this train is too early for the RC to be valid, but maybe paying full price to Reading and the discounted price from there to Worcester will still save you some money. 

If punters want to drop some luggage off: the start of the route winds its way up through Malvern past plenty of accommodation options, and we can re-group at the top of town beside the Mount Pleasant Hotel (bottom page 5 in the pdf) at an agreed time.

“The Malvern Hills stand majestically above the Severn Plain in Worcestershire and the rolling wooded hills of Herefordshire, offering far reaching panoramic views across a variety of landscapes from a multitude of viewpoints. The area is famed for its steep dramatic hills rising out of flat vales and for the pure spring water that flows from them, but it also offers a rich cultural heritage of forts, castles and priories in a landscape of ancient woodland, rolling pastures and wild, open commons.

The circular route rises through the town past all important landmarks and ascends the famous 99 Steps to St. Ann’s Well, but then heads southerly, mostly through ancient woodlands along the foot of the hills, to lunch. It then rises up through the mid slopes of scrub, grass, rock and bracken, first to the Herefordshire Beacon and then returns along the top of the ridge via the Worcestershire Beacon to Great Malvern, with its grassy commons maintained by livestock grazing, in places with Bilberry and Common Heather.”

 

Walk Options: 

Taxi from the station to Wyche Cutting/The Wyche Inn or The Malvern Hills Hotel/British Camp (taxis usually on stand). 

Outward and return route are never far from each other (if mostly at much different height), therefore there are several ways to pick up the return route to Great Malvern earlier than described: 

· at the Gold Mine stone dial (7.9 km/4.9 mi, 457m ascent); 

· at the Wyche Cutting/The Wyche Inn (9.1 km/5.6 mi, 519m ascent); 

· at The Malvern Hills Hotel (17.2 km/10.7 mi, 884m ascent).  

Finish at The Malvern Hills Hotel after going up to British Camp and take a taxi back (12.9 km/8.0 mi, 737m ascent). 

Finish at the Wyche Cutting (16.5 km/10.3 mi, 876m ascent) and take Bus Line 675 back (at 16.05 & 17.40). 

An Extension to the four northerly tops adds 2.0 km/1.2 mi and 111m ascent. 

 

Early Lunch/Tea en route/Tea in Great Malvern: Plentiful options. Check the webpage or the pdf for details.

 

For walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.324