Walk #4 Malvern Hills, Worestershire

Walk 3 out of 100

Walk #4 - Malvern Hills
Worcestershire 

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪







Suggested Difficulty - Moderate

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪

Suggested Time - 4h

Actual Time Taken - 3h 26m

Distance in book - 13.5km

Map my walk Distance - 15.16km

British Camp Pass car park, Start/Finish.

And so the journey continues all the way to walk number 3, if you all thought I would have packed it all in by walk 2, well I thought I would have by now too! So for this one I went for another familiar place from the past. I have never walked up the Malverns but I had several visits as a kid to the Three Counties Showground. Even played a rugby match (and lost!) against the school team there too. I always knew Malvern was a nice place so it seemed like a no brainer that the views from the iconic hills would also be pretty swell.

One of the views from Herefordshire Beacon.

The car park for the British Camp Pass was pretty easy to find with the trusty Google maps (other popular map providers are available!) and there are plenty of other car parks in the area if you wanted to do any other walks. BUT... £3 to park, shock, horror, disaster, the first place I've had to pay for parking so far, but I don't mind as long as it helps the conservation and not some rich guys net worth!

St Wulstan's Church

I have given the walk an overall 3 star rating, I'd say it was pretty similar to the Clent Hills walk I did a few weeks ago, but I would rate the 360 degree view from the top of the Worcestershire Beacon much better than the views from Clent. It seemed fairly rated in the book as Moderate, there were a few decent sized inclines, but nothing unmanageable and nothing too loose or rocky. The hardest part was the climb up the Worcestershire Beacon, but is totally worth it for the view. 

Clent Hills in the distance (walk #15)

Again, I managed to take off some of the time from the estimated time in the book and somehow covered more distance, not sure what happened there! A slight accidental detour was taken early on, for which I will gladly point the finger at the directions provided, but I think the extra bit of woodland and little stream improved the walk if anything. The end of the route in the book seemed a bit lazy as you just had to take any route back, not for everyone but some may prefer that.

Easterly view from Worcestershire Beacon

North Westerly view from Worcestershire Beacon

I would recommend this walk to anybody really, easy access, nothing too difficult and great views. It is certainly one to test the panoramic ability of your smart phone. I imagine it would look even more beautiful in summer with blue skies but I refuse to complain, I'm amazed that after 3 walks I have managed to avoid the famous British precipitation (cue a wash out for walk 4). 

Also want to say a big thanks to Neil for being my travel companion for the day!

Thanks for reading, 

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991  

Walk #7 Chrome Hill & Parkhouse Hill, Staffordshire

Chrome hill (left) & Parkhouse Hill (centre)

Walk 2 out of 100

Walk #7 - Chrome Hill & Parkhouse Hill Staffordshire 

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Challenging

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Time - 3h 30m

Actual Time Taken - 2h 12m

Distance in book - 7.7km

Map my walk Distance - 7.38km

Hollinsclough, Start/Finish.

Hooray! I didn't just start the blog and leave it forever, I actually did a second walk! 

For walk number 2 I chose a wise travel companion in Twister (no his parents didn't call him that) a university buddy who conveniently lives under an hour away from the Peak District, handy! We were spoilt for choice as I think there are a total of 5 walks in the book across the Peak District but this one appeared to be one of the more challenging walks from the picture of Parkhouse hill which looked like a mini mountain.   

Approaching Chrome Hill

We found ourselves starting in the tiny village of Hollinsclough which consisted of a church, a school, a farm and maybe 4 houses? Probably the smallest village I've visited, very pretty even though the 'country smell' a.k.a the stench of large amounts of poo was quite potent! Easy to find from the map and easy to park for free as I think there may only be 5 car owners in the whole village. 

Looking back from summit of Chrome Hill

I have given the walk an overall 4 star rating, may live to regret that in the future when I have done more, but the views were great and the hill climbs were good fun. We couldn't quite understand why the route was classed as challenging (the same as the likes of Ben Nevis) after completing the walk as the route was easy to follow, the terrain pretty good, and the climbs not too tough or long. The hardest part was the short but very steep climb up Parkhouse hill, but this took less than 5 minutes once we got our heads down. You can always just walk around the hill if you don't feel up to the challenge.

Me, Twist & Jim on top of Chrome Hill

Parkhouse Hill

The steady but rugged climb up Chrome Hill was much easier than first expected and I would not have liked to climb the steep grassy bank we walked down on the other side. Parkhouse Hill, despite being smaller was the harder to climb out of the two, in the end we just took a direct 'sod it' scramble to the top which was worth it when we got to the top. It was pretty easy to navigate the area so didn't really matter which route was taken. 

Chrome Hill from Parkhouse Hill summit

I would recommend this walk for anybody who wants to do a couple of hill climbs in the Peak district. It probably wouldn't be worth it if the weather was bad and you lost the views but that is the case with a lot of walks! Don't be disheartened by the challenging rating as we found it pretty straight forward and we passed several elderly folks (they were probably fitter than both of us to be fair!) who had climbed Chrome Hill if that makes you feel more confident about it.  

2 down!

Thanks for reading, 

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991 

Walk #15 Clent Hills, Worcestershire

Top of Adam's Hill 10 minutes from start.

Walk 1 out of 100

Walk #15 - Clent Hills Worcestershire 

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Moderate

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪

Suggested Time - 3 hours

Actual Time Taken - 2h 49m

Distance in book - 10km

Map my walk Distance - 12.14km

The Fountain at Clent, Start/Finish.

 So for the first walk of the blog I decided to head just 15 minutes from my home to Clent Hills. It made sense to choose somewhere semi-familiar for the first walk just to get used to the maps and directions given in the guide. Basically, if they were useless and I got lost I knew it wouldn't be that difficult to get myself back on track! I did find the guide works well, the directions were pretty clear and the map provided was useful although it was made a bit harder as they are 1:50,000 compared to the usual 1:25,000 Ordinance Survey maps.

More great views from Adam's Hill

I have given the walk a 3 star rating overall, kinda sat on the fence a little bit leaving myself enough room either side for future walks. The best bits are definitely the great panoramic views you get from the top of Adam's hill and Walton hill. You also get a bit of variety on this walk as you travel along woodland paths, open fields and country lanes. I wouldn't class the walk as difficult, there are a few short climbs (no longer than 5 minutes) and a few muddy patches but the terrain and paths were pretty good to walk on.

Visitor centre

As the hills are part of the National Trust, the visitor centre is great for providing you with information and refreshments. The only problem with the route I took was that I made it there after about 20 minutes, hardly worth stopping so soon into the walk! I did take a couple of 2 minute breaks later in the walk to top up the fuel tank and take these professional standard photographs...

The First section of the walk is probably the best, as you get the views from both summits (Jiminy enjoying views from Walton Hill above). You also walk past St. Kenelm's Church which is quite a cute little country church.

The majority of the walk from the church onwards is through farm land. You still get many beautiful views in the background but also get close to some of the local residents of the area. I even encountered some Shamels (sheep crossed with a camel, more commonly known as Alpacas and Llamas!) on my journey.

Calcot Hill Farm

All in all, a very successful first walk, I would recommend it to anybody visiting the area or anybody who is local and has a spare sunny Sunday afternoon that needs filling with something other than a roast dinner. I don't think it would be worth travelling any great distances just to do it, but it is quite staggering how something around 10 miles from Birmingham can be so beautiful, at times you really do feel like you are more like 100 miles away!



1 down, 99 to go! 

Thanks for reading,

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991