Wonderful Worcestershire Beacon (Malverns)

Updated: Oct 3, 2020

Worcestershire Beacons 425m, The Malverns.

This was a wonderful day, a huge improvement on yesterday’s bog trotting experience…except for the parking ticket!! Anyway we started the walk at British Camp car park and walked north keeping to the summit line on the out leg (5km) via Pinnacle Hill, Worcestershire Beacon, the only Marilyn on the range, and then onwards to Sugar Loaf Hill (not the Abergavenny Sugarloaf) and North Hill. On the way back we skirted the ridge keeping west of it so to keep the better view on the return leg and to keep out of the wind and sleet which was by now very cold. Not that the eastern side views are poor but the western views are a bit lumpier and more scenic towards the Sugarloaf near Abergavenny. The outward leg is simply stunning, the old adage of you don't have to go high to get beauty, is quite true. The Malverns are simply stunning in my view and I loved the views, the lumpy ridgeline and the fact you have a toilet stop and a pub (if needed) half way at Upper Wyche or 'Wyche's cut' a little pass in the middle of the ridge line. After a miserable day the day before doing boggy Mynydd Marchywel in South Wales this was a beautiful reversal of fortune. The weather was a blue sky day at the start and finished off being very cold and blustery but by then we had got the best out of the day and were well satisfied. The views were simply great.

Parking and Access: There is a substantial car park at British Camp car park. The machine was not working so I put a note on the windscreen and still received a ticket (which will not be paid). The fee is £4 for all day parking. This is a private car park owned by the Malvern Hills Trust. They will receive the parking fee (now paid) as I am a strong supporter of such trusts but the ticked has been recycled!

Route Summary: A stunning moderately high ridgeline out and back ridgeline route on maintained trails with fine vews. All in all 13.7km, 653m of ascent done in 3hr 10min.

GPX files: For gpx files go to the Peakbagger website by following these links and go to the bottom right hand of the page and click ‘Download this GPS track as a GPX file.’