Rising out of the floodplain of the River Severn the undulating dragon’s back of the Malvern Hills presents a captivating vista. The town of Malvern, known now for its spring water, grew rapidly in the nineteenth century as a hydrotherapy centre. There’s no longer any hydrotherapy, but the paths built by the Victorians remain and make it a fantastic destination for walking and running.
This December I was visiting the area for my dad’s funeral and thought that it would be a nice tribute to him to run the entire length of the hills. He loved the area and was often to be found running, and as he got older walking, up on the hilltops. My friend Pete drove up from London the day after the funeral and just before midday we were on our way.
There is information about the walk online. We did not follow this exact route as we tried to keep to the ridge as much as possible and to go up every summit. In addition, we ran an extra 5-6km back home to my parents’ house.
This is the route we followed from Strava. It took us about 3 hours 20 total time which included a few short stops. (I’m not sure how Strava derived the two and a half hour estimated moving time!)
The southern end of the trail is by a small car park near Chase End, and starts with a climb up this path onto the ridge.
On top of the first hill on the ridge, Chase End Hill.
The main diversions that we took from the standard route where to climb over the next hill, Ragged Stone Hill, and to make a side trip to the obelisk on the left skyline.
At the obelisk.
This is at the Iron-Age fort at British Camp, about a third of the way along the ridge. Worcestershire Beacon, the final major hill, is visible in the distance.
This small lump, just past the road at Wynds Point, is not on the official route and judging by the small path leading up to it is not climbed by many.
On the Worcestershire Beacon. This is the highest point on the ridge, but it’s not all downhill from here as there are some more short climbs.
We came across these cute guys as we followed the ridge to its northern end.
After finishing the end to end trail, Pete and I traversed back along the hills, running towards the setting sun. It was about 3pm. On December days in England it’s getting dark by 4pm!
We were very lucky with the weather, and I was grateful to have had the chance to think of my dad – I’d walked with him up all those hills – and to be able to share the experience with Pete.
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