Distance: 5.2 miles

Difficulty of the Terrain: Hard

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Circular walk from Colwall Railway Station on the eastern side of the Malvern Hills up onto the Malvern Hills range in the Heart of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the prominant striking British Camp hillfort on top of the Herefordshire Beacon.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Iron Age Citadel or Exhibition Centre?

Whether stood on its slopes or sighted from miles away, British Camp (aka the Herefordshire Beacon) is amongst the most distinctive hills in the Malvern range.

It stands towards the southern end, mostly in Herefordshire, not far from where the ridge begins just north of Ledbury near Eastnor Castle.

British Camp is distinctive for its summit’s clearly human work shape. Whereas the other peaks in the Malvern range have craggy jagged tops reflecting their origins in volcanic activity hundreds of millions of years ago, the top of British Camp is marked by carefully worked ramparts and ditches. Not unlike the remains of a Norman motte and bailey castle but on a far larger scale.

The workings at the very top of the hill are thought to be the remains of a short lived fortification from the 11th Century. However, that section aside, the most recent workings on the hill (disregarding 20th Century additions like a few concrete steps and footpaths) predate the Norman invasion of England by at least 1,500 years.

Rather British Camp and the adjacent Midsummer Hill are Iron Age hillforts. Amongst the largest in the Midlands region.

Or at least they are predominantly Iron Age, it is thought that the earliest stages were constructed in around 800 BCE towards the end of western Europe’s bronze age, making the oldest sections nearly 3,000 years old.

Over time the hillforts were expanded and made more elaborate. In the 1970s archeologists estimated that up to 1,500 people may have lived on top of British Camp. It has been suggested that this could have increased to 4,000 during times of war. This estimate is based upon an extrapolation from the number of post holes and other spectral remnants of structures observed in the ground by the researchers. The conventional story is that the hillfort remained in use until the Roman Empire fully occupied the southern two thirds of Great Britain in the years after 43 CE, after which such structures fell into abeyance.  

British Camp has only actually been partially excavated once. In 1879 F.G. Hilton-Price conducted an excavation at the very top of the hill and found several items. These finds were re-examined in 2010 and found to be mostly Medieval so probably connected to the short lived motte and bailey castle. For conservation reasons it is unlikely that the site will be excavated more extensively at any time in the future, leaving researchers with methods like field walking and geo surveying to come up with theories and stories about its past.

An interesting new set of theories was published after an intensive period of research into the site by English Heritage. Intrigued by the apparent lack of evidence from the site of domestic life: rubbish mounds, human and animal waste, burial or cremation of the dead which would usually be associated with a settlement occupied for the best part of a thousand years, they proposed a radical new theory.

Maybe they speculated, British Camp and the adjacent Midsummer Hill were not primarily settlements or hillforts at all. Perhaps they were ceremonial sites used at certain times of year for solstices and other religious festivals or potentially for trading purposes like holding fairs. A prehistoric exhibition centre in essence…

The new theory seems sensible, if the site was either sacred or a flyby night only used some of the time, that does explain why it seems “unlived” in. As ever it is likely that our distant ancestors thought and behaved in ways so strange as to be utterly unimaginable, let alone incomprehensible to us. Whilst also adopting patterns of life and ways of organising themselves which also seem weirdly like our own.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

To start the walk, from the southbound platform of Ledbury Railway Station head for the exit.

Out on the station’s little forecourt turn left following the direction of a footpath waymark sign.

Just after the sign, steps up to a bridge across the line become visible.

Once you have crossed the bridge head down the steps on the other side.

Then head down another set of steps on your left into a small area of woodland. In the middle of this there is a nature reserve.

At the bottom of the steps walk to a fork in the path and then turn right heading towards an opening in the trees which leads out onto a field.

Presently you reach a gate which you pass through to enter the field beyond.

Follow the clearly defined path across the field to a gap in the hedge where there is a gate.

Head through this gate as well and follow the path across the next field.

The path passes through another gap in the hedge into the next field.

At this point you take a hard turn to the left and follow the line of the hedgerow for a short distance.

From this vantage point it is possible to see the Malvern Hills rising up above you, and in particukar British Camp Hill where you are headed right in front of you.

Soon you come to another, smaller gap into the hedge which leads into a large field.

Having crossed into this field you have a great view of British Camp in front of you, and if you look behind the northern part of the ridge looking towards the Worcestershire Beacon behind you.

As you follow the path, presently you come to a place where it forks.

Take the right hand fork here walking towards a cream coloured house.

Upon reaching the cream coloured house take a short, steep path to your left leading up to a lane.

Walk along the lane a short distance passing the cream coloured house.

Soon on your left there is a style and a gate.

Cross over this and then also cross the second style and gate immediately on your right.

This leads into a small clearing surrounded by thickets of bushes and trees. There is a clear path across it leading up a short sloping hill.

At the top there is a style cross over the style and you find yourself standing above a country lane.

Walk down to the lane and more or less immediately opposite you there is a footpath waymark and a sign in gothic script saying “The Hartlands”.

Cross over the road and head through this gate.

On the other side there is a path leading through a stand of scraggly trees near a brook.

Near the edge of the trees there is a footbridge. Cross over the footbridge and head through the gate just after it.

This leads onto a plank bridge immediately after the gate. Cross over this bridge as well.

From here walk in the direction of British Camp Hill and a line of trees on one side of the field at the top of the bank of the brook.

Once you reach the trees and the side of the brook, follow the line of the stream for a very short way.

Just after you get to this point there is another crossing over the stream, to your left.

Head across here – taking care – because it can be quite muddy, you enter the field on the other bank.

Having made it into the field, walk diagonally across the field.

Presently you will observe a tree which is standing quite near the centre of the field, away from the clusters of trees on either side. Aim roughly for the direction of this tree.

Presently the route you are travelling merges with another path across the field.

Follow this route until you reach another plank bridge.

After crossing the plank bridge walk towards the hedgerow on the other side of the field you are crossing.

Here you will find a style, cross over it.

Once into the field beyond, walk up the grassy slope in front of you, heading for a line of trees beyond.

At this stage you are aiming for a stand of younger trees, immediately adjacent to where a householder has cut down the trees and vegetation immediately in front of their property.

Near the top of the slope as you approach the tree line it makes sense to pause and look back across Herefordshire towards Wales from where you have climbed to.

On entering the thicket you walk up a steep, but well trodden path through the trees.

At the top of the slope you reach a style, cross over it.

On the other side turn right and follow the path up the remaining section of the slope.

At the top you come out near the bottom of Jubilee Drive, opposite the Malvern Hills Hotel and Restaurant.

Turn right and walk a few dozen paces further along and you are on the edge of the British Camp Hill car park.

On the other side of the main road which comes up from the market town of Ledbury you can see a sign saying “Welcome to Worcestershire” indicating that you have reached the county boundary.

At this point in the walk you can stop for refreshments at Sally’s Cafe, a large wooden shed with parasoled outdoor seating, to the right of where you are standing. They provide a quick and friendly service, but relatively unusually these days they have a £5.00 card payments minimum.

Having reached British Camp Hill car park, cross over the road.

On entering the car park at the foot of British Camp there are some steps visible immediately to your left next to an information board.

Head these steps and climb the paved footpath which runs up the hill.

Presently you approach the surviving ramparts of the hill fort and the summit becomes visible ahead of you.

At this point head to the left up another flight of concrete steps off to the right, turning left at the top of them.

Then follow a paved track as it winds up through the ramparted sections towards the 338 metre tall peak of the hill.

Now that you are above the tree line there are impressive views across the Malvern ridge back towards the Worcestershire Beacon, east across the River Severn Plain to the Cotswolds and west across Herefordshire and Shopshire into Wales.

Once at the top of British Camp keep walking straight ahead following the path you are walking across the top of the hill.

There are good views behind you towards the hill fort. You can see how it’s clearly human made ramparts contrast with the hills that have not been sculpted in such ways on the horizon.

Presently you reach a set of steps off to the left which you head down. This leads to one of the Malvern Hill’s distinctive circular waymarks.

Upon reaching this roundabout like structure head off to the right along a well worn path level with the tree line.

The Obelisk near the edge of the Eastnor Castle is clearly visible a mile or so to the south west.

Shortly after embarking down the track you walk past the little Clutter’s (or Giant’s) Cave. This rock feature is 600 million years old, formed when a volcano erupted beneath the sea spewing out molten lava which then cooled upon contact with sea water.

Continue down the path which heads steadily downhill.

Soon you come to a junction where the path splits in several directions.

Here take a track to your right down through a hollow.

Initially I mistook this for a water culvert or the bed of a stream, and sometimes when it has been raining heavily it clearly is that, but it is also a path.

At the bottom of the hollow you emerge onto a sturdy unpaved track.

Once on the track turn right and follow it through the woods for quite some distance, passing through a gate along the way.

After some way on your right there is a wooden stile leading onto a footpath beyond.

Head over the stile and follow the path through the trees.

Presently this footpath also turns into a track. On the other side of a gate you reach a cluster of houses where the track joins the main road between Ledbury and Malvern.

Take a left here and walk along the road a very short distance.

Here a footpath sign points down a driveway beside a house.

Follow this track downhill past the house and garden into woodland.

At a junction take a left hand track through the trees a short distance out next to some fields.

The field may look familiar as you crossed it earlier heading up into the hills.

Cross a stile and then head down towards the field through some scrub land.

Upon reaching the edge of the field turn left and walk up towards a stile leading into a neighbouring field.

After crossing the stile turn right and head down the hill.

This leads to a gateway at the bottom with a stile next to it.

Cross this field heading for woodland and a little bridge over a brook on the far side.

Through the woodland you enter another field. Follow the path across the grass towards its centre. This one may be very familiar as this is the point at which you cross the route that you took a couple of hours ago up onto British Camp.

Cross the field walking straight. Ahead of you a few houses are visible, the edge of the hamlet of Evendine.

Approach these houses following the well worn path across the field.

On the far side there is a stile onto a short green lane. At the bottom of the green lane there is a stile onto a driveway.

Walk down this drive way the very short distance to the road through Evendine.

Once at the road turn left and walk a short distance.

Soon on the right there is a driveway sloping uphill with a footpath waymark on the left hand side of the road pointing up it.

The track forms part of the Geopark Way, a well used and well maintained trail which seeks to showcase Shropshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire’s geological richness.

Follow the track for some way. It steadily narrows and becomes more, and more uneven.

After some distance the track comes to an end by a metal gate.

On the other side of the metal gate keep walking along the path at the edge of the field.

Presently it enters woodland.

Upon leaving the trees you are practically at Colwall, which can be glimpsed off to your left.

Head to your left down a steep well worn track.

There is a good view off to the right of some of the highest parts of the Malvern Hills including the Worcestershire Beacon off to the right at this point. If you would like to walk the Malvern Hills range check out my Ledbury to Malvern walk.

Continue heading down the slope to your left.

At the bottom of the slope I opted to duck down underneath a single strand of barbed wire fence to enter the next field. There is, however, a proper gate just on the other side of a tuft of grass to the right of where I crossed, if you’d prefer to follow the proper path.

Once in the field follow the path all the way across.

Having crossed the field you enter a patch of woodland via a gate.

Walk a short distance along the path on the other side.

Presently, nearing the edge of the woodland turn right.

This leads up a short bank with the distinctive form of a railway footbridge at the top.

Head over the footbridge and Colwall’s little single platformed station is on the far side.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

From Colwall Railway Station (at the time of writing in November 2022) there is an hourly train service during the week and Saturdays heading west towards Ledbury and Hereford and north on to Malvern, Worcester and Birmingham. There is also a less frequent service via Worcester and Oxford to London Paddington. Colwall is also quite well served by buses with services to nearby settlements as well as Ledbury and Hereford, and Malvern and Worcester.