Distance: 6.25 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

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

Walk from Great Malvern to Colwall up and along the Malvern Hills Ridge via the the Gold Mine just north of Wyche Cutting below the Worcestershire Beacon.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Is There Gold in the Malvern Hills?

For hundreds of years it has been rumoured that there is gold beneath the Malvern Hills. 

This may in part be because the Malvern Hills are a remarkable formation. Looming with extraordinary prominence out of Worcestershire’s River Severn plain on one side, and the short rolling hills of eastern Herefordshire on the other, it draws the eye for miles around. In contrast to the rocks which are several hundred million years old that comprise much of the Midland’s underlying layers, the Malvern Hills consist of rocks which are 680 million years old, amongst the oldest in England. 

No wonder the Malvern Hills was one of the first Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty declared back in 1959. A mini-national park, overseen by the Malvern Hills Conservators, for the people of the south western Midlands. 

In the distant past it was associated with prehistoric rituals, as well as medieval saints, who both lived there and had chapels, often adjacent to freshwater springs erected in their honour.

Besides the scenery it was these things which drew mid-20th Century fantasy writers and Oxford dons C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to catch the train there across the Cotswolds on weekend excursions. While later in the 20th Century the counterculture got in on the act. David Rudkin’s Penda’s Fen has the Malvern Hills as a constant looming presence on the horizon, until the final denouncement occurs there. In the spring of 1992 nearly two decades after Penda’s Fen was broadcast, a cavalcade of New Age Travellers at the tailend of rave culture pitched up on Castlemorton Common due east Malvern Hills like a tribe of neolithic revellers, and held the largest free party in British History there?   

Perhaps the long standing rumors of the Malvern gold should be understood in this millenia long mythical vein?

Queen Elizabeth I appears to have believed the myth or at least have been willing to give encouragement to those that did. During her reign in the late 16th Century a charter was issued for prospecting and mining gold in the Malvern Hills. The first reference to a spot called “Gold Mine” which still exists part way up the southern part of the Worcestershire Beacon, dates from an enclosure map created in 1633. Was this a myth even then or had people successfully prospected gold there?

A serious attempt to mine for gold appears to have been made by two businessmen known to posterity as William Williams of Bristol and Doctor Dudley. Who apparently, if J. Chambers A General History of Malvern a book written around a century after their mining operation can be believed, were real people, and between 1711 and 1721 superintended a mining operation for rare ores at the Gold Mine site. Supposedly they succeeded in digging a shaft 240 feet into the hillside and then 220 feet down. Which would have been remarkable with the technology available at the time.

Some contemporary credence is given to this story of a substantial gold mining operation in the Malvern Hills by Daniel Defoe who visited in the mid-1720s and noted an abandoned gold mine roughly in the area now known as the Gold Mine. However, his conclusion as a satirist was that if there was gold beneath the Malverns it was “likely too deep for this idle generation to find out, or to search for”.

Throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries the debate about whether or not the Malvern Hills contain gold continued to rage. As recently as 1834 the author of The Natural History of Worcestershire Charles Hastings stated that “in recent years a large number of credulous people” had invested their savings into a gold mining operation and lost large amounts of money. 

In modern times as geological testing advanced so different scientists drew different conclusions, some thought that samples from the Malvern’s showed low levels of gold, others did not get that result and thought that they had found nothing. It is worth noting that to date no supposedly successful test for gold from Malvern Hills deposits has yet proven reproducible.

Though still the story refuses to die. On 1st April 2005, a date which may be significant to the veracity of this tale, the Worcester News reported that a Norwegian fisherman called ‘Olof Prial’ who was working as a strawberry picker in Herefordshire found gold while panning in a stream on the Malvern Hills. Proof that while not all that glitters is gold there is little which will get in the way of a good story. 

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.

This walk from Great Malvern to Colwall, via the Gold Mine just north of Wyche Cutting, starts from Great Malvern Railway Station.

If arriving at Great Malvern Railway Station from the eastbound direction of Worcester, Birmingham, Bristol and London, exit left from the station.

On the far side of the station forecourt turn left heading up a lane towards the main road.

Upon reaching the main road turn left and cross a bridge over the railway heading towards the hills and the town centre.

Continue walking straight uphill through a residential area lined with tall, mostly Victorian era, houses.

Presently you reach a junction opposite the big old house which serves as the council house for Malvern Hills District Council. Here turn right and walk towards Great Malvern High Street.

Once on the high street turn left and walk uphill, crossing over a side road, and then continuing past Great Malvern Priory’s churchyard.

Soon you reach a steep square type area with a terrace in the centre of it.

Here cross the road and climb a ramp and flight of steps up the terrace to the main road which runs along the top of Great Malvern town centre.

At the top of the steps, taking care, cross the road and then turn left.

Continue until you reach the entrance to a park on your right.

Enter the park and walk straight up the path in front of you.

Soon you reach a flight of steps straight ahead of you which you climb.

At the top of the steps turn right, and follow a narrow tarmac driveway for a short distance.

Soon you reach a junction, here turn sharply to the left and begin walking along a quiet, driveway style road. Do take care as you walk along it as the few cars which use it can travel quite fast down it.

Continue along the road past a scattering of houses at the top of the town, before heading into woodland.

After quite some distance look out on the right for a clear ramp running off to the right up the hill.

Once on the ramp follow the track uphill.

Carry on walking along the wide track which is a designated bridleway for quite some distance.

Presently the bridleway runs a little way downhill approaching the side of the road.

Upon reaching the road carry on straight ahead up the track which begins running uphill again.

Continue straight along the track as it runs through woodland.

After some distance the path comes out in a clearing near the largest of the Earnslaw Quarries. This quarry was worked into the 1960s when Worcestershire County Council bought out the remaining quarries in the Malvern Hills and closed them on environment and amenity grounds. Digging occurred high into the hillside, and the quarry workings are now flooded at its base. It is now possible to peer down into the quarry and there is a little path which leads down to the water too. But take care, as the water is deep and cold, and there are numerous rocks and potentially other debris beneath the surface.

At the clearing head to the right across it, and on the far side take a path to the right running uphill.

Continue straight up the path which runs through woodland for quite some distance.

Presently the path starts to level out and you approach a section of open hillside.

Soon you reach the solid, circular Gold Mine waymarking post. This part of the hills was known as the Gold Mine as long ago as 1633. And it purportedly was somewhere very near this spot that serious efforts, alluded to by Daniel Defoe in the 1720s, were made to mine gold from the Malvern Hills in the early 18th Century.

On reaching the Gold Mine waymark turn left and begin walking down the wide tarmac path which runs up from the Wyche Cutting that links Worcestershire and Herefordshire across the Malvern Hills.

Continue down along the car park approaching the Wyche Cutting. Take care when doing so as the car park can be very busy.

At the bottom of the car park cross the Wyche Cutting, taking care as you do so, as the route across the Malverns is very busy with traffic. 

Once on the far side of the road there is a flight of concrete steps on the left running uphill back onto the ridge.

Back up onto the ridge, carry on straight along the path to the right.

There are numerous options in terms of paths all of which lead straight along the ridge, and frequently intersect with each other, so it is difficult to get lost.

Presently after quite some distance you see the prehistoric ramparts on the Herefordshire Beacon in front of you.

As you near the Herefordshire Beacon take a wide path to the right of the ridge which runs gently downhill.

Follow this path as it runs through intermittent patches of woodland until you reach a car park.

Once at the car park walk straight across the top of it.

Then turn to the right, and descend along the access road for the car park.

At the bottom of the access road you come to Jubilee Drive, a main road running along the upper part of the western Herefordshire side of the Malvern Hills.

Once beside Jubilee Drive turn left and follow the pavement around.

Soon you pass the Malvern Hills Hotel and Restaurant approaching the car park and cafe beneath the Herefordshire Beacon.

Just past the hotel on the right hand side of the road turn right down a footpath, marked with a waymark, which runs past a public toilet block.

Walk down here passing the toilet hut on your right.

Then take a slight right turn heading into a thicket of trees and shrubbery following the path.

Then take a left turn, cross a stilie and follow a fairly steep set of steps down the side of the hill through a copse.

At the bottom of the steps there is a stile leading out onto an open field.

Cross the stile and head straight across the field.

On the far side there is a further stile which you should also cross.

Walk straight across the field on the far side of this stile as well.

Here there is a beam bridge, quite decayed, across a ditch marking the field boundary.

In the middle of it there is a stile.

On the far side of the stile and the bridges continue walking straight across the field ahead of you.

Before reaching the far side of the field turn slightly to the left and head for the field’s left hand corner.

Here there is a small stream which you can cross with the aid of stepping stones.

On the far side to the right there is a stile, cross over this and enter the field beyond.

After crossing the stile follow the course of a stream which marks the field boundary heading to the right.

Eventually you reach the edge of a copse.

Here there is a plank bridge crossing the stream and leading into the little patch of woodland.

On the far side of the bridge follow the path in the woods. Here there is a stile leading into an orchard.

Crossing over a sturdy wooden bridge you walk through the orchard.

On the far side there is a gate and stilie leading out onto a lane.

Once on the lane turn right and walk a short way uphill.

Presently on your left there is a track leading off the road.

Turn left and walk along the track.

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 May 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.