2024 has proven to be Walk Midlands most successful yet. This year the site has been visited more than 50,000 times, and the subscriber base for the newsletter now stands at just shy of 600.
This represents a 127% increase on 2023, and amounts to around 27,000 unique visitors to the Walk Midlands website.
Unfortunately the project has in some regards been a victim of its own success. The newsletter’s popularity means that the free limit on the Mailchimp plan which has hosted the newsletter since 2022 has now been exhausted. This is a nice problem to have, testimony to the fact that Walk Midlands has captured so many imaginations in the Midlands and beyond, but I will be looking to rejig and refresh the newsletter and its focus to create and publish more shortform written content early next year. Further details about this change can be found here.
The list below are the 10 most viewed walks on the website published during 2023 arranged from the tenth to the first most popular. For the first time since the website was launched in 2022 the most popular walks were each accessed nearly one thousand times over the course of the year.
No. 10
Colwall – Great Malvern
Walk from Colwall Railway Station up and along the Malvern Hills range to the Worcestershire Beacon and then down via St. Anne’s Well to the centre of Great Malvern. (find out more)
No. 9
Lost Lapal Canal
A varried suburban and rural walk between Selly Oak in Birmingham and Halesowen in the Black Country along the route of the long closed Lapal Canal. Including the site of the ill-fated Lapal Canal Tunnel and the sites of the ruined Weoley Manor and Halesowen Abbey. (find out more)
No. 8
Wychbury Hill
Walk across the wild, mysterious and beautiful Wychbury Hill. Which marks the modern boundary between the Black Country and Worcestershire, possesses deep significance as a local landmark, and has connections with several strange occurances. (find out more)
No. 7
New Mills – Marple
Canal towpath walk from New Mills in the foothills of the Peak District, along the Peak Forest Canal to the town of Marple just inside Great Manchester. With optional extension to the spectacular Marple Aqueduct. (find out more)
No. 6
Ashbourne – Tissington
Walk north along the Tissington Trail from Ashbourne, the gateway to the southern Peak District, to the village of Tissington, supposedly the original home of the White Peak’s well dressing tradition. (find out more)
No. 5
Bardon Hill
Walk to the top of Bardon Hill the tallest hill in Leicestershire rightly famous for commanding views across the Midlands region.(find out more)
No. 4
Willington Power Station
Short circular walk starting and ending at Willington Railway Station heading out to the site of the former Willington Power Station with its five distinctive cooling towers.(find out more)
No. 3
West Bromwich – Hamstead
Walk from West Bromwich to Hamstead across the strikingly bucolic Sandwell Valley Country Park via the site of the Jubilee Colliery, one of the final deep pits to operate in the Black Country. (find out more)
No. 2
Turner’s Hill
A walk up and over Turner’s Hill in the Rowley Hills, the highest point in West Midlands county. (find out more)
No. 1
Ledbury – Malvern
Walk from the eastern Herefordshire market town of Ledbury to Great Malvern via Eastnor Castle and along the Malvern Hill’s ridge taking in highlights of the Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty including British Camp Hill Fort, the Worcestershire Beacon and Saint Anne’s Well. (find out more)