Distance: 11.2 miles
Difficuty of the terrain: hard
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the gpx. file from Dropbox
Walk in the west Worcestershire countryside from Knightwick in the River Teme valley, up and over the Suckley Hills via Blackhouse Wood, to the Malvern Hills and around North Hill to reach Great Malvern.
The Story
Route Notes
Getting Back
The Malvern Hills National Landscape’s Other Hills
Situated in south west Worcestershire the Malvern Hills National Landscape, is one of the smallest protected landscapes in the country. It is long and thin in shape stretching from the River Teme at Knightwick in the north to the M50 below Ledbury. The Malvern Hills themselves stand in the middle of the protected area.
The Malverns, however, are far from the only hills in the range. Lying between the River Teme and the Malvern range, are the Suckley Hills. These comparatively low lying hills, standing around 170 metres above sea level, receive a fraction of the vast numbers of visitors that flock to the Malverns.
The Suckley Hills were formed in the Silurian geological era and comprise Wenlock Limestone, one of the predominant rock types forming the hills studding the landscape of the south west Midlands. Remnants of an ancient tropical ocean that once covered what is now central England. Over the centuries the Suckley Hills were quarried for this limestone, leaving them pockmarked by quarrying activity, the fossil layers visible.
Back in the 1960s as was then quite common practice, parts of the Suckley Hills were planted with fast growing pine trees as part of commercial forestry operations. This made economic sense but radically altered the existing ecology of the hills. Subsequently a later owner of Blackhouse Wood in the middle of the hills decided to try and reverse this process replacing the commercial pine plantations with less dense, more diverse, traditional, tree planting.
Following these efforts Worcestershire Wildlife Trust took on Blackhouse Wood, continuing the previous owners efforts to restore and conserve this part of the Suckley Hills treescape. Blackhouse Wood is now a local wildlife site, a status it attained in 2007, and considered to be “semi-natural” woodland. It covers 39 hectares of the Suckley Hills.
Route Notes
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 Knightwick to Great Malvern, across the Suckley Hills in the north part of the Malvern Hills National Landscape, begins from the bus stop on the southern edge of Knightwick beside the A44.
Upon alighting the bus, taking care, cross the A44 and turn left, heading up a long, straight lane towards the line of the tree topped slope on the southern edge of the River Teme valley.
Climb this bank approaching the scattered houses in the hamlet of Black’s Well.
At the place where once the Leominster to Worcester via Bromyard railway ran through a gap in the hills, turn left and follow a driveway past a couple of houses, heading up into the hills. This comprises part of the Worcestershire Way long distance footpath which you will follow all of the way over the Suckley Hills and up into the Malverns to reach Great Malvern.
Beyond the dwellings you pick up a bridleway and footpath running straight along the top of the hills through woodland and across pasture.
Presently you reach another driveway which turns into a quiet lane through a hamlet called Crews Hill. There are impressive views south towards the taller hills in the Malverns.
Partway through Crews Hill you turn left, heading up a path into Worcestershire Wildlife Trust’s Blackhouse Wood Nature Reserve.
Follow the path through the woodland, until present you come to a narrower path on the right where you descend to a lane running through a deep valley which rises to a pass between two of the long ridges that comprise the Suckley Hills.
On reaching the lane, cross the road and head uphill through an orchard back in the woodland.
Turn left once in the trees and follow a bridleway uphill through the woodland.
The path runs along the top of the ridge through the wood.
Approaching the end of the ridge you turn to the left and follow a fairly steep path downhill emerging into a meadow near the small village of Longley Green.
Once in the meadow turn left and pick up a footpath which runs across a brook and between two houses to reach the main road through Longley Green.
Upon reaching the road through Longley Green turn left and walk towards a t-junction below a small factory, where you turn right following a lane through woodland on the eastern edge of the village.
Soon on your right you reach a footpath which you follow uphill initially through trees and then across a series of meadows and pastures.
Presently you reach a lane where you turn right and walk uphill through the distended village of Birchwood.
Nearing the top of the hill you reach a driveway on the left which leads out of the village, heading slightly uphill, climbing to around 200 metres above sea level.
The driveway ends and you pick up a footpath which runs around a cottage in a clearing, before descending the hillside, moderately steeply, to reach the level of the Worcestershire River Severn plain.
Here beside a recently built cottage which looks like a 16th Century house turn right, picking up a driveway.
Follow the driveway for some distance passing through a series of orchards and past the converted farm at Norrest.
Presently you reach a place where the apples from the orchard are packaged and turn left, crossing a field, to reach the A4103.
On the far side of the A4103 you pick up a track which runs past a house and a horse pasture and across a large orchard.
You cross a stream and ascend quite a steep hill through the orchard.
Soon you pass an outlying farm and cross a road, reaching common land which runs up to the edge of North Malvern.
Walk along the common and next to an ornate well you pick up some stairs which ascend steeply into the heart of the village.
Picking up a second flight of steps you emerge from a snicket onto a road partway up the Malvern Hills which runs through North Malvern.
Turn right and follow this road for some distance through the village until you come to a cul-de-sac on your left which ends in a footpath running up into the hills.
Carry on straight along this path leaving the village behind and approach a junction, where British Camp to the southern end of the Malvern range is clearly visible in front of you, and take the left hand path which leads up and around North Hill.
Follow this path which steadily ascends around North Hill, the most northerly of the major hills in the Malvern range, approaching the Worcestershire Beacon.
Presently, with the town of Great Malvern arrayed beneath you to the left, you reach a steep well worn path which runs downhill.
Turn left here and begin descending the hill. Partway down you turn right to reach St. Ann’s Well.
From St. Ann’s Well you descend the steep tarmac path towards Great Malvern town centre.
Reaching the narrow road which runs between houses on the edge of the town centre, turn right and take a flight of steps down into a park.
Cross the park and turn left to reach the small square just up from Great Malvern Priory opposite the town’s post office.
Getting Back
At the time of writing in December 2025 Malvern was served by hourly trains north east to Birmingham via Worcester, Droitwich and Bromsgrove and south west to Hereford via Colwall and Ledbury. There are also trains south west towards Bristol and south east towards London across the Cotswolds via Oxford. There are also half hourly buses to Worcester on weekdays and Saturdays throughout the day and less frequent buses to other destinations in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.