Birwyt two

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

Walked this route southwards from Birmingham today. Considering the walk is 90% pavements, it's a good route out of the second city and I enjoyed it. If the weather was as atrocious as when I did the walk, the very short section off pavements between Highter's and Trueman's Heaths can get a quite boggy, but nothing to worry about.

In terms of Brum's suburbs, the route takes you through some good areas, leaving through Chinatown, through Edgbaston and past the cricket ground, Moseley, the vibrant King's Heath (Photo 3 and where you can grab a choice of refreshments), Yardley Wood and Highter's Heath.

Leaving the built up area of Brum next to the old Prince of Wales pub (photo 15), the route briefly takes a rural feel and through a couple of gates (photo 9) and over a couple of fences (photos 10 & 11) but apart from that, it's pavement throughout. Definitely recommend the walk, just hope you get better weather than me.

I can’t add much to the comments that the previous reviewers have made, other than to endorse their views that this is probably the best way to travel between Wythall and Birmingham.

Love a walk that goes from good scrubby parkland to neon city centre, and this is one of those! Thoroughly rained on, but there are cafes etc all along the route.
Moseley Hall hospital has a footpath going through it on the map, so I tried it out, cutting out Reddings Road. They clearly have a lot of trouble with people wandering off the footpath and into the staff cafeteria or MRI scanner, and so that bit of footpath is intimidatingly well marked and a bit weird (see photos)! Might as well stick with Reddings Road, I reckon!
Magic of the route was discovering later that I'd walked right past my great great grandfather's house, where my granny was born.

This is a great route that connects Birmingham to Wythall. It traverses some really interesting and vibrant neighbourhoods in Birmingham including Kings Heath, Moseley and Balsall Heath! Lots of places to stop along the way (from parks to cafes) making it easy to break up the walk.

Is this THE best way to get between Birmingham and Wythall!?

This is a good route that goes through some really interesting parts of Birmingham.

For an urban route it could be a little more accessible. Not far from starting in Wythall you'll need to cross a solid metal fence that currently does not have agate or stile.

Would love to walk this route again in the summer.

Starting in Wythall I was soon following the pavement north along Lea Green Lane into the countryside. Turning right as I got into Hollywood the path follows the footpath to the east, bypassing the village but then going along some very well to do private roads. Beyond here is the only countryside of the walk but I saw some worrying signs that this footpath might be under threat from housing development. As the route entered Birmingham I enjoyed the wide pavements of a very suburban section. Warstock and Billesley Common are unspectacular but it gave me the chance to buy a drink on a very hot day. I noted some offroad options along the way but discounted them: The Stratford on Avon Canal takes you west-east when you want to be going north-south and neither Cocks Moor Woods or Billesley Common can be followed through to the other side. At half way, Kings Heath is a vibrant part of Birmingham and offers a lot of stopping options. The stretch of the Alcester Road covered goes as far as Moseley and then takes a couple of side streets towards Edgbaston. Beyond Balsall Heath it picks up the River Rea and crosses the inner ring road in Highgate. Beyond there it's Sherlock Street and then to the meeting place via the Gay Village and Hurst Street. This route has an emphasis on directness and safety and involves walking a lot of pavements. There is no lane walking and crossings are available for nearly all roads. I'd considered if there might be a walk via Cannon Hill Park which drops into Kings Heath further down but that added a couple of km to the journey and it was a compromise for another version of this route. This route is very well linked for bus transport with both the very regular 50 and outer circle 11 featuring.

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