Path was quite muddy in places - 1st April 2024...

MirandaRobinson

Not from the area, but this was a very easy route to follow, starting from Ledbury station, through Eastnor and straight up to Worcestershire Beacon and along the Malvern ridgeway until dropping down into Great Malvern, to get the train back to Ledbury....

willdotbarker

Should be noted that parts of the route can become inaccessible following heavy rain and flooding, particularly along the first 10km or so out of Hereford....

Tom Cole

Fantastic walk from Malvern straight up to Worcestershire Beacon and then along the ridge of the Malverns. Cuts through Eastnor Park and a short section of track to Ledbury. A lot of up and down with all the hills but fantastic views all the way....

Neil Summersgill

It was on reaching the footpath striking away from this road at Orlham Farm that I encountered my first issue - the stile seemed to take you behind a barbed wire fence - there were no signs of other walking heading across the recently ploughed field. As you strike out from the road into the field, make sure you head diagonally across the field, not around the edge. As I knew there was a driveway for the antiques business to the side of the property, I decided to follow this out of Preston Court, and walked along the road to rejoin the route. Here the route goes down the hill, to join a footpath along the valley bottom to Lodge Farm. After the footpath from Lodge Farm, you rejoin the road up to join the Herefordshire Way. From here you head off down the side of a fairly busy road for a km or so, before heading on to the final stretch of the route into Ross....

DBSevern

Beyond Rudhall the rural atmosphere is broken by the passage under the M50 (Photo three); the route then follows a drive parallel to the motorway, a few metres away. A quiet lane departs from the Herefordshire Trail and descends northwards from the summit before descending a path to Lodge Farm; on the way the view opens up into the heart of the Woolhope Dome (Photo seven, and see Herled for more information). The route skirts the curtilage of Lodge Farm and rejoins the Herefordshire Trail just west of All Saints church, Yatton (Photo eight). The route continues on the lane towards Much Marcle, ignoring the Herefordshire Trail branching off north at Lower House. After crossing three fields the route joins the Three Choirs Way, crosses the A449 again and passes Much Marcle church, well worth a look inside and out, including the magnificent yew tree (Photo nine) and the carved hedgehog on the Kyrle tomb. The route passes the left-hand side of the old building to access a yard with St John the Baptist's church on the right....

nichowes

I've shared Rosled Five as a suggestion that's 95ish% the same as this one, but avoids 1km of walking along the B4224....

danravenellison

It very nearly worked a treat, but just east of Preston Court the farmer has crown a massive and impenetrable crop of corn. I'm going to review this route as a "maybe" as, if the corn was not there, it would have worked....

danravenellison

It was on reaching the footpath striking away from this road at Orlham Farm that I encountered my first issue - the stile took you behind a barbed wire fence. After this things improved for a while, with a nice mix of footpaths, drives and short road ssections leading to the edge of Preston Court, and the lovely church at the edge of the property. As I knew there was a driveway for the antiques business to the side of the property, I decided to follow this out of Preston Court, and walked along the road to rejoin the route. Here the route goes down the hill, to join a footpath along the valley bottom to Lodge Farm. The ram seemed to be guarding the stile out of the field, so I took that as a sign I wasn't welcome, and retreated over the broken stile, back to the church, and continued to follow the road until it joined back up with the route. As you leave the road to join the Herefordshire Way, you are treated to great views from Perrystone Hill across to May Hill, the Chase, and off into Wales - picture 4 gives an idea, but it was a slightly hazy day....

DBSevern

At 27km, I'd describe this walk as a challenge and some of the climbs and scrambles would not be suitable for less able walkers. Highlights of the walk included the early wander through vineyards and orchards and the shade of Haugh Wood. I had no problem with the walk along the pavement of the B4224 into the centre but was left aghast when the route took me away on a detour via a series of car filled residential streets....

David Sanderson

Made use of bits of the Daffodil Way, Poets' Way, Geopark Way, along a disused canal, angling lakes, and not much in the way of road walking. In August there were a lot of ploughed or harvested fields to bash across, which at different stages of the growing cycle might be harder to traverse and mean along lumpy field-edge walk....

Hannah

If you a getting tired of walking through crop fields, at Dymock you can stay on the road past the pub (Ledbury side), East you can walk along the pavement and road past the cricket club. Six of one half dozen of the other there....

Rhys Jones

The lane walking is fine, is was walking at around midday on a Saturday and barely encountered any vehicles, there were no sections with walled sides or blind bends. I didn't amend the route to reflect this as you can see the route by the gates ahead of you....

David Sanderson

The route follows the Frome valley at first and then crosses the watershed of Fromes Hill to enter the Leadon valley. The starting point is Bromyard Heritage Centre (photo one) and the route leaves Bromyard via a foot tunnel under the A44 and a short hill up to the hospital. Beyond Avenbury, the route passes the house, hop barn and drying tower of Brook House Farm (photo three). From Fromes Hill the route continues south across fields and orchards to Catley Cross Farm with its collection of vintage farm equipment, including the baler in the centre of photo twelve. Just before descending into the town centre, the route passes an interpretation panel for the geology of Dog Hill Wood (photo fourteen)...

nichowes

The reason is that the volunteer who plotted the route in April 2021 used some long sections of private paths and drives that are not marked as PROWs on the map (or on the ground, as the trial revealed). Nic will provide an alternative route that follows the same general line but remains on PROWs throughout. This route and its review appears as Broled Two....

nichowes

Lots of field walking, an undulating route, rewarded with good views. Some sections got very boggy, but the route makes the most of the existing footpath options....

David Sanderson

I enjoyed this route and would love to walk it again in the summer. I'd walk in the Ledbury direction again to enjoy the view coming down into the town. I walked this route with David and agree with his review....

danravenellison

I enjoyed walking this route and would certainly walk it again. and maybe connect the route to Gloucester like we did....

danravenellison

Hazards to a lesser extent are lanes (there is a section near the M50 bridge which got quite busy with no pavement....

David Sanderson

Rosled two is more direct than Rosled one but it has two points at which it is impassable, so I have created Rosled three, which I think is the best route, and the one for which I have created a more precise and accurate .gpx track....

nichowes

As plotted in April 2021, Rosled two is impassable. This is because two short sections cross private land with no PROW. These sections are a) Yatton Wood to Lodge Farm and b) the short, straight drive to Bodenham House. Rosled one is a viable alternative route to Rosled two but I have plotted and reviewed what I think is the best alternative - Rosled three. It feels a little odd to have to give a star rating to a route that is impassable; I'd prefer to give it 0 for that reason but I'm open to persuasion on the reasoning....

nichowes

Beyond Rudhall the rural atmosphere is broken by the passage under the M50 (Photo three); the route then follows a drive parallel to the motorway, a few metres away. A quiet lane departs from the Herefordshire Trail and descends northwards from the summit before descending a path to Lodge Farm; on the way the view opens up into the heart of the Woolhope Dome (Photo seven, and see Herled for more information). The route skirts the curtilage of Lodge Farm and rejoins the Herefordshire Trail just west of All Saints church, Yatton (Photo eight). The route continues on the lane towards Much Marcle, ignoring the Herefordshire Trail branching off north at Lower House. After crossing three fields the route joins the Three Choirs Way, crosses the A449 again and passes Much Marcle church, well worth a look inside and out, including the magnificent yew tree (Photo nine) and the carved hedgehog on the Kyrle tomb. The route passes the left-hand side of the old building to access a yard with St John the Baptist's church on the right....

nichowes

The route follows the Herefordshire Trail from Ledbury to Ridge Hill, although I could see no waymarks for the Trail leaving the starting point at Ledbury Market House. The route continues across farmland with some short sections of road walking; on my walk, one empty field had a sign alerting walkers to the presence of a bull and at least two others were cropped with no rolled or marked path. A short route section beside the fast, dangerous, noisy A4172 passes the entrance to Oasis Lodges (Photo three) https://www.oasislodges.co.uk. After Putley church the route passes the fine front of Putley Court (1712) and then contours across the bottom of the dip slope of the Woolhope Dome, rocks of Silurian age? Opposite a road junction, the route turns off the tarmac into an impressive holloway/green lane that passes through a historic landslip of 1575, aptly named The Wonder:. The route follows the green lane, contouring across the dip slope (note to geologists: following the strike) until turning right at a "T" junction with another track. At this point I willingly admit to uttering "Wow!" at the sudden discovery of yet another Herefordshire place that I'd missed in my 44 years living in the County: Photo nine shows the route ascending a track that crosses the bare rock of the dip slope of the Aymestry limestone, so the exposed layers of sedimentary rock appear like thick overlapping roof slates. A lane is accessed via a cattle grid and then the route crosses Broadmoor Common to enter a short, narrow road section with no pavement on a blind bend - walkers should stay alert to approaching traffic. The route emerges from the holloway and passes several houses around The Pound to reach the Woolhope to Mordiford Road, which it follows for a short distance to Scutterdine; at this point it turns left down a track to a stream, with a diversion to Scutterdine Quarry, a Designated Local Geological Site with a fine exposure of the Woolhope Limestone. The flood embankment leads to the northeast corner of Hampton Bishop village and then the route leaves the embankment and crosses fields to the entrance gate of The Court; the view back from these fields reveals the outline of Backbury Hill, providing a silhouette of the northern edge of the eroded Woolhope Dome (dip slope on left, scarp slope on right) The route now follows a lane round a bend, turns right to cross a field, crosses the B4224 again by a lay-by close to The Bunch of Carrots pub and mounts the flood embankment of the River Wye via steps...

nichowes

The route follows the Herefordshire Trail from Ledbury to Ridge Hill, although I could see no waymarks for the Trail leaving the starting point at Ledbury Market House. The route continues across farmland with some short sections of road walking; on my walk, one empty field had a sign alerting walkers to the presence of a bull and at least two others were cropped with no rolled or marked path. A short route section beside the fast, dangerous, noisy A4172 passes the entrance to Oasis Lodges (Photo three) https://www.oasislodges.co.uk. After Putley church the route passes the fine front of Putley Court (1712) and then contours across the bottom of the dip slope of the Woolhope Dome, rocks of Silurian age? Opposite a road junction, the route turns off the tarmac into an impressive holloway/green lane that passes through a historic landslip of 1575, aptly named The Wonder:. The route follows the green lane, contouring across the dip slope (note to geologists: following the strike) until turning right at a "T" junction with another track. At this point I willingly admit to uttering "Wow!" at the sudden discovery of yet another Herefordshire place that I'd missed in my 44 years living in the County: Photo nine shows the route ascending a track that crosses the bare rock of the dip slope of the Aymestry limestone, so the exposed layers of sedimentary rock appear like thick overlapping roof slates. A lane is accessed via a cattle grid and then the route crosses Broadmoor Common to enter a short, narrow road section with no pavement on a blind bend - walkers should stay alert to approaching traffic. The route emerges from the holloway and passes several houses around The Pound to reach the Woolhope to Mordiford Road, which it follows for a short distance to Scutterdine; at this point it turns left down a track to a stream, with a diversion to Scutterdine Quarry, a Designated Local Geological Site with a fine exposure of the Woolhope Limestone. The flood embankment leads to the northeast corner of Hampton Bishop village and then the route leaves the embankment and crosses fields to the entrance gate of The Court; the view back from these fields reveals the outline of Backbury Hill, providing a silhouette of the northern edge of the eroded Woolhope Dome (dip slope on left, scarp slope on right) The route now follows a lane round a bend, turns right to cross a field, crosses the B4224 again by a lay-by close to The Bunch of Carrots pub and mounts the flood embankment of the River Wye via steps...

nichowes

Photo 1 shows a clear fingerpost aiming at a side gate to Wisteria Villa marked "Beware of the Dog"; the Geopark Way PROW definitely goes through the otherwise unmarked side gate and then leaves the curtilage of Wisteria Villa via a properly waymarked exit....

nichowes

Visiting the latter adds on distance and a long section of road walking, including alongside the fast, dangerous B4215, locals' preferred direct vehicle route from Hereford to Gloucester. Beyond Elm Bridge there is a choice of Poets’ Paths to follow into Dymock; Lednew one follows Poets’ Path No 1 along the edge of the floodplain of the River Leadon to turn left along the B4216. It’s worth turning off the road to the right to arrive in Dymock via the churchyard; the church contains interpretation that explains the association with the Dymock Poets, including Edward Thomas, who wrote “Adlestrop” after stopping at that station on his rail journey from London to Dymock, via Gloucester, in June 1914. The Daffodil Way leads south from Dymock to the old bridge that carries the drive to Boyce Court over the line of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal: https://www.h-g-canal.org.uk Turning off the Daffodil Way at this point Lednew one begins to follow the towpath near a point where a concrete dam holds back water in a section the canal (Photo 13). This would involve walking more than half a mile alongside a busy road before turning right along the lane towards Oxenhall. This road walking can be avoided with a short cut that is described in my review of Lednew two. The route now follows the Geopark Way down the lane to another canal bridge, where the towpath is accessed through a gate on the right, before walking under the bridge (Photo 14, looking back) The towpath is well maintained by local volunteers and leads to a road crossing and then along a canalside drive to the delightfully restored Oxenhall Lock (Photo 15) From Oxenhall Lock Lednew one leads along the canal route towards the restored brick and stone parapet of an aqueduct before meeting Horsefair Lane, along which the route turns left into Newent....

nichowes

Can be muddy in poor conditions but plenty of places where a Walker can bale out and choose dryer routes....

Rod

This route is about 70% off road / 30% road and has a good variety of terrain. It's easy to navigate and there there were no obstacles or path blockages along the way. Some parts were muddy due to rain but nothing too difficult to deal with....

awv

It should be noted that although Colwall does have the amenities mentioned in the previous review, they are about a mile off the route as published which ascends the Malvern Hills via the Evendine Bank. The advantage of the published route is that it takes you directly past the Chase Inn in Upper Colwell - my favourite pub in the Malvern Hills....

Martin Purser

This route from Ledbury takes you along Frith Wood which has lovely bluebells in spring, through Hope End registered park, along a couple of minor roads and then across fields to Colwall....

Rimmington