THIS is a lovely walk in mostly unspoilt countryside, at its best around Southwood and Shelsley Beauchamp.

There are superb views from Rodge Hill, particularly of the Teme Valley and Clee Hills, with the Malverns and other hills of west Worcestershire visible too.

The walk also has pre-historic and archaeological interest.

Woodbury Hill is crowned by an Iron Age hill fort, although this was damaged long ago and is obscured by conifer planting.

Only one earth rampart survives but it’s easily recognisable where it is breached by a footpath – look for the rampart immediately after you pass a so-called ‘interpretation panel’ near the hill-top.

Another interpretation panel marks the spot where the Woodbury Hill Clubmen gathered during the English Civil War to resist the plundering of Royalists and Roundheads alike.

Geologically speaking, this is a complex and fascinating area and you can discover much about it if you stop to read all the other information panels which you will pass on the route. Detailed and well-illustrated, these are the work of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust, which devised the Geopark Way.

FACT FILE

Start: Hundred House Hotel, Great Witley, grid ref SO751661.

Length: Nine-and-a-half miles/15km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 138.

Terrain: Mostly pasture, with woodland and some arable fields, quiet lanes, moderately hilly.

Footpaths: Most are good or excellent, a few are poor and a couple are dreadful in places (but there are ways round). Where overgrowth is referred to in the directions it means nettles, brambles and bracken (though one stile is also disappearing under wild roses) so make sure you dress for protection.

Stiles: Nine.

Parking: Layby almost opposite the Hundred House.

Buses: Yarrantons’ 758, Monday to Saturday; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: The Hundred House.

DIRECTIONS

1 Go through an open gateway in the layby, walk a little way into a barley field then take a toonarrow path on the right. Follow it to a lane and turn left. After passing Home Farm Cottage take a footpath on the right which climbs up Woodbury Hill. The path is waymarked, but not at every junction – if in doubt at any point just keep straight on and keep climbing.

2 Just after the path cuts through the hillfort rampart there is a waymarked junction. Turn right, descending on a narrow path through woodland, passing some magnificent sweet chestnut trees.

Leaving the wood, cross two adjacent stiles, descend through nettles and bracken and then walk alongside a strip of woodland. Go straight on when you come to a field. Having passed Woodbury Old Farm (visible beyond the hedge) look for an overgrown stile (or use a nearby gate if the stile is impassable), followed by steps, one of which is wobbly, while another is missing. Turn left on Camp Lane and walk to a T-junction.

3 Turn right, on the combined Worcestershire Way and Geopark Way (WW/GW). Take the first bridleway on the left, leaving the WW/GW and crossing a large field, keeping parallel with the wooded ridge on your right. Turn right when you reach a hedge and climb to the ridge top. Turn left, by the outer edge of the wood, rejoining the WW/GW. Keep straight on at the next major junction, walking along the open, grassy top of Rodge Hill.

4 When the path enters woodland there’s another junction – leave the WW/GW here, forking right on a bridleway which descends Pudford Hill to a lane. Turn right to reach the hamlet of Southwood.

Go to the very end of the lane then turn left on a footpath which descends into woodland. You should be able to go to the right when the path forks. However, you’ll struggle to find a way through, so keep left, by the rather overgrown woodland edge. This will bring you down to a stile where you have to leave the wood (again, only because the right of way has disappeared) to detour round it on an overgrown but (as yet) manageable path.

5 The detour brings you to a gate where you can re-enter the wood. Go straight on along a good path and keep straight on at the next junction, soon leaving the wood again. Walk along the righthand edge of a field on a path which soon develops into a welldefined track to Shelsley Beauchamp. Turn right on a road, then first left on a ‘no through road’. This eventually bends left to an isolated house – don’t follow it, but keep straight on along a track which climbs steadily to Camp Lane. Turn left.

6 Re-join WW/GW (it uses Camp Lane for 75m so take care to join the northbound path, not the southbound one) and follow the waymarked route to the top of Walsgrove Hill before descending to cross the B4203. Turn left, then right, to pass Abberley Hall and the clock tower. Cross the A443, walk up Wynniatts Way then turn right across the ridge of Abberley Hill. About 600m beyond the summit you’ll come to a major junction. Leave the WW/GW, turning first right on a path which descends to the Hundred House.

Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 204.