In addition to the Cotswolds, Malverns and Shropshire Hills, the Midlands offers many other countryside areas to explore. As a Blue Badge Tourist Guide and qualified Lowland Walk Leader, I enjoy helping visitors discover England’s countryside on foot – often the best way to experience it.
Many Cotswolds smaller villages can only be visited on foot. Why not plan a short countryside hike into your itinerary? Visit Upper slaughter, one of England’s ‘thankful villages’ or Stanton and Stanway with their rose-covered thatched cottages or many others.
The Malverns, with the oldest rocks in England and much loved by Edward Elgar offer a surprising demanding day hike. Visit British Camp, an iron age hill fort or sample the spring water on a trail around the various springs and taste the difference between them.
Shropshire, that county tucked between Birmingham and Wales is a geologist’s delight. Visit Caer Caradoc, allegedly the last stand of a British King fighting the Romans, or the mysterious Stiperstones, a quartzite ridge.
