Malvern Hills Voyage in Deeptime

The Malvern Hills Voyage traverses the spectacular Malverns ridge, taking you along an ancient trackway and across some of the oldest rocks in England. Starting at the Wyche GeoCentre, we will visit the Wyche Spout and the Wyche Cutting, and then proceed southwards along the ridge itself. The route takes in Perseverance and Pinnacle Hills. From these, the walk affords panoramic views to the east across Worcestershire as far as the Cotswolds, and across Herefordshire as far as the Black Mountains in Wales.The route returns to the GeoCentre via an old quarry and an historic wood.

Learn why the landscapes seen are so varied and different from each other, and about attempts to dig quarries and build a railway under the Hills.

Distance 3.5km (2.2 miles), on good footpaths.

Larger scale map
The colour overlay on the map , depicts the different rocks of the Malvern Hills  area. Touching these different colours on the map running in the Voyager app, will display the name of the rock, provide images of how the environment may have looked when that rock was forming, the life forms that existed and environmental audio. As much of that content as possible is replicated in the following.

Links to Task Sites for the Malvern Hills Voyage

1 GeoCentre
2 Wyche Spout
3 Wyche Cutting
4 Shire view
5 Perseverance Hill
6 Colwall View
7 Pinnacle Hill North
8 Pinnacle Hill South
9 Gardiner’s Quarry
10 Thirds Wood
11 Ballard Memorial

Precambrian Earth – arrangement of land and sea around the time Malverns Complex rocks formed.
Silurian Earth – arrangement of land and sea around the time the rocks west of the Malverns formed
Triassic Earth – arrangement of land and sea around the time the rocks east of the Malverns formed

The following links are to environmental reconstructions, life forms, atmospheric composition, day length, top predators, climate and other facts relating to the  times when the various rock units of the Malvern Hills Voyage area were forming. Starting with the youngest rocks.

Triassic rocks
Around 225 million years old
Environment – north view | Environment – south view | From above | Weather forecast | Lifeforms | Information

Silurian rocks
Around 425 million years old
Environment – north view  |  Environment – south view  |  Lifeforms  | Information

Malverns Complex
Around  680 million years old
Environment – context view  |  N view | E view | S view | W view |  Weather forecast  |  Information