| Walton Hill from Walton
Pool Walton Hill |
| Estimated net time | One hour. | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route. | ||
| Parking | Room for a few cars at trail head, at the The Foresters, but you probably should ask for permission to park here. | ||
| Start height | 187 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 130 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 3.1 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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Drive road M5 south from Birmingham, less than 20 km, to junction 4. Turn right (west) onto road A491 and drive approximately 9 km to the second round-about. Drive all the way around this round about and head back along the way you came. From the round-about drive 3.0 km back towards M5 and turn left where signed for Walton Pool. Drive uphill, on Walton Pool Lane, approximately 650 metres and turn left onto the car park where you find "The Foresters nursing home". Park here, but make sure you're confident it's OK to park here (ask reception if in doubt).
From the car park walk 120 metres uphill and fork right onto "Highfield Lane". Follow this road, and later forest road, 550 metres north-east, until the road turns into a path. Follow the path, which can be boggy, to where it joins a much wider path after 380 metres. From here continue uphill, in a north-eastern direction, to the summit, which is marked by a concrete cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
The plan for this week was to spend a full week with my family, including in-laws, at a rented cabin at Golsfjellet. But I had to change my plans due to a major supplier meeting in Warwick for most of the week, and travelled to Warwick on Tuesday morning. This meant I had to give up skiing for the best part of the week, but a deep dive into information on British hills came up with a nice consolation price for a devote peak bagger; Walton Hill.
After work on Wednesday, and after dropping three colleagues at our hotel, I hit the British motorway system and made my way west of M5 towards Walton Hill. I had planned the driving pretty well, but it got a small hick-up when it turned out the A491 was dial carriageway and I had to pass my planned turn-off point and come back on the other side of the lane divider. This turned out well, and I found Walton Pool Lane, and also my next road; Highfield Lane. Driving up here was semi-dodgy, as the road was very narrow, and when the road turned into a dirt road (a boggy dirt road), I decided to turn around and come back down. I was a little confused by now, as I had expected to find somewhere to park and signs for Walton Hill, but there was nothing other than a number of houses. Hence I drove back down and looked for any signs of people to ask for guidance, and was happy to see living creatures outside the Foresters nursing home. Hence I stopped here and asked one of the employees, but the young girl couldn't help and had to call for a more senior lady. Unfortunately she couldn't help much either, other than "I'm sure you can walk up from here, but I've never walked there from this side". I asked a couple of more control questions, just to build my confidence to something more than rock-bottom, and finally decided to have a go without more driving. I asked for permission to park at their car park, which was granted, and after a quick change of clothes I was on my way.
As I got to the top of the dirt road and hit the path my confidence level raised considerable, and when I got onto the much wider path I was almost certain I was on the right track. But when feeling you're getting there, there's a special feeling when you see the summit cairn and you know you've conquered your target, large or small.
After a short summit stop, in the dark, I headed back down to the car, with a clear intention to stop at the very first petrol station to treat myself with a Coke.