We spent a few days in the Malverns recently, staying high above Great Malvern at The Cottage in the Wood. It is a historic Georgian country house and hillside estate with 32 bedrooms across the Main House and two cottages.
Additionally, it offers sweeping 30-mile panoramic views across the Severn Valley, the Vale of Evesham, and the Cotswolds.
Even the journey there felt like an escape. As we approached, the hills rose ahead of us, with wild grasses and cow parsley lining the verges.
May is such a beautiful time to be somewhere this green. The trees were in full leaf, the verges were overflowing with foliage and there were miles of paths disappearing into the woods and up into the hills. The view from our room was also spectacular with plenty of flowers and plants to admire.
There is a long creative history here too. Edward Elgar walked these hills constantly, and the landscape became a backdrop to much of his work. Tolkien also walked here, and C.S. Lewis was a regular visitor.
But my most vivid memory of our stay came in the middle of the night. At around 1.30am on our first night, an enormous thunderstorm rolled across the hills. For the next hour and a half we stood watching from the window as great flashes of sheet lightning lit up the sky, followed by huge rolls of thunder. Being so high up made it feel even more spectacular. The whole landscape would suddenly appear in the darkness before disappearing again seconds later. We couldn’t stop watching.
By morning, the storm had passed and the hills were peaceful again, but it’s the contrast I remember most: that huge, dramatic display of nature in the middle of the night, followed by the quiet green landscape of the Malverns the next day.
It was one of those completely unplanned moments that became the highlight of the trip – and one I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
