Herefordshire is one of the off the beaten track counties in Western England on the Welsh Border.
Despite its low profile there’s lots to do and see in this lovely place. The area has a bloody history – England and Wales being at each others throats for much of the last 100 years – and is home to some fantastic castles.
It’s also got some lovely rivers and forested woodland that’s a haven for walkers.
But we start with the town that gave the county its name…
1. Hereford
Hereford ( (listen)) is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately 16 miles (26 km) east of the border with Wales, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Worcester, and 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Gloucester.Source
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2. Wye Valley
The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; Welsh: Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. It is one of the most dramatic and scenic landscapes in Britain.Source
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3. Hergest Croft
Hergest Croft Gardens lies in the heart of the Welsh Marches. Set in 70 acres, the Gardens are internationally renowned with a spectacular collection of more than 5,000 trees and shrubs as well as gorgeous flower borders, an old fashioned Kitchen Garden – all for you to discover, enjoy and relax in.
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4. Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are a range of hills in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit of the hills affords a panorama of the Severn Valley with the hills of Herefordshire and the Welsh mountains, parts of thirteen counties, the Bristol Channel, and the cathedrals of Worcester, Gloucester and Hereford.Source
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5. Hereford Cathedral
Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford in Hereford, England. Its most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world created around 1300 by Richard of Holdingham.
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6. Eastnor Castle
Eastnor Castle, Eastnor, Herefordshire is a 19th-century mock castle. Eastnor was built for John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers, who employed Robert Smirke, who was later to work at the British Museum, as his architect.
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7. Eardisland
Eardisland ( URDZ-lənd) is a village and civil parish on the River Arrow about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of the market town of Leominster, Herefordshire. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Upper Hardwick, Lower Hardwick and Lower Burton.
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8. Mappa Mundi
The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a medieval map of the known world (Latin: mappa mundi), of a form deriving from the T and O pattern, dating from c. 1300. It is displayed at Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England.[1] It is the largest medieval map still known to exist. A larger mappa mundi, the Ebstorf map, was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943, though photographs of it survive.
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9. Ledbury
Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills.
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It has a significant number of timber-framed structures, in particular along Church Lane and High Street.
10. Brockhampton Estate
The Brockhampton Estate is a farmed estate in Herefordshire, England, which is owned by the National Trust.
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The Brockhampton Estate is located on the edge of Bringsty Common near the town of Bromyard.
11. Hampton Court Castle
Hampton Court Castle, also known as Hampton Court, is a castellated country house in the English county of Herefordshire. The house is in the parish of Hope under Dinmore 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Leominster and is a Grade I listed building, which is the highest category of architecture in the statutory protection scheme. [Not to be confused with Hampton Court, Henry VIII’s London palace]
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12. Hereford Cider Museum
Hereford Cider Museum Trust was founded in 1973 to preserve the history of cider making worldwide. The extensive collection includes cider mills, presses, bottles, old photographs, watercolours, advertising memorabilia and a rare collection of English lead crystal cider flutes. It is housed in the original 1888 Bulmer’s factory, and it tells the story of cidermaking across Britain, although local social history of course features very strongly.
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13. Mortimer Trail
The Mortimer Trail is a waymarked long-distance footpath and recreational walk in the counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire in England.
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14. Leominster
Leominster (pronounced Lem-Star) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater 12 miles (19 km) north of Hereford and 7 miles south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster is the largest of the five towns (Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury, Bromyard and Kington) in the county.
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15. Brilley Green Dingle
A wooded nature reserve showing the results of different management histories within an area.
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16. Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.
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17. Croft Castle
Croft Castle and Parkland is a National Trust property comprising a country house, park, church and garden, in Croft, Herefordshire, England.
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18. Hay-On-Wye
Hay-on-Wye, often abbreviated to just “Hay” (the community uses the short version) is a small market town and community in the historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire) in Wales, currently administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys.[2] With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as “the town of books”, and is both the National Book Town of Wales and the site of the annual Hay Festival.
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19. Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a Norman medieval castle ruin north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye. It was praised by William Wordsworth as the “noblest ruin in Herefordshire” and is considered by historian Adrian Pettifer to be the “most splendid in the county, and one of the best examples of English military architecture”.Goodrich Castle was probably built by Godric of Mappestone after the Norman invasion of England, initially as an earth and wooden fortification.
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20. Queenswood Country Park
Once part of the vast ancient oak wood that once stretched to the Welsh borders and beyond, today Queenswood Country Park and Arboretum comprises 123 acres of ancient native woodland, designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) surrounding a 47 acre tree collection with over 1,200 rare and exotic trees from all over the world.
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