THE official opening of a new hi-tech visitor centre on the Malvern Hills was a resounding success, say organisers, with more than 250 visitors coming to find out about the area’s geological history.

The Malvern Hills GeoCentre is the official visitor centre for the 109-mile Geopark Way from Bridgnorth to Gloucester and was opened on Saturday by the way’s president, Chris Darmon.

The centre houses interactive exhibits including iPads mounted in bespoke wooden stands, created by local carpenter Christopher Preston, and a video wall which showed some of the flora and fauna of the Malvern Hills in vibrant colours.

Visitors could also examine fossils and rocks provided by the Earth Heritage Trust, whose experts were on hand to answer questions and identify specimens that people brought along.

Younger would-be geologists painted fossil replicas and coloured in land and seascapes, and families visited Cafe H2O to sample its refreshments.

Dr Adrian Burden of Key IQ which operates the centre, said: “The use of tablet and video panel technology offers not just an accessible medium to disseminate information but a means of updating and continuously improving the content.

“As such, we will be rolling out new material in partnership with our collaborators, and even during the open day we had plenty of ideas and offers from local visitors with interesting content to display in this medium.”

The centre is on Walwyn Road at the Wyche, about 100 metres from the Wyche Cutting on the western side of the hills.