A SPECIALIST acupuncture service is being officially opened in Malvern next week.

It is based at Holyrood House, once home to one of Malvern's water cure pioneers, Dr James Gully who offered hydrotherapy to an international clientele, including the evolutionist Charles Darwin.

Now, 150 years later Holyrood House is to become a medical centre concentrating on a specialist acupuncture service.

Holyrood Acupuncture Practice started up in October last year in Wells Road and has invited Dr Bisong Guo, an internationally renowned practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine to carry out the official opening on March 15.

The practice has two acupuncturists and two acupressure practitioners and says it aims to contribute to a high level of health care in the Malvern Hills, an area which has a high density of health care practitioners from many branches of medicine.