The Leicestershire Round Walking Guidebook

by: The Leicestershire Footpath Association
The 100 mile route takes you in a clockwise direction around the county of Leicestershire, through a wide variety of scenery from the rugged rocky area of Charnwood, through the wide river valleys of the Wreake and the Soar up to the high and windy ridges of East Leicestershire and Rutland. Taking in many of the highlights of Leicestershire, the route visits many pretty villages.

The route crosses the land where the Iron Age people chose to build their hill fort at Burrough Hill and then descends to lower slopes where many small streams feed the rich clay arable fields. The path goes over the low hills of the Langtons with views over rich pastures of the wide Welland valley.

Gradually, the path swings west to reach Foxton's famous staircase of locks before moving uphill over the wooded hills of Gumley and Saddington, crossing the south of the county to High Cross, the Roman centre of England, where Watling Street crosses the Fosse Way. From here the old Fosse Way makes for pleasant quiet walking.

Going northwards towards Bosworth Field the route joins the Ashby canal for a short distance and passes through the historic market town of Bosworth and the village of Shackerstone with its impressive 12th century castle mound. From there the land once more rises and the route passes over former mining country, now part of the National Forest, to reach the outskirts of Charnwood passing Thornton Reservoir and thence back to Newtown Linford where the walk begins and ends.

While you may be inspired to take on the challenge of the full distance, the walk can be broken down into attractive and interesting day walks. There is also the option to make circular walks using part of the route. The section from Barwell to Frisby on the Wreake is especially easy to access by bus.

The guide has excellent route finding instructions together with Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale map extracts with the route highlighted. There are also numerous full colour photographs of features of interest along the way.

The guide describes the route in ten main sections. These are as follows:
Newtown Linford to Mountsorrel - 8 miles
Mountsorrel to Frisby on the Wreake - 11 miles
Frisby on the Wreake to Somerby - 10 miles
Somerby to Hallaton - 12 miles
Hallaton to Foxton - 10 miles
Foxton to Bruntingthorpe - 8 miles
Bruntingthorpe to Frolesworth - 9 miles
Frolesworth to Barwell - 11.5 miles
Barwell to Shackerstone - 11 miles
Shakerstone to Newton Linford - 11.5 miles

ISBN 9781527206229 Pages114 (2017) 120mm x 220mm spiral bound