Glooston - Thorpe Langton and back

Tue, 2013 Apr 16 9:49 AM Western European Time 

With Marta. Part of "my" stretch of the Leics Round. Lovely bright day, even some sun. Windy though. Garmin fail from Stonton W to Glooston, so I'll add a mile and make it 6.5 miles with 337 feet of climbing.

We set off from Glooston - the church hides away along the footpath above the Old Barn Inn.

Looking down from the beginning of the path

Glooston church . . .

. . . has lots of stone heads, all different as far as we could see

. . . and a rather bumpy graveyard.

The path to Stonton Wyville goes between the church and the village hall at the top of the slope, past the pub.  Nice clear markings and paths all the way to Stonton.

Church of St Denys, Stonton Wyville, all dressed up for spring

We follow the road through the village, and turn left towards the road between Hallaton and Kibworth.  We take the field road to Thorpe Langton. After about 100 yards we turn left at the bridle way to Welham.

This is the route of the Leicestershire Round!

The bridle way - a photo from 2008, when skies were blue

We follow the path uphill and along to the trig point on top of the mighty Langton Caudle - all of 147 metres (475 feet) above sea-level.  The views are excellent, and it feels higher.  It's windy enough for us to seek a sheltered spot for a coffee stop.

From here we go down by the LR route close to the hedge, ignoring the route off to the left which is the continuation of the bridleway to Welham.

So, downhill, with the hedge on our right, over the stile, past a pond harbouring a LR way marker. 

Which way would that be?

 Then it's onward and downward through a scrubby pasture to a spinney and then into a very long thin field with a few horses and cows. At the end of this we reach the footbridge over the ford, and we're back on the field road.

We walk into the village, past several farm buildings. In one of them there seem to be  several bulls, enjoying the sun! 

The pub in Thorpe Langton isn't open - it's a weekday lunchtime, so we walk back along the field road to Stonton Wyville - quicker, but nowhere near as pretty as the Caudle route.  We have another brief pause to admire the flowers. 

We make our way back to Glooston for a bowl of rather good sweet potato and broccoli soup.

All in all a very pleasant morning's stroll.

Map and details