Bradgate Park, Cropston Reservoir and Swithland Wood

Mon, 2015 Dec 28 11:09 AM GMT

With Harry. From Hunts Hill Car park. A bright day, wind on high ground, not much sun, pleasant walking with a fair amount of up and down. 5 miles.

 Old John beckons, and not just us!

 The views are wide, but hazy

 After a coffee stop near the Deer Park Café we continue past Cropston Reservoir

 Along the road the hedge is festooned with Old Man's Beard

 We cross the road and take a bridleway, turning left and left again to reach Swithland Wood, braving some muddy patches.

 The quarry has been fenced off with razor wire to deter swimmers.

The birch tree makes a V-sign 

 We reach the road and make a short detour along a permissive path, part of the National Forest Way, to see the horses, with their rock star hair and plenty of hay.

 We head back towards Old John

and it must be the season for kissing, as the gorse is in bloom!

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Bradgate Park circular via Ulverscroft Priory and Beacon Hill

Thu, 2014 Apr 24 10:46 AM BST

With Harry, Maureen, Stuart and Rita. A fine walk, and weather improved. Decent views. 11 miles, give or take a whisker.

More or less the reverse of these two walks 11 Sept 2012 and 2 Sept 2012. 

We parked at Bradgate Park car park in Newtown Linford, rurned right out of the entrance and walked away from the park along the village main street, taking the footpath on our left, about 70 yards after the junction with Markfield Road.

View to Bradgate Park

This takes us through fields and woodland, over the stream, past Ulverscroft Mill and through more woods, eventually meeting a track which leads out on to Ulverscroft Lane.

A path to avoid after a lot of rain.

We turn left along the road with its fine houses, past the 'lovely' Polly Botts Lane, until we meet and cross Priory Lane.

We go straight ahead along the private road/public footpath, past the ruined priory. We take the right hand fork (waymarkers are clear), behind Ulverscroft Lodge Farm, and turn right along field boundaries, which we follow until we reach the drive to Black Hill.  Here we turn left and walk until we meet Beacon Road.  We turn right, and walk along the verge,as far as the cross roads. We go through the gate into Beacon Hill Country Park. At the charcoal burner we join the path to the left which heads north west parallel to the Shepshed Road.

Look, we have shadows!

A gate at the end leads into a path under an avenue of trees, leading uphill and north east.  

Spot the Old Man of the Beacon

At the top of this we follow  our noses and paths to the Old Man of the Beacon rock formation, and on to the trig point and toposcope.

Time for lunch, and admire the view. The sun has come out too. And there are swallows.

Down from the top via the tracks in the country park, coming out opposite the Broombriggs car park.

Stitchwort

The viewing platform is open on Saturdays and Sundays

Next to this is our path, leading to Mill Lane and Woodhouse Eaves. From the junction of Mill Lane with Mapplewell Road we are following the route of the Leicestershire Round.

Dandelion days

Testing the technology

We turn left and walk uphill for a couple of hundred yards, then take the footpath on our left, down a lane, past garages and house, then into a field, across another and around and across parts of Lingdale Golf Course. All clearly signed! Across Joe Moore's Lane and a bit more golf course, before going uphill alongside Rough Hill Wood. We meet Benscliffe Road, where  turn left and walk to the junction.

The final climb

second lunch?

still smiling

On the other side is Hunts Hill car park, which takes us into Bradgate Park.

A short walk to the Old John Folly, where we have another break before going down to the ruins of Bradgate House, where Jane Grey spent her childhood, then along the path next to the river Lin.  Herds of red and fallow deer are in evidence.

The ruins of Bradgate House

Almost there!

In all around 11 miles.  Unfortunately we arrive back just as all the teashops are closing, and we are forced to buy ice cream instead. Shame!

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Leics Round 7 - Bagworth to Woodhouse Eaves and Beacon Hill

Fri, 2013 Apr 19 10:05 AM Western European Time 

With Marta. Fine with the odd shower and occasional sun. We saved the hills for the end of the walk. Garmin off for about a mile. Total around 12 miles. 1,129 feet of climbing.

We start with a short diversion to the Bier House, to look at something I'd seen last time.

Up past the church and through the churchyard, for a sobering start to today's walk.

Then through the recently planted (1996/97) Bagworth Heath Woods, which are part of the National Forest. It seems an excellent way to heal the scars of the mining industry. I idly googled Bagworth colliery and found an interview with some ex-miners from local pits. Desford Pit had seams running under most of this land. Today it's pleasant walking and we get quite warm in the sheltered parts of the path.  

We cross the road and continue - the way ahead is clear, and takes us over the Leicester to Swannington single track of railway line.

We cross a stream and a small field with a couple of donkeys.  the stream was the old mill race for Thornton Mill. The mill was built in 1847 and functioned until the 1930s. The daughter of the last miller still lives in the mill house, and the house next to it was converted from the mill itself.  

There's a man sitting in the sunshine mending a table.  

"So, this used to be a mill?"

"Oh yes - if you go up here you'll see where the pond used to be. Come and have a look."

We walk past a table and seat made from an old millstone and up to the wall where a tiny trickle of a stream now runs.

"There was a big stone at the top end to stop more water coming in. Maureen's dad used to keep a boat tied up here and he'd go up by boat instead of walking there."

Then he showed us a brick dated 1847 on the side of his house. A wooden beam with words carved "Christian built this mill in 1847" used to be in the mill, now it's above an outbuilding.

We thank him and wave to the women in the mill house garden.  He says it's a shame so many walkers just keep their heads down and don't stop to look around more often. Guilty as charged on occasions.

The footpath here is very well marked and we arrive at a modern housing estate on the edge of Thornton. We wander up a couple of dead ends before finding our way to the main street.

The path goes alongside the school and downhill over a ridged and furrowed field. We can see Thornton reservoir glittering in the bottom of the valley.

We walk past the end of the water and a field of shetland ponies and some sheep and along the side of Browns Wood.  There are wide views in both directions here.   The noise of the heavy traffic on the embankment of the M1 makes conversation difficult.  With some relief we take the path underneath the motorway, and ignore the footpath on the left almost immediately afterwards.  Instead we carry on for a short distance to a path which goes through three fields. We walk past some  houses,  and along Croft Way and turn right along  Forest Road, then soon left into Main Street, Markfield.

It's a conservation area, but there is still evidence of post-industrial decline.

At this point we are in heads-down-and-can-we-stop-for-coffee-soon mode, so miss out the church and the Altar Stones picnic site and Nature Reserve, which has good views over Charnwood Forest. One for another walk?

We leave Markfield and go underneath the A50 by a subway. Then we take a path alongside, screened to some extent by the trees. They don't have many leaves yet.  Coffee is by now essential, so we use this dilapidated picnic table.

Inviting, no?

We follow the Round way marks with no problem as far as the village of Newtown Linford. 

Then it's through to Bradgate Park, a sandwich at the café.

Striking trees

Atmospheric ruins

We walk by the river, past the mighty trees, and the ruins of Bradgate House, up the hill to the War Memorial and Old John.  

Marta clambering on the rocks

Grand wide views, if a little misty.  We leave the park and take the path along Benscliffe Road, through the edge of Rough Wood, and over Lindale Golf Course to Woodhouse Eaves.

We turn left along Mill Road, walk uphill past the windmill, and the car park for Broombriggs.

We cross the road, and walk up (again) to the top of Beacon Hill. An extra just to include the view from there. I really feel these hills at the end of today's walking.  About 12 miles.

They are filming something - time travel perhaps with medieval peasants and modern army types with automatic weapons?  Beacon Hill's a great place for it.

We saw one swallow, heard an insistent cuckoo in Bradgate Park - Marta saw a woodpecker - we both heard one drumming earlier. We saw a jay fairly close by as well.

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Bradgate Park - Beacon Hill - Ulverscroft Priory - Newtown Linford

Walked on Monday 10 September 2012, with Barry, Gordon and Maureen.  Mostly fine.

We parked at the Newtown Linford car park, and took the low level path along the main drive by the river Lin, towards the ruins of Bradgate House, childhood home of Jane Grey, the nine-day queen.  The park has been a deer park from way back when, and there are still plenty of deer in this area.

There's a lovely stretch of river.

and some impressive trees.

Remains of Bradgate House and a moody sky

Uphill to the obelisk

Just before reaching the ruins of the house, we took the path uphill to the left to reach the War Memorial, where there was a keen cold wind.  We didn't hang around, but followed the path through the spinney to Old John.

18th century folly and great viewpoint

Who said down hill was easier?

We headed to the Hunts Hill car park on the north west side of the park.  The way ahead was over the crossroads to Benscliffe Road, and after a couple of hundred yards we turned right into Rough Hill Wood - the path went up slightly then downhill to a golf course. Part way through the golf course we crossed Joe Moore's Lane.  The golf course was busier on a Monday than it had been on a Sunday, but no problems and the way is easy to follow.
After leaving the golf course the path crosses a couple of fields to emerge on a track, then goes past some stables and a large garage, then swings left and comes out on Maplewell Road.  Here we turned right and followed the road towards Woodhouse Eaves.  We didn't take the first footpath signed to the left, but turned left at Mill Road. This turns into a track and climbs fairly steeply towards Windmill Hill.

Up towards Windmill Hill

Looking over to Broombriggs

The windmill with viewing platform - the stairs are under repair at present

We chose not to go up to the windmill on this occasion - I'll put it in the good intentions file.  When the mill was operational there were no trees surrounding it.

We came out at the car park for Broombriggs Country Park, cheaper but more remote than Bradgate.  We crossed Beacon Road, turned left along the cycle track, then right on to a path for walkers.  After about 100 yards we turned left again on the main path.  Dappled shade makes this a lovely walk, in spite of some traffic noise from the road.  

A great opportunity for posers?

We turned off the main path along the grassy track which leads to the summit, via the toposcope, which claims views as far as Boston Stump over 50 miles away. Not today - though there was a group of trees in the way.  

Great views all round, even so.

Like the earrings

The obelisk and Old John from Beacon Hill.

From here we followed the route down past the car park, turning right past the toilet block and down the path parallel to the road. 

At the charcoal burner we took the small path to the left which came out at the crossroads. We crossed over to the Copt Oak road - there is a verge, but not quite wide enough for comfortable walking. Luckily this is a short section and we turned left along a footpath on the drive to Black Hill Farm. After the trees stop the footpath heads off to the right along a hedge.  You're not likely to make a mistake here, as there is a warning notice on the drive.

The path is clearly marked, and takes you along field edges to Ulverscroft Lodge Farm.  Here we turned left to go round the house and meet the drive which took us to the ruined 11th century Ulverscroft Priory.   The cottage nearby is inhabited, and there has been scaffolding up on some of the ruins for years. 

Pond near the priory

Ruins of Ulverscroft Priory

The drive comes out on Priory Lane, and we crossed over to Ulverscroft Lane.  I'm hoping the resurfacing they've just done doesn't encourage a lot of traffic - it's pleasant and quiet at the moment. 

Just under a mile along the lane we turned right to take a footpath which leads through fields.  When the path opens out in a field you fork left after crossing a stile.  After this the path is clear and goes through woodland. This was a bit muddy.   There is no problem until you pass a ruined building on the left (Ulverscroft Mill). Here  you meet another path, and turn left and shortly afterwards right to cross a footbridge.  The path leads into Newtown Linford coming out near some thatched cottages.

We turned right along the main street, full of interesting very well-kept houses.   It's probably just over half a mile back to Bradgate Park, and nearby there's a selection of tea-shops.

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