Dunton Bassett - Cosby, Broughton Astley, Leire

Thu, 2013 Nov 28 10:19 AM GMT

Led by Barry, with Maureen and me. A misty start and rather dull, with very little sun. Fairly flat. Some muddy gateways. 9 miles.

Outside the DBA

Always a good idea to start in the right place. . . and look at those clean boots!

From Dunston Bassett we take the road towards Broughton Astley (B581) and after a hundred yards or so there is a sign "Bridle Road to Cosby". This is our route. The path curves slightly to the left and then it's a case of following the marker posts and the field boundary hedges.  The path goes through a wooded area, and comes out at a small road, called Cottage Lane. At this point the bridleway signs point back to Dunton Bassett and forward to Cosby, just as we hoped.
We follow the route under a disused railway, with a bridge.

From here the path continues through some fields with a few cows, coming out on Shuttleworth Lane on the edge of Cosby.  We walk along the road behind the golf course, and turn right.  More or less opposite the golf Club House, we take a footpath off to the left, through grass fields and slightly uphill towards Broughton Astley.  We have to slog our way across some arable land, and around the edge of one recently ploughed field with very little space left for the footpath, before coming out on a farm road leading to the Leicester Road. This passes one of the largest collection of allotment gardens I've seen - and very well organised they look, too. 

Barry meets Bull

We cross the road and head into Broughton, finally finding a bench for our break, near the war memorial.

Ready for the fray

We walk along the Frolesworth Road for about two hundred yards, and take the second footpath on our left.

 This goes east for a couple of hundred yards, crosses a stream and turns south.  After several fields we reach Broughton Lane, and turn left towards Leire. 

We continue along the Main Street, and turn left opposite Back Lane, where there is a Leicestershire Round sign.  Our footpath sign is a little harder to find, but it is there, a few yards away from Main Street.  

We take this route in the hope of seeing something of a moat which is marked on the OS map.  In the end all we see is a line of trees which may show the line of the moat. 

We make our way with the help of signs and the map, going pretty well north towards Stemborough Lane.   We walk along the road, and between Stemborough Mill and Valley View Farm.  Here we turn right, along the bridleway to Dunton Bassett.

The old mill pond

It is about a mile along the bridleway and back into Dunton Bassett at Bennets Hill.

Map and details