Ridlington - Belton circular

With Maureen and Marion. 6.4 miles. A grey day, damp underfoot, but no real rain while we were out. The same route as recent walks.

Belton church, halfway through the walk

On the last lap, just coming into Ridlington

Belton in Rutland, Ridlington - three walks over same route.

Tuesday 23 May.
With Marta.

Thursday 25 May with Maureen.

Monday 29 May with Norma. This time in reverse direction.
About six and a half miles.
.

I have never seen sheep with such regular patterns before! 

Belton in Rutland circular, via Launde Abbey

Thu, 2014 May 15 9:40 AM  BST With Harry. Quite a trek, lots of up and down, (900+ feet of climbing) great views. Coffee at Launde Abbey. Very fine day - got hot in the pm. Around 12 miles. 

Ready to go

We park in the village and walk past the church. We are hailed by a friendly local, who recommends Launde Abbey for a coffee, and says there'll be a fine view from the ridge.We divert slightly towards the Loddington Lane, to admire the view and the houses, before returning to our route along the road signposted to College Farm. This heads nornorwest past Bluestones Farm, where a farrier is shoeing a horse, and a small yappy dog makes itself known.

As the road bends left we take the bridleway slightly right,  heading slightly east of north, then slightly west as we climb up to Ridlington Ridge. I go in search of the trig point at 191 meters, but don't find it - again. Two women on horseback overtake us while I wander. i hear a lapwing, but don't see it. We see them turn right later towards Leigh Lodge.

a mighty river

We walk down to the mighty River Chater, and soon afterwards our route follows the Leicestershire Round along a bridleway to our left. Back to the river, and some muddy walking, before we go through a gate and diagonally uphill through a field of young wheat, where our path is just about clear, though I end up with wet trouser legs.

A meter wide?

At the top we follow the marker posts down towards Launde Abbey, and, since it's well past 11 we treat ourselves to a coffee, and let the waitress persuade us to buy teacake and Danish as well. Swallows are nesting under the eaves.

 Then, refreshed, we set off to tackle another crossing of the river, and climb a small hill with great views all round, before descending to Withcote Hall.

Views all round from this hill

We intend to take the first footpath on our right, but it's not well signed. We take the second and then make our way over. More careful map reading required now, since we've left the Leicestershire Round and I haven't walked this section before.

The path goes through fields, and is marked. I think we should have turned just before the outbuildings, rather than taking the path between two fences. It makes its way eastwards and crosses a very minor road, where we turn right and then left almost immediately. Again we head east and arrive at a slightly busier road, just on a bend. We take the bridleway heading south and follow this as it crosses a footpath, turning south east, then east.  This section takes us along a slight ridge then past some woodland called Top Windmill. At the end of the wood we turn left and follow a path then a track slightly downhill and north east towards wood Lane, Braunston.

Recent hedge-laying

We make a very sharp right turn just before we meet the road to the village, and we join the Rutland Round, heading roughly west of south.  We cross a field of sheep, then head uphill along the edge of Priors Coppice.

At the top of the hill, by the road to Leigh Lodge, we pause  for lunch, and more liquid. A cuckoo is calling close by. The first I’ve heard this year, though Harry heard them earlier.

We  cross the private road and head down past more sheep, until we reach yet another small road.  The path goes into a field and downhill diagonally to the left, coming back to the road just at Leigh Lodge.

Forget-me-nots and pink campion

Now we follow the road for a good mile as it climbs up to the ridge.

At the gates we turn left, and soon take a footpath on the right which takes us down towards Belton.

We join the road from Lambley Lodge and have one final short climb back into the village.

Map and details

Leics Round 11 - Launde to Hallaton via Belton in Rutland and Allexton

Wed, 2013 Jul 10 9:36 AM  British Summer Time

With Marta. Fine, cloudy, pleasant. Dry underfoot. A couple of dry ploughed fields - hard work. Rolling. 663 ft of climbing. just over 8 miles.

We walk briefly along the Withcote Road from Launde Abbey, before taking the signposted footpath off to the right, behind the chapel and the gardens.  It leads uphill, through fields with sheep, to the corner of Launde Park Wood.  Here the path should cut downhill diagonally across a field, but the way is impassable, so we stick to the field edges.

Some rapeseed or similar is still blooming here - at least it brightens the grey day

 When we reach the far corner we find a gate whose fastening is impossible to open, and have to climb over it. Grid ref - SK 809045 (I think).

The path continues east,  crossing the river Chater, and turning into a wider track, and heads south to a ridge with a fine view.

 We are overtaken by a horse-rider up here. The map shows a trig point just off to our right (west), but we can't find it. Instead we take an early break and admire the view over to Eyebrook reservoir in the distance.

We follow the hedge for a while then the path goes towards the bottom left corner of the field. We keep the hedge on our left until we reach the road near Brickle Farm.  A lot of free range hens are in a field nearby.  The road takes us into Belton.

We walk through the village and down to the A47, which we cross to reach the Allexton Road.  We cross the bridge over the Eye Brook, and follow the Main Street, past the church, which is now redundant and looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust.  

It's open and worth looking inside.

We carry on along the No Through Road, to the footpath past Manor Farm. This leads behind Allexton Hall, which lies to our right.  we can't easily follow the line of the path here, and again walk up beside a hedge until we meet the waymarker. The fields here have been ploughed, and are very dry. It's almost like walking on concrete chunks. 

Not my favourite walking surface.

Then it's alongside a small wood, and turn left to go past Alexton Lodge.  Here we turn right once more and along a field edge.  We're at the edge of the ridge here, and there's a memorial seat looking southwest towards Fearn Farm.  Beautifully placed.
We walk down then up to Fearn Farm with its Zollgrenze sign - Leics-Rutland border??

We turn left to pass the farm, and then right on to the footpath

 - it's marked clearly from here to the dismantled railway - we cross by the overgown bridge and then follow the good clear path through the fields. We come out at the junction of Allexton Road and East Norton Road and walk into Hallaton past the Fox pub and duck pond.

Map and details

Belton-in-Rutland - Wardley - Ridlington - Belton

Led by Barry. 9.5 miles. According to the garmin there's about 900 feet of ascent. Fine, warm sunny. With Maureen, Gordon, Eddie and me.

From the war memorial in Belton, near the church, we turned downhill past  a green with a lime tree and a seat (too early for caffeine!), the Old Smithy and Rutland Manor, to a point where a footpath sign points to the left.  We went through the gateway and immediately right, crossing the field to a stile in the far right hand corner.  We followed the Rutland Round along the hedge and over a footbridge, then took the path along with the hedge on our right.  We crossed a bridleway and continued to follow the waymarks as the path goes downhill, crosses another bridge, then uphill to a gate in the hedge and on to the old A47.

They shut the road through the woods

Seventy years ago.

Weather and rain have undone it again,

And now you would never know

There was once a road through the woods  .(Kipling)

We walked left along this, then turned right to the present A47's  junction towards Wardley.

From the old road to the new

We crossed the road and walked into Wardley village with its well-kept houses and small church. 

St Botolph's church, Wardley

Time check?

No walk is complete without one of us going back for something!

We turned down the lane past Wardley House, opposite the church.  There are terrific views of the countryside.

View from Wardley House

We walked along the track, following it round to the end of Wardley Wood.   Here we turned left into the wood, but instead of walking straight though we diverted slightly to the left, in order to avoid some of the mud.  We then followed the edge of the wood and headed up towards the A47 again.  

Wardley Wood and beyond

We were not really where we wanted to be, so it was a case of heading downhill and meeting the path we had left earlier. Once we'd found it, it took us up to the Old Leicester Road going into Uppingham.

We had to walk for a few hundred yards along the A47 - the north side of the road has just enough verge to make this ok.  We crossed back to walk along the old disused road, then crossed over to join the footpath which follows field boundaries more or less north.  There are plenty of signs telling walkers where they shouldn't go, and by avoiding them we made our way towards Ridlington.

Rolling countryside

St Mary Magdalene and St Andrew's church, Ridlington

We walked round to the other side of the church, and along the road for a short distance before turning right along a marked footpath. Apologies for the garmin trace here on the map - I'd turned it off in the church and forgot to switch on immediately afterwards. 

We found the footpath towards Leighfield.  This was straightforward, with a little help from the 'Keep Out" Notices.  It goes downhill from Ridlington, passing a flock of Jacob's sheep.

  
The path flattens out as it approaches the River Chater and the fishponds near Leigh Lodge.

Newly planted trees and the bridge over the Chater

Bridge and fishponds

A good spot for a second break before tackling the long uphill road to the left. 

At the top we turned left, then took the path indicated on our right.  This went downhill quite steeply towards Belton. The path joins the road to Lambley Lodge, which we followed for about half a mile, downhill then up into Belton.

Map and details