Around Rutland 2026 - Day 5

 Tuesday 21st April 2026 - Day 5

I was looking forward to today as I hoped it was going to be as lovely as yesterday's walk. Denise dropped me off in Thistleton again. As a matter of interest, yes, there is a church - somehow I keep forgetting to take a photo at the start so keen am I to be off!! At least we remembered to take one of me today.

Although the sun was shining there was a bitterly cold easterly wind and a lot of today's walking was across very flat, exposed, open fields. I wore my fleece for most of the day and, at the start, it was zipped right up to my chin and my hands were deep in my pockets to keep warm. 

No doubt the area being so flat was the reason behind siting RAF Cottesmore there. It later hosted the USAAF.  It closed as an RAF station, I believe, in 2012 when it was turned over to the British Army. Currently I think it is home to the 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment and to the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment.

I was amused to see, approaching Hooby Lodge at the end of the runway, a "hide-like structure" on tall stilts which overlooked the airfield. I'm sure it was a hide to observe wildlife in the surrounding area and for the residents of Hooby Lodge to observe the landings & take-offs. It appealed to my sense of humour to imagine Russian spies hanging out there during the Cold War! 

I was beginning to be aware of the noise of heavy traffic on the nearby A1. As I got closer I discovered the first problem of the day. A huge field of grain crop, about a foot high (30cms in "new money") with no pathway marked at all. No footsteps, no sprayed line, no ploughed path. Nothing. I was standing at one corner and my goal was the corner diagonally opposite. I had 3 choices: go directly, diagonally through the crop and probably get soaking wet legs & feet (not to mention damaging the crop!); I could go right along the edge of the field and then turn left along the far edge until I could exit (that looked a VERY, very long way); I could go left along the edge of the field and the turn right along the far edge until I could exit (that was longer than going diagonally but looked a bit shorter than the other option). It was a shame because everywhere else the way has been well signposted and farmers have usually kept the pathway well marked. 

If I thought that was going to be the only diversion I was mistaken. After a while the path came out by the roundabouts and the underpass to Stretton to avoid crossing the A1. The route bypassed the actual village and continued onwards towards Clipsham. At first there was a good pavement but, as I left the village behind the pavement stopped although there was a gate leading to an extensive Woodland Trust area beside the road. 

There seemed to be a well trodden route running parallel to the road as well as other pathways turning off into the wooded areas. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best that there would be somewhere to exit at the other end! There was!

After a quick banana snack stop I was back on the busy little roadway towards Clipsham itself. Another quaint, well kept village. I managed to avoid getting runover and got back onto a grassy pathway from the village opposite the Olive Branch pub (no I didn't visit!!) 

The route from Clipsham to Pickworth was supposed to have been an easy one. Basically I should have been heading SSE to reach the corner of Pickworth Great Wood. I could see where the path should have gone but there was no way anyone could have got through the tangle of brambles and hawthorns. A newer sign indicated the public path to the left so I followed. It was taking me further away to the east than the OS Map had indicated but I had no choice. It was a well trodden Bridleway pockmarked with hoofprints and badly churned up in places. In fear and trepidation (well, not really - just a bit apprehensive!) I continued. 

The reason for the detour appeared to be a very active quarrying operation. Google informs me that quarrying has taken place here since the 13th Century. It's stone has been used in Peterborough and Ely Cathedrals, many Oxford Colleges and after the 2nd World War was used to rebuild the Houses of Parliament after it was bombed in 1941. That didn't help me though coz I didn't look it up till I got back home!

Eventually the pathway curved one way and another along the perimeter fencing of the quarry until it took me to a lunar-looking landscape with mounds of quarry waste. 

The path took me steeply down to the quarry floor, across its vehicle trackway, and up again the other side, past old quarry workings and back out onto the grassy, open fields beside Pickworth Great Wood. I was still not on my originally planned route but I was getting closer. 

Just before Pickworth I had a decision to make. I could either head south and then west into Empingham crossing the A1 near Great Casterton (passing an OK Diner!) On the other hand I could take another route heading diagonally south-west into Empingham crossing the A1 by doing a 2 mile dog-leg in order to go under it. At the time, coz I was a bit frustrated, tired & hungry, I chose the latter option in the hope it was a tad shorter. Turns out they were both about the same distance! My chosen route involved a lot of tarmac so my feet have had another pounding today. I eventually found somewhere to stop for lunch, after 4 hours and 9.5 miles of walking, overlooking the A1!! Not idyllic but I needed the rest and some food.

After lunch all I wanted to do was to walk as fast as I could and get the journey done. My only really pleasure during the last 1 and a half hours and 3.6 miles of walking was the view as I came down into Empingham and meeting Denise as she walked up through the village to greet me. 

As we walked back down to the church where she had parked the car my legs turned to jelly & I was staggering all over the place. She has that effect on me xx

When we arrived back at the cottage I spoke to a resident who I'd talked to the previous Thursday when we were doing a recce. Today I discovered that her name is Jan Davies. Her husband Bryn comes from a village near Pontypridd!! It was nice to chat; what a lovely lady. 

If you would like to support my charities please follow the link: https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/marg-davies-april-2026-round-rutland-walk    

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Around Rutland 2026 - Day 4

Monday 20th April - Day 4

Today I'm back walking on my own. Lovely though it is walking with other people it does add a certain amount of extra "stress" so it's nice to be walking solo again. The road from Thistleton to was uninteresting. In fact I was so keen to get started I have no idea if there was a church there! There was one at Market Overton with a rather lovely lychgate.

I am being spoilt by the weather; yet another beautiful morning with clear blue sky. I'm also fortunate that the terrain today is far more forgiving than yesterday; slight undulation for the first few miles as I seemed to walking along a ridge. The views on either side were spectacular and magnificently panoramic.

The path that I had intended taking onto the ridge meant going diagonally through a large rapeseed field. Given my aversion to said crop I chose a slightly longer route through a less annoying one.

Along the route there were a couple of thoughtfully places benches one of them dedicated to "Sachi The Springer Spaniel"

Fairly early on the walk I had taken my fleece off and packed it away in my bag. The sun had warmed the air a bit and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I came down from the ridge (I was travelling almost at 10k walking pace the going was that good!) and came across the disused Melton to Oakham canal.

It was opened in 1802 and closed by 1845 when the new railway had taken all the trade. 

My route took me past Holy Trinity church in Teigh, one of the so called "Thankful Villages" who apparently lost no men during the First World War. I went thankfully onwards with the blue sky above me and hardly a wisp of clouds in the sky.

Generally the path has been well signposted and I've been able to see where I'm heading from some distance. Today was the exception which was a problem as my Map App was no help as it was only showing the planned route (in black) and my actual route (in dark blue) on a plain white background!! No features or contours - nothing!

Having left Teigh I crossed a field of sheep and their young, sleepy lambs basking in the sunshine. I twisted & turned a bit to avoid disturbing too many of them until I came to a fence. I looked left and right but couldn't see the usual Yellow topped signpost. There was a farm gate away to my left but no markers in sight. I wandered to my right past small, scrubby trees. All the while I was looking ahead trying to find a post. Nothing. I turned round to retrace my steps and, low & behold, there it was, tucked down in a bit of a hollow behind some bushes. 

Not long after I stopped on a convenient footbridge to refuel with a banana! I needed it at the pace I was walking. Snack over I set off again and had to cross the railway line that had presumably done-for the canal.

After crossing the railway I was on a tarmac lane that curved round and gentle climbed towards my lunch stop at Whissendine. About halfway along the lane I came across what I assume was a Second World War pillbox. 

(I Googled it and it comes up with an FW3/22 Casement. A bunker used for the defence of the United Kingdom against a possible enemy invasion. They were built in 1940 and into 1941.) 

Not far from the pillbox was a feature on the other side of the hedge that was labelled as "MOAT" I could just about make out the undulations. Every day is a learning day!!

I had my lunch sitting in the intermittent sunshine on a bench outside St Andrew's church in Whissedine. Sadly the bench wasn't as comfortable as the one on Day 2 but it was a bench!

From Whissendine it was mostly downhill to Oakham and home. The walk had one last curve-ball to throw me! A little uphill slog to leave me puffing and panting, not just from the climb but also because I was breathing in the "stench" of the rapeseed in full bloom in the field beside me! 

The next village I came to was Langham, only a couple of miles to go. It also had a church, I could have made a detour to see it properly but I chose not to!! I was definitely beginning to flag by now.

I thought I had reached Oakham but was disappointed to find the it was the village of Barleythorpe! Looking at the map it's more like a suburb of Oakham. Eventually I arrived at All Saint's church in Oakham itself. I must have a wander round it and the castle before I leave! 

I headed for home and was pleased to be greeted by Denise in the High Street and we walked back to the cottage together. An astounding 13.44 miles completed today despite my poor feet. I rather like walking mainly downhill! So much so that I'm going to do the same tomorrow and walk from Thistleton to Empingham rather than the other way round!

If you would like to support my charities please follow the link: https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/marg-davies-april-2026-round-rutland-walk    

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Around Rutland 2026 - Day 3

 Day 3 - Sunday 19th April 2026

Another fabulous day for walking. Blue sky, glorious sunshine, a bit of a cool breeze but excellent walking weather. Today I was joined by Belinda Matthewman, another WRAC Veteran, who I met via the WRAC Association (Hereford Branch) when she moved with her job to Worcester. She has since moved again back to Essex her home county but, like myself is a keen walker.

Belinda's first task of the day, once we had met up in Uppingham and got off road & onto the proper pathway, was to protect me from a herd of cows with their young calves! I have to say she did an excellent job. They were very docile and we just walked blithely by trying to ignore them. Only one cow seemed to be on the wrong side of us and she soon quietly MOOOved (blame Belinda for that one!!)

Although the weather was pretty perfect for walking the terrain was less so. the two previous days have involved some undulation but most of it has been on grassy pathways or across neatly smooth, harrowed ploughed fields. Today was mostly on tarmac roads & lanes, loose stony paths, slightly boggy bridleways or uneven, rutted farm tracks. None of the surfaces made for easy walking and I must admit to the soles of my feet feeling a little sore tonight.

The other difference today was that the gentle undulation ceased and we were up and down like a fiddlers elbow. We climbed down to the cattle, up through a wood, down the other side of the wood (Wardley Wood), then back up beside the wood!!! Why? Because that's the way the path went! So why couldn't we just walk from the cows to other side of the wood? We then had to walk down and then up again to the village of Wardley and past St Botolph's Church. 

It was here, in the village of Wardley that Belinda demonstrated her ability as not only a cow defender but also as a Horse Whisperer. She was duly made friends with a rather lovely chestnut horse. 

Interlude over we continued on and across the A47 Leicester road to continue our up and down journey (down & up twice actually) until we arrived in Belton-in-Rutland. There we found a comfortable bus shelter to sit and rest our weary feet whilst delving into our snacks. after a brief rest we continued down the Leighfield Way and back up past Lambley Lodge continuing ever upward to the farm near Long Wood. From there it was an equally long descent to the Leigh Lodge Fish Ponds. After that, guess what? you've got it. An even longer climb up to Prior's Coppice where we gave in and sit down, propped up against a gate in the sun, and had our lunch. We had covered about two thirds of the way and both of us could feel a soreness in our feet from the pounding on metalled roads, stony surfaces and hard-packed, rutted pathways.

After lunch there was more unrelenting roadway leading fairly steeply downhill to Brooke and St Peter's Church (Belinda's Dad was called Peter) We came across another field of horses and our resident Horse Whisperer did her thing!! She complained that the white one slobbered! Really? Eeeew!! 

We continued down past the horses & then, surprise, surprise! Back up a long, long hill to the top where Macmillan Way went off to our left and we continued right along the Rutland Round. We could see Rutland Water away off in front of us so had a picturesque view as we availed ourselves of the local facilities, a hedge! Needs must when the devil drives!!

We crossed the railway line (the same one with the viaduct of Friday and the bridge of yesterday) and came to the A6003 Oakham to Uppingham road. Now time for me to make a decision. To carry on on the Rutland Round along more roads and then turn back towards Oakham across fields and the A6003 again. Or to turn left up the pavement beside the A6003 and then the B641 into Oakham. The second route was shorter, had just as much roadway as the first. 

Reader - I chose to go straight to Oakham!! 

It turned out that Belinda was as relieved as I that we'd cut it a bit short today. We decided that, as we'd done more than we meant to yesterday we were justified in cutting it short today!! If you call 11.33 miles short. It took us just short of 5 hrs which was a fairly good pace considering all the ups and downs.

We walked into our new "home" for the week, a delightful little modernised cottage in the middle of Oakham itself. Denise made us a welcome cup of tea and then drove Belinda back to her car which she'd left at Uppingham. Belinda is now on her way home to Essex as she has to work tomorrow. Thank you for your company again today.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can do another slightly shorter walk and hope it's on softer terrain. If you would like to support my charities please follow the link: https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/marg-davies-april-2026-round-rutland-walk    

If you'd like to leave a comment please do just remember to add your name in the text so I know who you are.

Around Rutland 2026, Day 2

Saturday 18th April 2026

Today I was joined by 3 wonderful ladies and an equally wonderful Spaniel dog (Margo) for the walk. To me, who usually walk alone, that's quite a crowd. 

For my previous 12 walks I have normally solo-walk. On a couple of occasions I have been joined for a day by other WRAC veterans & last year I was joined for the whole 100 miles by Ali Brown. My companions for today were Belinda and Lesley, both ex-WRAC, Gill & Margo who are not ex-WRAC.

Lesley drove us to our starting point in Empingham near St Peter's Church. It was a glorious day for walking: blue sky, sun shining, enough of a breeze to cool you down in the sunshine although it was a little fresh out of the sun. 

The other thing that we noticed, right from the start of our walk, was the abundance of kites riding the thermals over the fields of sheep who were looking after their lambs. Fortunately we didn't see anything nasty happening to the lambs - I think they were a little older and stronger than the new born ones that kites pick-off.

When we were back in Morcott this morning having our breakfast we could see two towers or chimneys far away, on the very distant horizon. We speculated as to what they were but all we could come up with were "towers or Chimneys" Little did we realise then that we would be walking close by them.

They turned out to be chimneys at the huge stone quarry processing area (I don't think I got them in the photo), a small part of a vast stone quarry that was criss-crossed with their own levelled motor-way-like roads, bridges carrying walkers like ourselves on the Rutland Round/Hereward Way.

There were larger structures carrying the Empingham Road to Ketton. It was amazing to see the rock strata, developed over millennia, exposed. It was also sad to see the vast scar left on the countryside. 

One also had to admire the warm, golden beauty of the stonework in the local villages.

We made our way through the very picturesque village of Ketton with it's gorgeous chocolate-box little cottages and its narrow, twisting lanes and alleys. We came across a rather magnificent "edifice" dedicated to the Jubilees of Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II.

Much to Lesley's delight (she's a copper!) directly opposite was the old police station manned by the Rutland Constabulary.

We continued past the rather magnificent church and over the brook (where Margo had a cooling paddle & swim). 

Onwards we went down little narrow lanes through the village our progress slowed a little by a grandfather and his two young grandchildren. 

We had to cross the railway line that yesterday I'd come across with the viaduct that went on to Oakham and beyond. On the other side of the bridge lay the pretty old village of Geeston then the path took us on another narrow path behind the newer village estate.

We came to a rather swanky gated Spa Retreat at Kilthorpe Grange. The original Rutland Round/Jurassic Way went across a corner of their land. It had been rerouted around the edge of the grounds. It only added a few extra yards but left me feeling miffed! 

Still chuntering about the extra walking we came out onto farmland and my chuntering continued because there was the crop that I hate the most - rapeseed. It gets everywhere; it's bilious, dayglo yellow hurts the eyes; it's pungent smell was even noticed by Lesley's Covid-ravaged sense of smell and made my nose twitch & tickle. My real hatred of it comes from my encounter on my first walk 12 years ago when it tripped me up several times as I fought my way through it and even untied my bootlaces twice!! There seemed to be miles of the stuff either side of us as our very straight pathway stretched out into the distance.

At last we were through and began thinking about somewhere to stop and eat our sandwiches. We thought about stopping at the side of the road but, on looking at the map I notied that our route took us beside a stream where we thought there might be somewhere more suitable. Low and behold we came to a sunny spot overlooking the River Welland. Not only was it quiet and sunny but it also had a very comfortable thoughtfully placed bench. Gill and I sat on the bench, Belinda sat on a nearby log and Lesley sat a bit further along propped up against a handy tree. It was idyllic but I was so busy feeding my face that I forgot to take any photos!

Lunch over we headed on along the final third of our walk. We passed some beautiful houses with well manicured gardens.

We came across a church surrounded by field with only a dirt-track as access. It reminded me a little of Larkrise to Candleford.

We continued, still beside the River Welland, through fields and woodland filled with bluebells, until at last we came to the penultimate village before home, Barrowden, another quaint village with a green and a pond. We found another bench at the edge of the village and I sustained myself for the final push by eating some of Denise's homemade Toffee-jack, an energy booster if ever there was one. 

Why is it that the final part of any walk I seem to do ends with an uphill slog! Today was no exception the only saving grace was the rather lovely renovated windmill/turned house at the top of the first climb. It took a few goes to hoist my phone camera above the hedge and click and actually photograph the thing!!

The last bit up to the hotel where we'd be staying for a couple of days were killing but it was wonderful to finally be greeted by Denise and have a final, dishevelled, sweaty photo taken of us all.

A massive thank you to Belinda, Lesley and Gill for your company today even though I got a bit twitchy when you called "Margie. Sit" or "Margie. Stop" I'm not sure who reacted quickest, Margo or me!!

If you would like to support my charities please follow the link: https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/marg-davies-april-2026-round-rutland-walk

Well, at 21.30 today I have finally finished the Blog!!! When I lost all my first draft the air was a tad blue!! I have since calmed down, had a hot meal and a shower and am now rewarding myself with a "small" whisky! It's been a long day.

Please leave a comment if you'd like but remember to add your name in the text so I know who you are.