Hello and welcome back to my Blog 😊.

Today the ‘Three Amigos’ met up in Belton-in-Rutland and enjoyed a 7-mile walk to the village of Glooston. For us, it completed another leg of the Leicestershire Round.

It was a very misty start to the day, but eventually the sun came out and burnt off the mist. There was some lovely scenery to admire along the way. Most of the walking was across hilly fields which provided a suitable challenge.

Starting from the church in Belton-in-Rutland we passed the war memorial and headed down the road to cross the A47.

We headed towards the small village of Allexton crossing a bridge over Eye Brook and passing the Norman church of St Peter. Finding the path away from the village was slightly tricky, but eventually after referring to the guide book, we walked through the front garden of a new house and found our way to a bridleway. Allexton Hall was nearby but we didn’t get any glimpse of it.

Interestingly, the route we were walking to Hallaton is also on The Macmillan Way – a 290 mile long distance path from Boston, Lincs to Abbotsbury in Dorset. http://www.macmillanway.org/

It was great to watch the mist disappearing and it provided some very atmospheric scenery. You can’t beat a good walk on a sunny morning.

It was certainly hard going across the ploughed fields and after a while we had a quick stop for a re-vitalising cuppa.

Soon we were crossing a bridge over the long dis-used Melton Mowbray to Market Harborough railway line and getting close to Hallaton.

After crossing a few more fields we arrived at Hallaton.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallaton

We stopped at a bench by the village pond, where there were a few kamikaze mallards at play, and had some refreshments.

Our guide book said that Hallaton was one of the prettiest villages in Leicestershire. As we started to walk through the village we were not sure about that, but, as we progressed through the village, it turned into every bit the picturesque village that we had read about. There were plenty of thatched cottages to admire and even a cow tail handled water pump.

We admired the Butter Cross, a conical stone structure with a circular base and a ball finial (probably dating from the late 17th century).

The Norman church of St Michaels looked particularly nice.

As we walked out of the village and upwards we looked back at what looked like, a quintessentially English village nested in the countryside.

We crossed some nice grassed fields with lovely views all around. Occasionally, we came across some stunning houses with fabulous views.

After a short walk along tarmac roads we arrived into the very small village of Glooston – our destination for today.

I think we were all feeling the walk in our legs and knees so should sleep soundly tonight.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶‍♂️