Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today Mick and I completed our penultimate leg of The Leicestershire Round, walking 10 miles from Market Bosworth Country Park to Bagworth.

It was a chilly start as we set off from the car park of Market Bosworth Country Park. We are expecting a week of rain (much needed) starting tomorrow so it was nice to have blue skies today.

We passed some interesting wooden sculptures in the park – can you see the face in the tree stump?

We walked towards the village passing the village sign, passed through the large market square and found our path away from the village.

Our first port of call would be the village of Carlton. We followed the path through fields to reach the village -it had a very informative information board.

We passed the former school (now a private residence) that provided ‘for the education of poor children of the parish AD 1847.

Leaving Carlton we said hello to some sheep on the way to Shackerstone where we arrived at the Heritage railway known as The Battlefield Line. The railway here opened in 1873 and closed in 1970. It was then bought by enthusiasts and runs as a heritage railway.https://www.battlefieldline.co.uk/.

It runs from Shackerstone via Market Bosworth to Shenton. I think I will have to visit and take a trip because I do like a steam railway 😊.

The Ashby Canal runs close to the railway line and we walked along the towpath for a while before heading off across fields towards Odstone.

We followed farm tracks and passed through a long section which would have been diabolical in wet conditions. Thankfully, not a problem for us today.

We passed a very nice property- Odstone Hall. Who lives in a house like this?

We soon arrived into Odstone where we found a bench in the small park and had a break – a scotch egg for me and plenty of water as it was turning hot.

Leaving Odstone we passed across fields on our way to Nailstone.

The crops were in desperate need of watering.

On the way we couldn’t help but notice a huge warehouse in the distance – we wondered who owned it. It looked completely out of context with the environment we were walking through. Further on we saw the ALDI sign.

We reached Nailstone passing by the 13th century church with its fine broach spire.

Close to the church we saw a wonderful cottage with yellow roses growing outside.

Leaving Nailstone, we were heading for Bagworth. We passed fields containing solar panels – the first we had seen whilst walking the Leicestershire Round. Apparently we were also on the Ivanhoe Way trail. This is a 36-mile circular walk beginning in Shackerstone and the walk is in the north west part of Leicestershire. Its called The Ivanhoe Way because The novel ‘Ivanhoe’ by Sir Walter Scott, written in 1819 and set in 12th century England, used the castle at Ashby and the surrounding countryside as its setting.

An unusual sight in a field we passed through was ‘men at work signs’ and orange cones – turned out to be large holes dug by Badgers and quite deep too. We were glad of the warning.

Shortly after a steady walk uphill we arrived into Bagworth.

It had been a relatively easy walk and this now leaves a 6-mile section from Bagworth to Newtown Linford to complete the Leicestershire Round – hopefully next week.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶