Last Saturday I got up before dawn to do a twenty-five mile walk around the Charnwood Forest, the most wooded and hilly part of Leicestershire. I was using a book I had got out of the library with the above title and written by John Merrill (published by Walk & Write), which describes the walk that starts from Bradgate Park. However I immediately made an alteration to the route as I parked just down the road from the Hallgates car park in the western car park of Swithland Wood where the parking fee is cheaper. The weather was not very good and I would have been better off waiting until the following week to do the walk as it is much better, but instead I had cold and very foggy start to the day and it ended in heavy rain. I knew the weather was not going to be good but I having decided to do the walk at some time during the Christmas holiday I thought I may as well get it over with straight away, and in the end the weather didn't prove to be too much of a problem.
Starting in the dingy mist of dawn I crossed the road and walked up a bridlepath to the edge of Bradgate Park, but, already, I was altering the route as the book recommends an easy start along the tarmacked road through the park that bypasses Old John hill, but to me this was unacceptable so after entering the park at an unorthodox point I proceeded up the hill on one of the many tracks that criss-cross the park, and got lost. Who would have thought that I would need a compass to find my way in Bradgate Park, where I have been umpteen times since I was a baby, but the low mist made navigation a little tricky, despite my detailed knowledge. As it happened as soon as I saw a plantation appearing through the mist I knew I had gone too far and needed to turn back with the compass now merely confirming that I was heading in the right direction. Soon I reached Old John's Tower at top of the hill and passed quickly over to the war memorial on the twin top.
Using my knowledge of the park I was able to head over to a loose collection of trees south of the memorial where I turned right down to a footpath and out of the park. It was interesting to walk through Bradgate Park in these conditions, because I hadn't encountered them there before, unlike on higher hills (Old John is only 212 metres high). Emerging from the footpath in Newtown Linford I continued on with the walk through John's Lee Wood, which has been greatly enlarged in recent years as a result of the National Forest scheme so I passed through young woodland all the way to Tangle Trees Farm, where I made a mistake. The paths diverge at this point and I should have taken the right branch, but instead I took the left branch and once I realised my mistake I decided it wasn't worth retracing my steps. Continuing on this path took me into Markfield, where I had to walk beside the busy A50 dual carriageway until I found a way down the embankment and onto the proper route through woodland beside the road, eventually turning right I climbed gradually up Chitterwell Hill along a narrow lane of thorn bushes.
When I emerged on a road near Copt Oak, instead of heading directly for the village, I was directed back down the hill past Ulverscroft Priory, a ruin in private hands, and up the hill again through Poultney Wood and up very muddy fields to Copt Oak. This was the end of stage one in the book so I took the opportunity to stop, rest and have something to eat. Setting off again I crossed the bridge over the M1 soon taking a path through more muddy fields to Old Rise Rocks, and turning right I headed straight for Bardon Hill, the highest point in Leicestershire. After crossing an avenue of trees I passed over a wide dirt track (a hint of what was to come) and climbed steeply up a rather barren hillside where some wildlife organisation is trying to encourage plants to grow again and animals to return to the area, but they won't have it to themselves.
At the top of the hill is a big radio transmitter, and a short walk along the summit ridge brought me to the trig point, and not far from that is a huge fence while beyond the fence, barely discernible in the mist, is the huge Bardon Quarry. Bardon Hill may be the highest point in Leicestershire (at 278m) but Old John and Beacon Hill (seen later) are much more satisfying hills and they have not been exploited. More in my next post...
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