Leikib one

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Walked from Leicester to Kibworth Beauchamp on an overcast and sometimes drizzly November day. Most of the route is fine but there are issues. Firstly there is no shortcut through the allotments east of Queens Road - there is a locked gate at the Queens Road end (picture 4) and an impenetrable hedge at the other. The alternative is easy and only a minor detour so I'd have been prepared to let it go. The pavement walking is fine as far as Great Glen but the pavement ends before the main road junction, and though there is a narrow marked path alongside the A6 (picure 12) it is not a relaxing walk, and the farm lane connecting it with the path from Burton Overy is not marked as a right of way, and though the locked one bar gates (picture 13) are easy to duck under, I can't really recommend this with a clear conscience. I have submitted an alternative version that misses Great Glen altogether and using the Grand Union canal via Newton Harcourt from the golf course most of the way to Kibworth, but I can't review that without walking it.

From the clock tower at Leicester, we head towards the railway station before turning right to find the footbridge over the inner ring road and railway. More residential streets take us up to Victoria Park (toilets just off route). We then head down Queens Road. The GPX route through the allotment does not work but there is an alleyway along its southern edge which works just as well. More residential streets take us across the A563 (the line here is not as straight as the GPX suggests) and past the racecourse into Oadby, then out on a somewhat wet and undistinguished path that crosses school fields and a housing development between fences before going straight across a golf course.

At the far side we turn left on a good if slightly muddy bridleway to reach the A6, then follow the old main road through Great Glen (with a brief interlude through the churchyard) to return to the A6. The first gate on the old road is defended by a locked gate, so I didn't try to uses.

The cycle track on the main road soon gives way to a narrow marked path on the carriageway, and the lane up to the farm bridge is uninviting and shows no signs of ever having been a right of way. Fortunately the part of the lane we need to use is fairly well hidden from the farm buildings, so a walker would have to be unlucky to be challenged (I wasn't).

We cross two pastures and one ploughed arable fields on the footpath from Burton Overy, then follow pavements into Kibworth Harcourt and out to the excellent meeting point in Kibworth Beauchamp - a bus shelter served in both directions with a long partially covered bench seat.

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