[1] Walk south west along the B4453 Leamington road, look out for views of the college to your right. Where the road bends right take a path on the left starting between a sewage treatment works and a concrete garage. Do not turn right up the private drive, but go into the field and follow its left edge all the way to a kissing gate in the far left corner. Go ahead across the middle of the next field to the far left corner, just left of the last telegraph pole in the field, to a wooden footbridge.
[A] The impressive looking Princethorpe college is on your right soon after you start the walk. The large red brick tower is a prominent local landmark. The complex was built in the 1830s for a group of Benedictine Nuns and was once the largest nunnery in England, with over 200 nuns resident. The tower and chapel were built by Peter Paul Pugin between 1897 and 1901. The site became too large for the Nuns after their order declined in the 1960s and it became and independent catholic school. One famous old boy is the Warwickshire and England cricketer, Ian Bell.
[2] Cross the bridge and turn right, heading towards the fence ahead, on reaching it turn left to a gate and stile in the far left corner. Go half left towards the river bank and follow the river ahead past a pond above a weir, continue to a gate to the road in the far right corner of the field.
[B] The river Leam rises just out of Warwickshire in the village of Helliden in Northamptonshire. It forms the county boundary for a while before heading west to the town of Leamington, which it gives its name to, before joining the Avon near Warwick.
[3] Turn left along the road, over the bridge into Eathorpe. (Note the bench on the left just before the bridge, which makes a scenic rest spot, if you need one.) Follow the road round to the right, noting the old mill with some workings still visible on your right. Ignore the first left turn and continue ahead through the village to turn left at the far end opposite the village hall. After the Plough pub look for a bridleway on the right just before a T junction. Follow it a short distance up to the Fosse Way.
[C] The Fosse Way is one of England's major Roman roads, running from Exeter to Lincoln. for a while, it formed the western boundary of Roman rule in England. The word Fosse comes from the Latin Fossa, meaning a ditch, and was probably first used to describe the road in the dark ages, after the Romans left. It is probably a reference to the drainage ditches which ran along each side of Roman roads, which were much better engineered than all other roads at the time.
Cross the Fosse Way carefully, it is a fast road.
[4] Continue up the tarmac drive opposite, which becomes gravelled as it continues ahead past the old Eathorpe Hall (now luxury flats) on the left, then unsurfaced as it passes woods and heads downhill. It becomes tarmaced again as it heads straight on to Marton Village.
[D] Just before reaching Marton, the route crosses an old stone bridge over the river Itchen. This is another of Warwickshire's little rivers. It runs for just 12 miles northwards from Wormleighton to join the Leam just north of this bridge. At this point it is a lovely sight, lined with willow trees and passing through pastures on the edge of the village.
[5] On reaching Marton, turn left to the church and enter the churchyard. Follow the tarmaced path to the right through the churchyard and continue to follow it out of the far end and across a field to the main road. Turn left along the road and cross the old Marton Bridge, to the left of the new one. Pass through a gate leading back to the main road. Cross over and follow footpath right to find steps going down to the left by a 30mph sign. Go down them and swing right into a field by the new bridge. (Notice a small tunnel on the right here, put in to allow the local wildlife to pass through without having to risk running over the road.)
[E] Marton village has a pleasant main street and beautiful old church. Look out for the large monkey puzzle tree in the church yard. The old medieval bridge next to the new one, built in 2000 is of interest. Look for the sign just before you cross it giving the dates of previous bridges on the site. The old bridge, which was built in 1414, was a bottleneck on the main road until the new one was built. Happily it was restored and kept in place as part of the upgrade project.
[6] Go left and follow the left edge of two fields to an old wooden gate. Go through it and go right to cross a stile at the right end of a wooden fence. Continue right for another 20 metres to the next stile. Cross this and turn left along the hedge, which has a barbed wire fence on concrete posts in front of it. When the fence turns left, follow it into a large field. Aim for the second gate on the right, which is not far short of the far right corner, it has a stile next to it. Follow the right edge of two more fields to a stile by a gate that leads to a lane. (Ignore another stile just left of the gate up the bank a bit.) Turn left along the lane to Frankton church.
[F] Frankton has a beautiful church next to a grand manor house which you see as you enter the village. Most of the rest of the village is modern though. There is a nice pub, the Friendly Inn, which can be reached in five minutes by going straight ahead up the road from the church. If you go, retrace your steps back to the church to continue the walk afterwards.
[7] Go into the churchyard through a nice iron arch with a lantern, and pass to the right of the church, noting a King and Bishop looking down at you from the chancel window. A gate ahead leads to a path going between hedges to a road. Turn left, continue past Elm Farm house, (look for the dragon on the roof!) Extensive views open up to the left over mid-Warwickshire, but make sure you look out for a stile on the right next to double gates when you come level with some woods on the right.
[8] Cross the stile and head to the right end of the woods, continue straight on downhill with the woods on your left to a kissing gate. In the next field go downhill to the far left corner to cross two consecutive stiles in the hedge. Go right through a gate and over a stream. Go left to cross another two stiles in a hedge. In the next field there are three clumps of trees opposite. Head for the middle one, just right of straight on, and follow the left edge of the trees to three consecutive stiles that lead to another field. Go straight on uphill to a gate and follow the left edge of the next field to go left of a house. Cross over the drive to a gate and stile which lead out onto the road.
[9] Cross the road and turn left back down to Princethorpe and the Three Horsehoes on the right. Just to the right of the pub an old road, signed as unsuitable for motor vehicles, plunges down into the trees to emerge on the A423 just left of the junction with Leamington road.