[1] From the pub turn left along the main street, go past the left turn to Frolesworth, carry on to the telephone box and turn left down Back Lane. Take a path on the right, opposite Woodland Avenue, and follow it to a road. Turn left, ignore a Leicestershire Round sign on the right, which is where you will return later, and continue to the bottom of the road to find a Leicestershire Round sign we will follow.
[2] Go through a kissing gate and continue to another gate just right of centre in the far hedge. Go slightly left across the next field to a wooden gate and bridge. Go straight ahead up the lawn and over a second wooden bridge. Go through a gate then half left to a hedge corner and onto a road. Cross straight over to the path opposite and continue ahead with a hedge on the right to a gap in the corner that leads onto an enclosed path. Follow this to a bridge and gate on the left. Cross and go sharp right, following yellow topped stakes, to a gate. Turn left up to two more gates, cross a drive to a third gate and go down over the next field to a stile. Follow the left edge of the next field, go half right across the next, then up to a gate near the top right of the next field from which a track leads to a road.
[3] Now leaving the Leicestershire Round, turn left, and when the road swings right, carry straight on through Manor Farm Courtyard. When the track swings left after the last building go straight on through a gate and across two short fields. Keep straight ahead across the next long field, and maintain the same direction across another to reach a waymark post that only comes into view when you descend into a dip. Cross straight over the minor road and go ahead on the path opposite which goes down to a bridge in the hedge on the left. Cross it, go past a seating area by a stream and ahead down to a collection of gates. Go half right 30 metres up to another gate and angle half right up the next field to another gate leading into Fosse Meadows.
(A) Fosse Meadows Country Park is a good area for walking and bird spotting, there is a wildlife lake and bird hide. There are also bats and in summer, evening bat walks are arranged. There are extensive paths through flower meadows and woodlands and a permissive bridleway around the site marked by white topped posts.
[4] You are now back on the Leicestershire Round. Turn left alongside the hedge and straight on across the middle of next field, angling away from the hedge. Go right on a stony track for 10 metres then left on a smaller path heading into trees. The path becomes grassy, then turns sharp left at the bottom of a grassy ride. Just before a bridge turn right over a small bridge and stile and over another stile 30 metres along on the left. Go right to the next stile, cross a minor road to another then go half left to another stile leading onto the Fosse Way.
(B) The Fosse Way is the original Roman Road from Exeter to Lincoln. Most of it is now a tarmaced busy road, but happily this unsurfaced stretch is quiet and a joy to walk along. Fosse derives from the Latin word for ditch. You will see prominent ditches to the side of the road as you walk along. These were built by the Romans to improve drainage. Some stretches of ditch may also have served a defensive purpose. As few other roads after the Romans left were so well engineered, it later became known as the Fosse Way, or road of the ditches. It is remarkably straight. Between Lincoln and Somerset, a 182 mile stretch is never more than 6 miles from a straight line.
[5] Turn right and follow the Fosse Way straight ahead for nearly 1.5 miles to arrive on Bumblebee Lane at High Cross.
(C) High Cross is an important Roman Cross Roads, where the Fosse Way crosses Watling Street (the current A5). This was considered to the the middle of Roman England. It was known as Venonis to the Romans. Excavations have shown a settlement existed here which extended at least 455 metres south east and 60 metres north west of the crossroads. There was also a small fort a mile to the north west at Wigston Parva, which was found using areal photography in 1968.
There is a battered old monument in the grounds of the hotel just to the right, put there in 1712 to mark the significance of the site, but struck by lightening in 1791 and not yet restored. (Maybe one day!) The latin inscription on it says, "If Traveller, you seek for the footsteps of the ancient Romans, here you may behold them, for here their most celebrated ways, crossing each other, extend to the utmost bourne"
[6] Turn left for 10 metres then left for 80 metres to a Leicestershire Way sign at a stile on the right. Follow the hedge on the right until it swings right and continue ahead to a stile. Go half left across the next field to the end of the hedge, and continue to a gap half way down the next hedge on the left. In the next field, head for a stile near the far right corner. Go ahead to the opposite corner of the next field to cross two stiles separated by a plank bridge. Ignore the stile just to the right and carry straight on over the brow of the hill and down to a kissing gate in the far right corner. Continue on the enclosed path until it emerges on a bend in the road by a school.
[7] Cross over and turn right, ignore a right turn and find a path on the left at the start of a brick wall.
(D) It is worth diverting forward 50 metres at this point to view the scenic church of Claybrooke Parva, with its exceptional chancel. The green in front of it has a long low wall, which is nice to sit on and makes a handy spot for a drinks break!
Follow the path, initially along the right side of the field then ahead to the far corner. Follow the wooden hedge around the right edge of the next field to a gate and follow the enclosed path past houses on the left to a road.
Now retracing your steps, turn left for 20 metres and right along The Vineyard, left up Back Lane and right along Main Street.