[1] From the Queens Arms, walk up the street to the T Junction by the church and turn right along the main street to the edge of the village. Ignore a path going left at Saint Margarets Road and continue along the road to cross an old railway bridge and then take a path on the left immediately beyond.
(A) The railway was the Midland Counties Railway, built in 1840 to connect Nottingham and Leicester to the main Birmingham to London line at Rugby. It was a busy main line for a few decades until a more direct route was built to London, after which it became a small country branch line. A halt was put in at Leire in 1925 after a vigorous campaign by locals, who raised a quarter of the £400 required to build it. The line was eventually closed in 1961, two years before the Beeching report.
Go up to the car park and turn left across the playing field to a waymark in the left hedge, 50 metres before the far corner. Turn right following the path through trees following the deep railway cutting down to the left.
Look out for a waymarker post on the right that shows the direction of the path out across the field. Go slightly left across the field to a protruding hedge corner, and carry on ahead with the hedge on the right to reach a stile. Go straight ahead over the following field, then slightly right across the next, then along the left side of another to reach a road.
[2] Go left for 10 metres and take the path on the right. Go to the right end of a tall hedge you can see 100 metres ahead. Continue in the same direction, angling away from trees on the left, to a gap in a kink in the far hedge. Go through and continue ahead to reach a road at a T Junction.
Go straight ahead down the lane opposite for 500 metres. Take care, especially when going round the zig zags.
[3] Eventually meet the Leicestershire Round crossing the lane. You will be following it all the way back to Leire. Turn right and follow it 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. Turn right and walk straight on all the way through the village of Frolesworth, go straight on at a staggered cross roads, and keep left at a fork with a white house between the two roads.
[4] After passing under a second pair of wires, near houses on the right, take a footpath on the left, which goes half right down to a double stile in the field corner. Go right, parallel to the ancient ridge and furrows, to another stile. Go straight across another field and over three stiles in quick succession, where you are re-crossing the old railway again. Follow an enclosed path, which is slightly to the left, ahead to a road. Keep straight on, going down a small short path to another road, and straight on to the main road where a right turn brings you back to the start.
(B) Before you finish, do pause for a moment at the corner of the graveyard nearest to the Queens Arms and take a look at the sad grave of Eliza Spriggs, who died aged just 53 in 1922 after losing two sons during World War 1. You will also find her sons, Walter and Alfred, on the village war memorial, a few yards to your right.