[1] With your back to the Bulls Head turn left then fork right along Church Road to reach the church.
(A) Nailstone has a fine large 14th Century church with a prominent broach spire that can be seen for many miles around, as you will see later in the walk. The church was partially rebuilt and heavily restored by the appropriately named Ewan Christian in 1853. Sadly, it is often locked, but if you find it open it is worth looking in. In the north isle you will find the grave slab of Thomas Corbett, who was Master Of The Pantry in the royal household for many years during Tudor times. Thomas died aged 94 in 1586. He had fathered 21 children, 19 of which were by his first wife in an 18 year period. In the days when childbirth was extremely dangerous and often fatal for both mother and child, this was quite an achievement.
When opposite the church lych gate, take a path on the right. Follow it between hedges then along the left edge of a field to a stile at a kink in the hedge. Go half left across the next field to a kissing gate and continue to the bottom left corner of the next field. Take the right hand kissing gate, follow the left edge of two fields and cross a footbridge. Go up to a stile in the left corner and keep ahead along the left edge of the next field. Cross a stile and go straight on, now with the hedge on your right, across two more fields. At the end, go left around an area fenced off for chickens and geese to reach a stile leading onto a track. Go ahead down the track and soon after a gate across it, take a path on the right that leads through a churchyard to the end of a road. Turn left down the road to the main street through Barlestone village.
[2] Turn left along Bagworth Road. In 50 metres when it swings left, go right on a gravel track. Follow the track ahead then round a left bend to pass barns on the left and reach a gate into a field. Turn right down to a stile by a gate and keep ahead to a gate by a small lake. Walk anti clockwise around the lake. Ignore a footbridge half way along the far side and carry on to cross a second bridge on the right, near the top of the lake. Go half left across the field to a waymark post in the left hedge. Go straight ahead across the next three fields parallel to a stream down to your left. Cross a stile directly under electricity wires. Go slightly right up to another stile then half left to a stile by a tall tree midway between two sets of double telegraph poles. Follow the right edge of the following two fields to reach a road.
[3] Go right for 20 metres and take a path on the left. Follow this straight ahead out into the field until you reach a cross path, where you turn left towards a prominent waymarker in the hedge. Do not go through the hedge gap, instead turn right and follow the hedge on your left. You soon meet a waymarker post that points you left into a wood. Go in and immediately turn right. The path soon leaves the trees and carries straight on with the wood, then a hedge, on your left to eventually reach an enclosed path going left of sheds. Keep straight on and go left of stables down onto a road. Turn left uphill to reach a T Junction.
[4] Spot a waymark in a hedge gap on the opposite side of the road. Scramble over a ditch to reach it and turn right down a track, parallel to the road behind a hedge to your right. If scrambling over the ditch looks a bit tricky due to mud or undergrowth, just turn right down the road. Reach a small brick building and turn right just beyond it and cross a stile to reach the road again. Turn left and cross over the railway.
(B) The railway is the Leicester to Burton Upon Trent Line. It was completed in 1849 and was heavily used by coal and gravel trains from nearby pits and quarries. The passenger service was stopped in the 1960s, though there have been various unsuccessful attempts to reinstate it. It is now just a lightly used freight line. It was built as a double track route but sections, such as here, have been singled to cut costs.
Take the second road on the left, Coley Lane. Follow the path ahead with an iron handrail on your right, as the road goes through a long ford. On rejoining the road go ahead 10 metres and cross a stile on the right. Turn left through trees to reach a lawn in front of a house. Turn right and follow the well waymarked path through an area of undergrowth to reach a stile. Go steeply uphill to reach another stile. Keep ahead across two more fields then go slightly right across a third to reach a road.
[5] Go right 20 metres and take a path on the left, just before the first house. Follow it to its end to find a gate on the right that leads onto a track. Turn left and follow the track to a T Junction just beyond wide double metal gates. Turn right, and a little before the hedge on the left ends, go through a gate in it onto the golf course. Look right and left before crossing, and watch out for golfers playing shots. Go straight ahead to a waymarker post opposite then go half right downhill with the hedge on your left. Pass two fir trees and cross a gravel path to reach a tarmaced lane. Turn right, and just after crossing a bridge turn left up a steep bank. Follow the right edge of the golf course to reach a gate.
(C) You are now entering Old Hays Wood, one of many recent National Forest Plantations in the area. You will pass three interesting information boards describing the project and showing some of the wildlife you may expect to see. The large farm buildings date back to 1773. Though a moat and other archeological features on the site date back to the 13th Century.
Ignore a stile on the right just beyond the gate and go ahead on the enclosed path to reach a driveway going up to the big house to your left.
[6] Turn right through black metal gates and swing left on the drive. Just before the drive enters a wood, turn left on a bridleway. Follow this, with a wooden fence on your left and woodland on your right. When the fence turns left, go left with it for 200 metres, and when you are opposite a pond in front of the house, turn right over a stile. Go straight across the field then along the right edge of another to reach a path junction. Go straight on up to a wooden gate and ahead along a track. When the track turns sharp right take a stile in front of you and immediately turn left past sheds to another stile. Go slightly right to another stile in the far right corner. Go right, parallel to the wood on your left at first, to another stile. Keep ahead between wooden fences, over a footbridge and past a large pond on the right to pass through a kissing gate in the far left corner of a field. Go ahead 20 metres and through another kissing gate. Go through a gap in the fence right in front of you that leads into the Whittington Grange Wood plantation. Turn left along the left edge of the plantation to reach a stile. Keep straight ahead along the right edge of two large grassy fields, and straight on along a tarmac drive, to reach a road.
[7] Turn left for 10 metres then right along a track. On entering a field go straight on down its left edge and find a gap in the bottom hedge 20 metres right of the bottom left corner. Go ahead across another field then cross two footbridges and turn right on a narrow meandering path to reach a grassy ride. Turn left for 200 metres to reach the Leicestershire Round, which you will now be following all the way back.
[8] Turn left over a footbridge and carry straight on up to the edge of the wood. Go through a kissing gate and slightly left across a large field to descend to a stile by a large metal gate. Go straight on up the right edge of the next field, and just after passing under wires take a gate in the hedge. Keep ahead in the same direction, but now with the hedge on your left, for quite some distance until you descend and cross a stile on your left, when you can no longer go straight on. Turn right and follow the hedge to reach a track at the top end of Thornton Reservoir.
The reservoir is a local beauty spot. If you have time it is a nice little diversion to turn left for a short distance here for a closer look before continuing the walk. You will find benches and other nice places for a coffee stop. It would add an extra 2.5 miles to the walk if you walked all the way round.
Turn right on the track, and just after crossing a bridge turn right through a wooden gate. Go ahead across an old football pitch and up a steep bank to reach a gate, beyond which a path leads to Thornton Main Street.
[9] Go left for 10 metres then right down Hawthorn Drive. Follow it round to the right and take a path going left of number 37. Follow this down to a kissing gate, go half left to reach a track, turn left and follow the track through a cobbled yard, immediately beyond which you turn right over two small footbridges. Go ahead through a kissing gate and immediately turn left. Cross over the railway at a foot crossing. Take care and look both ways for trains coming before crossing. If there is a group of you, do not queue up on the track whilst waiting for those in front to cross. Continue straight ahead uphill on the other side. When the hedge turns left keep straight on to a picnic table then keep straight on, ignoring all cross paths, to eventually reach a road. Take the path opposite and turn sharp right to pick up a grassy track going into the trees, keeping close to the road on the right. On leaving the trees go ahead across two short fields to enter a graveyard. Leave via a gate on the far side. Immediately turn right to a stile and go down an enclosed path and on to Bagworth Main Street.
[10] Turn left and follow the road all the way out of the village. Just after the de-restriction speed limit signs where the road turns left, take a bridleway that goes straight on. The Leicestershire Round shares this stretch with the Ivanhoe Way, a 36 mile circular walk around the north west of the county. You will see ahead of you the prominent spire of Nailstone Church at the end of the walk. Keep the hedge on your right as you go straight on across a couple of large fields. Pass under wires and keep ahead past a pond on the left. Turn left at the bottom of a slope, and look for a footbridge just along in the hedge on the right. Cross this and go up the right edge of two more fields to a road.
[11] Take the path opposite, go half right to a gap, then straight ahead across another couple of fields, roughly aiming for the spire ahead. Go slightly right across the next field to a protruding hedge corner. Keep ahead along the left edge of two more fields. When the hedge ends keep straight on to a stile and ahead to a gate leading onto Church Road. Turn right a few metres then left on an enclosed path that leads to the church yard. Turn left, down through the lych gate onto Church Road. Turn right, and left at the T Junction back to the Bull's Head.
(D) Just as you return to Nailstone you will spot a beautiful little memorial garden on your right. A gate leads into it from the enclosed path. As well as the expected memorial to the local war dead, there is a sad memorial to the crew of an American B17 Flying Fortress which crashed in a nearby field in September 1944. All the crew were killed. Their names are listed here.