(A) The town of Market Bosworth took its name in 1285 after Edward I granted a royal charter allowing a market to be held here every Wednesday. You are still likely to find a market being held in the beautiful little market square if you are here on a Wednesday. In 1732, Dr Samuel Johnson came to teach Latin in the grammar school across the road, but he left after four months because he hated it!
[1] From the market square, turn right along Main Street. Go straight on to the left of Ye Olde Red Lion Hotel along Barton Road. Soon after the houses end on the edge of town, the footpaths on the side of the road end. Cross to the right side and continue ahead along the road for half a mile. At first you go downhill, then shortly after you begin ascending, find a stile on the right opposite a drive on the left.
[2] Cross the stile and follow the wire fence on the left to a second stile. Follow the right edge of the next two fields and cross two stiles separated by a plank bridge. Continue ahead along the left edge of the next field. Go straight on over a cross path and aim for a stile in the mid point of the far hedge in this long field. Go straight on across the next field to a stile near the right hand corner, and straight ahead across the next field to reach a road.
[3] Cross straight over and take the path opposite to a waymarker post 80 metres ahead in the hedge. Go diagonally across the next field to a stile in the opposite corner. Go slightly left across the next field, then half left to a gap at the right hand end of a wood. Once through the gap go diagonally left across the next field to a stile and on to a stile half way along the following left hedge. Leave the field in the opposite corner to reach the A447. Go left and turn right along the Main Street though Nailstone village, then turn right along Church Road.
[4] Immediately before the lych gate, turn left through a metal kissing gate. You are now on the well waymarked Leicestershire Round, which you will be following all the way back. Follow the tarmac path along the left edge of the graveyard to reach a road. Cross straight over and follow Veros Lane, opposite, all the way back to the A447.
As well as Leicestershire Way signs, you will now also see signs for the Ivanhoe Way, a 36 mile circular route round the north west of the county, centred on Ashby-De-La-Zouch, where much of the action from Sir Walter Scott's famous novel, Ivanhoe, takes place.
Cross over and go through the kissing gate opposite. Go straight ahead across two large fields and enter a third from a small dip with a pond in the trees to the right. Go up across this next field and down to a gap that leads onto a green lane.
[5] Go through the kissing gate opposite and half right down to a gap. Go ahead 25 metres to a footbridge then diagonally left across a narrow field to a stile half way along the top hedge. Go half left across the next field towards a cluster of small trees. On reaching a track, turn left along it to a road and turn right up the hill to the crossroads in Odstone.
[6] Turn left along Hall Lane and follow it until you reach the large brick building of Ivy House Farm. Go straight ahead through a wooden squeeze stile by a gate and follow the lane beyond. This lane is still technically a road and is popular with off road motorcyclists, so take care if any come past. The lane soon starts following the left edge of a field, with extensive views ahead and to the right. It then descends to a waymarker post by a clump of trees.
[7] The Ivanhoe way now leaves us, going straight on, as we turn right, still on the green lane, which now becomes almost a tunnel between high hedges. When it emerges into a field again cross to the far side and keep ahead with the hedge on your right for 100 metres until the lane becomes enclosed again. Keep following the lane until you go under some wires, then immediately go left through a kissing gate. Go slightly left to a waymarker post in the far hedge. Go under the old railway bridge, over a stile and straight ahead to a footbridge. Go up the steps onto another old railway, which is now the approach road for the steam railway, and go straight down the steps opposite, and ahead to the canal.
(B) Look straight ahead at this point and you will see the remains of Shackerstone castle in the field opposite. It is a typical Norman Motte from the 11th or 12th Century. During Word War 2, an air raid shelter was dug into the side of the mound. That would never be allowed now! Local legend says that when the shelter was filled in again, and old rocking chair was left in there.
(C) The canal is the Ashby Canal, which runs for 31 miles from Marston junction on the Coventry canal up to what was a busy coal mining area in the Ashby Wolds. The northernmost 9 miles closed in 1966 after stretches were destroyed by mining subsidence, but plans are in place to try and reopen it all the way to Moira, just short of its original terminus.
Go left for 100 metres and up onto the road by the bridge.
If you require refreshments, the Rising Sun Inn is 100 metres away to your right, and down a side road on the left.
Turn left, and immediately fork right through a white gate along a track by the canal. The track crosses over a grade II listed cast iron bridge over the infant River Sence. If you look right, you can see how the canal crosses the river on a low brick aqueduct. Continue along the track to reach Shackerstone Station.
The railway is the Battlefield Line Heritage Railway, a preserved steam and diesel museum, that runs trains to Bosworth Battlefield. The railway came to Shackerstone in 1873 and continued providing passenger services until 1931 after which only freight ran on the rails of the Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway. The line was finally closed by British Rail in 1970 at which point the railway society arrived. They restored the station and reopened the line to Shenton Station, the terminus for Bosworth Battlefield. There is a museum and a tea room here at Shackerstone Station.
[8] Unfortunately, the official route of the Leicestershire Round is blocked at this point as it crosses the station footbridge, which has been declared unsafe. Until it can be repaired, you must take the following alternative route, described in pink below. Do not attempt to cross the tracks at ground level!
Go up to Station House, just beyond the station, and follow the enclosed path to the right of it to reach a stile. Follow the right edge of the field, which is close to the canal, all the way to a road. Turn left up the road, cross the railway, and continue to the end of a wood on the right. Here, cross a stile on the right, which brings you back onto the Leicestershire Round.
[9] Go half left to a kissing gate in the left hedge, then go right to another kissing gate.Keep ahead across the middle of the next two large fields, and keep ahead across a narrow field to a footbridge and kissing gate. Follow the left edge of the next field to a kissing gate then along the right edge of another field to a footbridge. Go up the right edge of the following field, turn left at the top and take the path going ahead between a barn and a high hedge. Turn right through a wooden gate, continue to the end of a cul-de-sac and keep ahead to the main road through Carlton village.
[10] Go left 30 metres and right through a kissing gate. Cross a small field then follow the left edge of a large field. At the end go left through a kissing gate and diagonally right to another gate. Cross a bridge and go left through trees to reach a golf course.
[11] Go straight ahead, following a ditch on your right, all the way across the golf course. At the end, you reach a track coming from a green barn to the left, go right and immediately left through the gate, then follow the track uphill. When it levels off after passing a house on the left, look for a kissing gate on the right. Go half left across a ridge and furrow field to reach a stile in a wooden fence. Cross the paddock to another stile, go ahead to a kissing gate and follow the path up to a road. Turn right, then left back to the market square.