The Braunston Farmland Trail, Rutland County

Distance: 10.8 km

Difficulty: Moderate

Dog friendly: Yes (Some areas require dogs to be on leads)

Ascent/descent: Moderate (+/- 177 metres)

Toilets: At the pub only

Endomondo route: Click here

Photos:

Directions:

This walk is quite well-marked, with yellow-coloured posts indicating the way to go.

1. Park in the village of Braunston. There are many roadside spaces to stop in and will cost you nothing. The walk starts outside the Blue Bell. Enter the graveyard through the main gate, the path is marked with a ‘public footpath’ sign. Walk through the church yard, past the church and through a small gate at the back of the church yard. Follow the footpath signs and cross a stile, taking the path straight ahead crossing a footpath and going into the next field where you continue ahead to cross another foot bridge.

2. Take the path which eventually swings left between two hedgerows with a stream to your left. Climb a stile into a field and with a hedge on your left, continue ahead.

3. Pass through a hedgerow, then over a stile, on your right you will see a small pond. Make your way to the field gate ahead. Carry on with the hedge on your left, passing a dwelling on the right. AT the end of the field, a way-marker directs you left over a stile and foot bridge. This stile can be quite difficult to climb as it is unstable (picture 2 refers).

4. Cross the footbridge and turn right along the bottom of the field. At the end of this field, cross a ditch and into the next field. Aim for the diagonally opposite corner of this field. Climb a stile into the next field and again continue towards the diagonally opposite corner of the field where there’s a gate leading onto a broad bridleway. Once on the bridleway, turn right and go through the gate ahead. After the gate, turn right and follow a grassy track all the way to the road (picture 1 shows this grassy track).

5. At the road, there are two paths on your left. Take the right-hand path across a field to a stile and continue on which leads to a gate. Go through the gate and you are on a small road. Turn right and walk along the road until you reach a T-junction. Cross over the road and onto the bridleway opposite. With the hedge on your left, continue to a gate. Pass through the gate and cross the corner of the next field to another gate.

6. Stay on the bridleway, with a hedge on your right, and pass through another field gate before reaching a junction of bridleways. Go through the gate, and with a fence on your left and a hedge on your right, walk onwards to a further gate. Here, go diagonally left to a gate. Through this gate, make your way diagonally left towards the hedgerow. This avoids a ditch at the bottom of the field. Walk up following the hedgerow, keeping it on your left, until you reach a gate. Pass through the gate at the end of the field. After the gate, bear left and diagonally across the field to the bottom where you will cross a footbridge over a stream.

7. Keep on the track until your reach the road. Cross over and enter the field opposite. Follow the path diagonally right through the field. Through a gate and onto a further gate, leading onto an enclosed track. Follow this track through two further gates until you find a gate on the right, leading across a grassy pasture.

8. Cross the pasture, pass through one gate, and head diagonally right, where a yellow way-marked post can be seen. Go through the gate, a further gate takes onto a green lane. Continue along the green lane until your reach a gate. Here, turn left and follow the track back down to the road. At the road, head left towards the pub named The Old Plough. At The Old Plough, turn right and walk through the village until you reach the start point and our recommend pub, The Blue Ball.

The Pub:

There are two pubs in Braunston. We recommend the Blue Ball because it is a Cask Marque pub (this is explained on the website). We went there on a Sunday where they were doing a carvery for £10.95. It was quite busy, so a reservation was a must. They had also ran out of lamb by the time we arrived at 2pm. The EPA ale was exceptionally tasty and the one I would recommend.

Full details of the pub can be found here.

Tips:

The walk is well suited for dogs with lots of open spaces for them to run around and most of the stiles had a bit that lifted up to let your dog through (see picture 3). However, many of the fields contained livestock or horses so you would need to have your dog on a lead and under control a lot of the time.

Although it had not rained for many days, the walk was quite boggy and wet in many places (see picture 5). We recommend bringing a dry pair of socks and some clean shoes with you. Gators would also be practical for this walk.

One of the first fields you enter has a signposted warning of a bull in the field. We walked through and there was no sign of a bull. We suspected this was an effort by the farmer to keep walkers out.

We hope you enjoy this walk, and if you make use of this resource, please let us know by leaving a comment.