Iron Age Leicestershire, Burrough Hill Fort Circular Walk

Richard Hardy

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Park at the Burrough Hill Fort Country Park and walk back in time through rural eastern Leicestershire. The Iron Age ramparts of the hill fort at Burrough Hill date back to pre-Roman times and still stand nearly 2 metres tall in places, despite the grazing attentions of sheep and cows. But don’t explore the site just yet. Head down hill and follow bridleways, footpaths and the occasional road to explore the quiet rural landscape of Leicestershire. The walk is pretty much stile free and so is suitable for well behaved dogs (our collie had no problem with the few stiles we encountered). Enjoy the views out over Melton Mowbray and the Vale of Belvoir, and back toward Leicester. The apex of the walk is the pretty village of Burton Lazars, so called as it was home to leper hospital (St Lazarus is the patron Saint of Lepers), the earthworks of the site are clearly visible on the walk. Return to Burrough Hill through more rolling fields and woods, via picturesque Little Dalby and then explore the hill fort at your leisure.

England - Central England - Leicestershire - Countryside

Features

Ancient Monument, Birds, Butterflies, Church, Great Views, National Trust, Nature Trail, Pub, Public Transport, Toilets, Wildlife, Woodland

10/26/2013 - Bryan Scaife

Walked this route earlier today - 26/10/2013 but started from Little Dalby so that I could make a detour for lunch at The Royal Oak, Great Dalby, made the walk about 14 km (8.7 miles) but still finished in 4 hours including lunch break. The walk from Little Dalby through to the Fort is nice but to be avoided on Thursday (as mentioned in the guide) during shooting season (Oct - Jan) as its closed. My detour to Great Dalby was across a lot of grass fields which could have livestock in although they were all empty today and numerous styles that were not dog friendly. The walk as per the guide is very dog friendly. The Royal Oak was enjoyable with good food and good beer. The stretch from Burton Lazars to Little Dalby doesn't have much going for it - a trudge straight across the middle of numerous muddy, featureless fields and it looks like several have been planted with oil seed rape so they could be hard going by summer 2014. All in all an enjoyable walk.

4/12/2011 - Walkingworld Administrator

Our thanks to Paul Atkinson for his update for this walk. Adrian (Admin)

4/11/2011 - Paul Atkinson

Greatly enjoyed the walk.

3/16/2011 - Caroline Johnson

Lovely walk, easy to navigate but fiendishly muddy in late Feb, wouldn't have wanted to attempt it without a walking pole for balance, particularly around field edges. A definite winner in dry weather though and pretty dog friendly too.

1/17/2011 - Richard Hardy