Circuit from Rutland Water

Today's walk had high points and low points, leading to a walk that wasn't the best we have ever done, while being perfectly OK.  After a mild autumn up until today, for most of the walk the weather was cold but dry. It was good to be able to walk a reasonable section of the Rutland Round on a circuit, only having to retrace our steps for the short distance from the car park, though the route we selected did result in the part of today's walk that was on the Rutland Round coming in two separate  chunks. Although there are other (better) options for parking (read on), there is definitely no parking at the point where today's route joins the Rutland Round at the point where we'd left it 12 years previously, in the middle of a longer walk from Stamford to Oakham. 

One of the things that has surprised us when visiting the Rutland area is just how close it is to where we live in Norfolk, taking less time to get to than the far side of our own county.  Today was no exception: it only took us 1 hour 15 minutes from home to the Sykes Lane car park. The big disadvantage of parking here, or in any of the other Rutland Water car parks is the cost; £2 per hour, which feels expensive, especially at this time of year. We had the large car park almost to ourselves. However the car parks do have the advantage of having toilets, which I took advantage of before we set off. We took a path towards to the reservoir's dam (which would be our return route). The dam isn't very attractive, but from here we found the path that we wanted,  joining the Rutland Round and heading off to the east below the dam; it was much nicer!

We headed through rolling countryside towards the attractive village of Empingham, with the church spire visible from some distance away. When we were here on the Hereward Way (on the walk from Stamford to Oakham I mentioned earlier), we'd struggled with route finding in Empingham, but the route of the Rutland Round was very straightforward, across the main A606, then straight along the road that heads approximately west to east through the village. As this road headed out of the vilage, we left the Rutland Round and turned right onto Mill Lane.  It's a quiet lane,  a no through road. As the lane turns round to the left to Mill Farm, the bridleway we wanted continues straight ahead (there was actually a Rutland Round signpost here, which is a bit odd as we didn't think we were on the Rutland Round).

A yellow-topped post by a gate indicated what we assumed was our route, but the other side of the gate there was a muddy path leading down to a stream with no bridge across it; it looked distinctly wet  (though, worryingly, we could see another yellow-topped post on the other side). This part of the route is again shared with the Hereward Way and we don't remember any problems when we were following that path, so we knew there must be a way through. Richard convinced himself that we needed to go further to the east, and we wandered around for a bit but couldn't see a way through. Then, thankfully, we saw a couple walking confidently towards us down Mill Road,  they didn't go through the gate but instead went further west; we followed them over a bridge then back to the second yellow-topped post. We thanked them for showing us the way; it turns out they're locals and they explained that the yellow-topped posts indicate the route of the bridleway, but "no-one goes that way".

From here, the onward track was clear and, as we climbed away from the stream, lovely views opened up behind us. Eventually we emerged at the A606 and immediately noticed a large layby here (at SK957077), which would have been a much better place to park. My recommendation to anyone who wants to walk this circuit would be to park here, rather than one of the Rutland Water car parks,  and then walk in a clockwise direction (as we did). Over the other side of the A606, we continued straight ahead (in case you're confused by the sign in the middle of the hedge, as we were, you want to be to the right of this) to a more minor road and from here we took a path  which headed diagonally past a corner of New Wood. The view to our left was dominated by the Ketton Cement Works, which is associated with the quarry we'd walked through last time we were here. We were looking for a path at right angles to ours where we would leave the Hereward Way and turn right back onto the Rutland Round and we found this without difficulty (it's actually at the point where the onward path passes to the other side of a hedge boundary).

For the next 3 kilometres or so, we were  heading generally to the west, first on a path to another corner of New Wood, then on a tarmacked track, then on a minor road. It was a bit boring. It was lunchtime, but there were no benches or fallen tree-trunks etc. on which to sit, so we ended up sitting on our waterproof overtrousers on the verge near the attractively-named Candlesticks Spinney, watching occasional cyclists ride past. Both in Empingham and on the road we were now walking along, we'd passed estate-workers' cottages that could be identified as belonging to the Normanton Estate (the Earls of Ancaster) by the distinctive plaques bearing a coat of arms. Later, we later passed a sign to Normanton, which surprised me a little as I knew that most of the parish of Normanton was flooded when Rutland Water was constructed. The former RAF North Luffenham (now an Army barracks) was somewhere over to the left, which explains the signs on the left-hand side of the road we were walking along,  indicating that the land behind is a "prohibited place".  We caught glimpses of the spire of Edith Weston Church, also over to the left, and Rutland Water came into view ahead of us, looking  pretty in the distance.

The next little section was one of the low points on the walk. Where the road we were walking along reached the more major road to the south-east of Rutland Water, there was a track continuing straight down towards the reservoir i.e. in exactly the direction we wanted to go. However, our way was barred by a padlocked gate, so we had to walk along the road, with no pavement, to gain access by way of Rutland Water's Normanton car park, only then to head back along the shore of the reservoir on the other side of the gate.  Presumably the gate is there to make sure that everyone pays (the same extortionate amount as at Sykes Lane) but what about the safety and frustration of pedestrians who are following the mapped route of the Rutland Round? The fact we'd had to go out of our way did at least mean that we could make use of the toilets at this car park too, but just to add to our woes, it started to rain. Our route continued past Normanton Church, which was deconsecrated but saved from demolition when the  reservoir was built in the 1970s. It's an impressive building, especially with the backdrop of the reservoir, though any hope of sheltering here from the rain was dashed when we found it was locked. It is essentially now a wedding venue.

More cheerfully,  the sun came out, a rainbow appeared and  soon the rain stopped. As is probably obvious from my writing on Jordanwalks, I am not a great fan of Rutland Water. I accept that the water supply is very much needed, but to my mind the reservoir does not enhance the beauty of the rolling Rutland countryside, which I love. However, I have to admit that the view across the water from where we were walking was quite attractive today, now in the sunshine and with the autumn colours on the northern shore.  So we ALMOST ended on a high. We were soon back at the car, and we managed to be  philosophical about the fact we'd gone 3 minutes over the 4 hours we'd expected to pay for,  so parking cost us £10. However, I feel duty bound to point out that we'd probably have been within the 4 hours had the instructions on the payment machine not been misleading,  and we'd definitely have made it had we not had to walk in the wrong direction because of that locked gate.