Empingham to Mounts Lodge and return

After a wet and rather miserable winter, today was a lovely spring day and it was a joy to be out walking. The weather hasn't been the only reason we've not done any serious walking since well before Christmas;  Richard has had some weird health issues and, at their worst, he could hardly walk at all. We don't have a diagnosis yet, but antibiotics helped a bit earlier in the year and the improvement has continued, albeit very slowly. We were ready to get back to the Rutland Round! Because of the same range of symptoms, Richard  is currently unable to drive, and we are also (as planned) down to one car, so I drove our nice new little car to Empingham, which is on the circuit we walked back in November.  We found an excellent place to park in a layby on Willoughby Drive, just off  Main Street. 

We walked along Main Street and out of Empingham, passing Mill Lane where we turned right last time. We stopped to get my walking poles set up for Richard to use, to improve his balance, then we took a track on the right which climbed through lovely woodland. The OS Map tells me we were climbing Chapel Hill and the woodland is Chapel Spinney. At the top, there were misty views back to Empingham and to the south were misty views to the Ketton Cement Works. We continued straight ahead to the right of a hedge boundary and we soon passed through the attractive Chapel Field Spinney. 

Half a mile or so further along, we reached a track at right angles to the path we were on. I looked at the OS Maps App on my phone in order to check the onward route, and discovered we'd deviated from the route of the Rutland Round. It's hardly surprising: Richard and I checked independently on our return walk and we can report that the place where the correct path leaves the path we were on is not marked at all on the ground. Fortunately we were able to get back to the correct route very easily by turning right onto the track for a short distance, to the point where the correct route crossed the track.

We crossed a stile (yes, we both got over it - just!) and crossed a field diagonally to another stile, with Tickencote Lodge Farm to our right. We emerged by another house and turned left onto a track. Up until now, the conditions underfoot had been good, but it now the ground became increasingly squelchy, and just before the next stile there was a flooded area. We investigated various options for avoiding it, but there weren't any, so in the end we just walked straight through. Amazingly, we didn't get wet feet.  

We were now on the approach to Tickencote and we were crossing fields to the north of the attractive Tickencote Hall.  Our path led us to the village, and St Peter's Church. While our walking has been restricted by Richard's lack of mobility, we have been exploring lots of places with connections to our family history. In turn, this has led us to get interested in church architecture, and St Peter's is a gem.  Simon Jenkins describes the Chancel Arch as "the finest Norman arch in England sitting in one of england's smallest county's smallest hamlets".

It was now midday, so we found a bench in the Churchyard and stopped here for lunch, with a good view of workmen who were working on Tickencote Hall or a nearby property.  We continued through the village and then a path led us to the A1 slip road, by the back entrance to the "OK Diner" service area. We walked along the pavement under the A1 and into the village of Great Casterton. Richard left me here, and started his return walk to the car. Meanwhile, I turned left in the village. I actually took the wrong road to start with, though it didn't take me long to realise and head the right way: you want Pickworth Road, to the left of the school.

The pavement on Pickworth Road ended as I left Great Casterton, but the road was very quiet (much quieter than I'd expected) and there was a wide grassy verge. This section of the walk wasn't exactly exciting,  with the road climbing steadily to the north,  but the countryside was attractive.  I had decided to turn round where the route of the Rutland Round leaves the road and heads west, opposite a building marked as Mounts Lodge on the map, and I was delighted to discover somewhere where we can park before we embark on the next leg, opposite a farm (near SK999107), just to the south of Mounts Lodge