Pub walk: Red Lion to Stathern Wood
Published on February 5, 2014
This three-mile circuit starts and finishes at The Red Lion Inn. It includes a calorie-burning stroll up Stathern’s Toft’s Hill and good views across the Vale of Belvoir. It’s a simple route but a steep ascent and descent will make it tricky for some. Allow two hours and don’t forget your boots as it can get muddy. Call 01949 860868 to book a table at The Red Lion Inn for before or after your walk. Roast beef wraps are also available from the pub on Sundays, while cakes grace the bar on Saturday afternoons. All can be enjoyed by the fire when it’s nippy or takeaway picnic-style on warmer days.
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THE ROUTE
Click on map to enlarge
1. From The Red Lion car park, turn right and look for the Toft’s Hill sign.
2. Walk up Toft’s Hill and keep going towards the line of trees on the horizon for about three-quarters of a mile. The track gets quite steep.
3. At the top you come to a junction of footpaths. Turn left, following the signpost to the Jubilee Way. Go through a gate and take the right-hand fork in the footpath, following the bridleway sign.
4. After a few yards you find yourself on a ridge looking down across the Vale of Belvoir, with Stathern below to your left.
5. Walk along the ridge-top pathway for around half a mile until you see a yellow marker pointing left and down. Follow the sign and descend into Stathern Wood. It’s steep.
6. Keep going straight on for half a mile to the boundary of the wood. As the trees thin out you’ll see another yellow marker, where you turn left.
7. After about 20 yards turn right, crossing a very small bridge over a dyke into a field. Turn left to walk along the edge of the field, with the wood on your left.
8. Continue towards the house in the distance. Then enter the next field, where you follow the waymarkers towards the house.
9. Just before the house, the path bends to the left. Simply follow the waymarkers as they bring you out onto another track towards Stathern.
10. Soon you come to a road. Cross over and you will see a footpath sign. Follow it diagonally through the field.
11. After you’ve crossed the field you join a track. Turn left towards Stathern. Go through the gate, following the waymarker, and into the village.
12. Turn left and join Main Street. Continue left past The Plough pub, then the road bends right. Go past David Cox Butchers and you soon arrive on Red Lion Street.
Stathern church
