From the Market Place, head down past the Town Hall and Cinema to Ward’s End. Follow this until you come to a small car parking area at a junction. Cross over two pedestrian crossings until you are outside a public house. Follow this road with the one-way traffic to the junction at the end. Cross over at the junction, turn left and then the first right. Follow this road down until a roundabout. This is the A6004, Epinal Way. Go straight over onto Beacon Road. Follow this down to its end. Cross straight over and you will find yourself on a track. Follow this track through until the path forks. Follow the right fork. This should take you uphill and into some woods. You are now at the Outwoods. Now, follow the path that takes you West, following it uphill until the car park.

Walk out of the car park, turn right along the road for 350m or so. You should pass a house on your left, Charnwood Hall. Cross over straight afterwards. You will find a small private path. This closes at dusk*. Follow this path through, generally westwards until you reach Wood Brook. Cross the stream. The path follows the left field boundary uphill and to your left. Cross two field boundaries. Shortly before the third there is a gate and a path leading uphill to your left (roughly south-east). After the gate you cross Wood Brook again, and walk up the hill. The hill is steep, with an average gradient of 1in7. Arriving at the top of the hill you should reach a road, Dean’s Lane.

Cross over and through the Beacon Hill Country Park gate. Follow the path uphill. You will meet a bridleway. To approach the summit, bear left, for the car park walk along the bridleway.

This is an ideal place to stop and enjoy a picnic lunch. Afterwards, head from the car park towards the summit (pictured left). Immediately after reaching the gate and boundary turn right. Follow the marked path downhill. You will enter some woodland. Soon after leaving this there is a path that leads to the right, Beacon Road and Woodhouse Eaves. Follow this parallel with a field boundary until you reach the road. Cross over and head into Woodhouse Eaves.

Before reaching the village you will arrive at the Broombriggs Farm car park. Turn right, across the car park and through a gate. Follow the main path over the hill summit. After some woodland the path turns in to a road. Follow this down until you reach another. Turn left along this road until you reach offset cross roads. Head straight on (NW). Follow the Leicestershire Round along the road until a bend, across a field and across a road. Continue along the Leicestershire Round. About level with the end of the buildings of Rushey Fields Farm. Turn left along the track. Turn left along another track into Woodhouse.

Turn right when you reach the road. Soon after the village there is a sharp right turn in the road. Cross over. The footpath is marked and is through the gate. The path then traverses three fields and arrives at a track. Turn right through Woodthorpe. At the roundabout on the bypass go straight over. The bypass is a new road and is not on the current Explorer map. There is a small track (soon to be closed off to vehicular traffic) that runs towards the A6 over the Great Central Railway. Before you reach this there should be a footpath to your left. Follow this until it joins with a track partway through the cemetery. Follow this track onto the A6, past a cricket ground.

Turn left up the A6(N/NE)Follow the road right into the town centre. Turn left into the market place (opposite McDonalds). This is the end of the walk.

* - If the path is closed, retrace your steps along the road, passing the outwoods car park again. Then turn right into Deans Lane, and rejoin the route.

A varied and interesting walk. Views from the top of the Beacon are fantastic. In fact, there is no higher point eastwards of the Beacon until Russia! You can vary the walk, starting at any one of the car parks mentioned, but leaving a car in any of these areas is risky. There are many variations of this walk, but this is my choice for being the best.