Day 8: Oundle to Kettering 16 miles

We go down to breakfast at 7:30 only to realise that the hotel doesn’t serve it until 8:00 at the weekend, so we head off to Tesco for some paracetamol and provisions and buy freshly made sandwiches and huge Eccles cakes from a nearby bakery. Breakfast is ready by the time we return.

We are trying to fit a five week walk into four weeks so are having two single rest days this trip. One day hasn’t really felt like enough, but two days in Oundle would probably be too much.

We head out of town on the A427 which is not too busy and has a good pavement almost all the way to the golf club. Here, we turn down a track across the course. We’re a bit concerned as we head up the hill because this path is not near any roads if it is impassable, but it follows a beautiful line just below the ridge. We needn’t have worried. The path is fantastic, well-kept and stretching across the countryside with glorious views.

These are the Northamptonshire Heights or Northamptonshire Uplands. They are part of the limestone Jurassic System that runs from the North York Moors through to the Dorset coast and includes the Cotswolds. In Northamptonshire, the rock is capped with ironstone and open cast mines were once common here. The huge steelworks in nearby Corby employed over 11,000 people who lost their jobs on its closure. It took Corby ten years for the town’s unemployment rate to return to the national average.

As there have been throughout this walk, there are red kites soaring on the thermals above us but the red, black and purple of the admiral and peacock butterflies of the fens have been replaced with clouds of soft brown and orange small skippers and green-veined whites. The muted tones of the insects mirroring the gentler landscape here.

We soon arrive at the Lyveden New Bield, an unfinished Elizabethan summerhouse and moated garden. It was designed for Sir Thomas Tresham but he died during its construction and the massive debts he had already accrued, £11,000, equivalent to £2.89 million today, meant that the builders downed tools and left on his death in 1605. They never returned.

Here we join the Lyveden Way, a 10.9 mile circular walk around the estate. This leads us to Fermyn Country Park. It’s not as extensive as the one near Peterborough, but it does have a cafe where we stop for a cold drink and a homemade oat and raisin cookie. We are adopted by a local cat but, as Rich says, it is barking up the wrong tree with us and it eventually settles down under a hedge. As we sit, I receive a message from our stay for the evening in Kettering to say that the bathroom is flooded and they are unable to accommodate us. This is the first time this has ever happened on our walks. While I request a refund, Rich frantically tries to locate an alternative. It’s not easy as it’s the British Grand Prix at nearby Silverstone this weekend and over half a million people are attending. Finally, he books The Bungalow and we make our way into the village of Brigstock.

There are a few route options from Brigstock but, given how good the paths have been so far today, we opt for an elegant line on a footpath that again is away from all roads and makes a bee-line for Geddington. When we a reach the start of the path, however, it is closed for six months from November 2025. It has not yet been reopened and, although we could negotiate the barrier, the eight foot high vegetation beyond it is not inviting. We follow the diversion only to find a gate topped with barbed wire. Fortunately, there is a stile beside it and we follow a set of intricate paths across the ensuing farmland.

We finally rejoin our intended route, despite a few missteps along the way and soon locate an excellent lunch spot underneath a tree. Despite the fact there are no roads close by, we do meet a couple of people on walks here. Rich also starts to extract the embedded grass seeds from his socks. I laugh at how many seeds there are until I look at my own feet and realise that mine are no better. We sort ourselves out as best we can, then continue on our way.

The path soon drops down into the pretty village of Geddington. Here there is an Eleanor Cross. Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, died In 1290 in Harby in Nottinghamshire while on a royal progress with her husband of 36 years. He accompanied her body back to London and commissioned monuments to be erected at the sites of the twelve overnight stops. Only three now survive: Hardingstone, Waltham Cross and Geddington. The Geddington Cross remains a delicate but impressive memorial.

We now take a slightly circuitous route to avoid walking along the A4300, but eventually join it near Boughton Park. This is a grand house and garden created in the French style in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by the 1st and 2nd Dukes of Montagu. The house and gardens are impressive, even from a distance, and both are open to the public. There is also a deer park there.

We then make our way along footpaths and road through the villages of Weekly and Warkton and finally arrive at the outskirts of Kettering. We make our way to The Bungalow, our last minute stop for the night. There’s a shared bathroom and no kitchen, but the bed is good, the room is clean and there’s a good Indian takeaway less than a mile away. We are also over halfway.

Total distance: 106 miles