Belvoir Castle sits on a limestone ridge about a hundred metres above the Vale, visible from so many directions and such distances that you half suspect it was built to be looked at rather than lived in. It has been rebuilt four times, which suggests a certain stubbornness on the part of the family who own it. The village of Belvoir itself — a handful of estate cottages, a church, no pub, no shop — exists almost as an afterthought at the castle's feet. The name comes from the Norman French for "beautiful view," and the Normans, whatever else you might say about them, were not wrong about this one.
The population of the parish, which takes in the hamlets of Knipton and Harston as well, was 263 at the last census. This is not a village you come to for facilities. It is a village you come to for the landscape, the walking, and the knowledge that everything you need — pubs, food, shops — is scattered across the estate villages within a few miles, each one built from the same honey-coloured ironstone, each one with at least one pub that takes its beer seriously.
The practical centre of gravity, if you are staying in the area and need to buy food or a present or a cup of coffee, is the Engine Yard. This is Belvoir's retail village, opened in 2019 after a £2.5 million restoration of the Victorian estate workshops. Free parking for up to four hours. Every tenant is independent. The Belvoir Farm Shop and Estate Butchery handle the groceries. Jorge Artisan Foods sells olive oils and ceramics. Cocoa Amore is an artisan chocolatier. Cherizena does speciality coffee and tea. There is a garden centre called The Idle Mole, a toy shop, a jewellery designer, a spa, and a shop called The Duchess Gallery, which sells luxury fashion curated by the actual Duchess of Rutland. For eating, The Fuel Tank is a three-storey operation covering brasserie, café, and pizza kitchen. On Friday and Saturday evenings, The Balloon Bar opens for gin and cocktails — the gin being Belvoir Gin, created by the Duchess in 2019, because apparently curating fashion and running an estate leaves time for distilling.
The pubs are the real draw, and there are enough of them within walking or short driving distance to keep you busy for a week. None is in Belvoir village itself. All are in the surrounding estate villages, and several are genuinely good.
The Chequers Inn at Woolsthorpe by Belvoir keeps four cask ales and a real cider on at all times, which is a serious commitment for a village pub. The beer garden overlooks the cricket pitch, and the dining is restaurant-quality rather than the usual pub-with-aspirations. Dogs are welcome in the bar and garden but not the restaurant — book ahead if you are eating with a dog. In winter there are log fires.
Next door, more or less, is The Durham Ox, also in Woolsthorpe by Belvoir. Traditional country pub, real ales, fine wines, a beer garden with cosy pods. It holds a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence from 2017, which is the sort of thing that means more to TripAdvisor than it does to anyone else, but the pub is well-regarded locally.
The Duck at Woolsthorpe sits on the banks of the Grantham Canal and has been operating as a pub since 1749. Canal-side drinking with castle views. Popular with towpath walkers, which means dogs are everywhere and welcome. The menu runs to pub classics, weekend breakfasts, and Sunday roasts. There is a large outdoor area with a summer bar, and a caravan and campsite attached, which gives you some idea of the ambition.
Further afield but still within the orbit, The Wheel Inn at Branston is a traditional ironstone pub, over two hundred years old, sensitively refurbished. Three changing cask ales — Castle Rock, Adnams, Black Sheep, plus local micros. It was Vale of Belvoir CAMRA Leicestershire Pub of the Year in 2015 and holds regular charity dog walks, which is a combination of interests you do not see often enough. The outside space is, by several accounts, fantastic.
The Windmill Inn at Redmile is about a mile downhill from the castle. Two changing real ales. Dog snacks on the bar and bowls provided, which tells you something about the clientele. Stone-floored bar, log fire, generous terrace.
The Staunton Arms at Staunton in the Vale is Grade II listed, two hundred years old, and has appeared in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide six times. Three cask beers, one always a LocAle, Cask Marque approved. It was CAMRA Pub of the Year for the Vale of Belvoir in 2016. Dogs, however, are not welcome — not in the pub, not in the accommodation. This is unusual for the area and worth knowing before you turn up with a spaniel.
The Manners Arms at Knipton occupies a former Georgian hunting lodge on the Belvoir Estate itself. Four cask ales including a mild, seasonal game from the estate, Sunday roasts, ten individually appointed bedrooms, AA four stars. It was undergoing extensive refurbishment, so check before you go.
And then there is Belvoir Brewery, based in Old Dalby, brewing since 1995. Core beers include Beaver Bitter, Dark Horse, Oatmeal Stout, and Star Bitter. They produce around thirty barrels a week for roughly eighty free-trade outlets. There is a visitor centre and alehouse with brewery tours, which is worth an afternoon if you are the sort of person who likes to know where your pint came from.
The walking here is exceptional and varied. The Grantham Canal towpath offers flat, easy going from Redmile through Woolsthorpe, with views up to the castle and three locks at Woolsthorpe currently being restored. Two long-distance paths pass through: the Jubilee Way, opened in 1977, running from Burrough Hall to Woolsthorpe via Melton Mowbray, and the Viking Way, a 147-mile trail from the Humber to Oakham. The two meet at Woolsthorpe, just east of the castle, which makes it a natural starting point for longer routes.
For a proper day out, there is a fourteen-mile circuit from Woolsthorpe that follows the canal towpath, picks up the Jubilee Way to the castle, drops through Barkestone Wood to Stathern and Plungar, and returns via the canal. The Belvoir Witches Challenge Walk starts from Bottesford and circles the Vale. The Countryfile Belvoir Castle Circuit is presumably the one they filmed, though nobody seems sure when. The network of footpaths connects a string of villages — Redmile, Knipton, Harston, Stathern, Plungar, Bottesford, Croxton Kerrial, Muston, Denton, Branston — each worth a stop, most with a pub.
The Vale of Belvoir itself is low-lying clay country, drained by the River Devon and the Smite. Gently undulating, broad river valleys, large hedged fields. There is a strong dairying tradition. The castle sits on a conspicuous scarp visible for miles in every direction, which is the point.
Robert de Todeni began building the first castle here in 1067, a year after carrying William the Conqueror's standard at Hastings. He held sixteen manors in Leicestershire and around eighty lordships across England, which was a reasonable reward for a day's work at Senlac Hill. He also founded Belvoir Priory between 1076 and 1088 as a cell of St Albans Abbey. The first castle was a motte-and-bailey and was in ruins by 1464. The second, Tudor, was built by Thomas Manners, the 1st Earl of Rutland, in 1528, using stone from the dissolved Croxton Abbey and the priory his predecessor had founded. Charles I stayed during the Civil War. The Parliamentarians destroyed it in 1649.
The third castle, a classical mansion, went up between 1654 and 1668. The fourth and current one was commissioned in 1801 by Elizabeth Howard, who hired James Wyatt to design it in the Gothic Revival style. The Duke sold seven villages to fund the work. On 26 October 1816, a devastating fire destroyed 115 paintings, including works by Titian, Rubens, van Dyck, and Reynolds — a loss estimated at £120,000. The castle was completed by the Reverend Sir John Thoroton at a total cost of around £200,000. It is Grade I listed. The Manners family have held it since George Manners inherited through his mother Eleanor de Ros in 1508. Thomas Manners was created 1st Earl of Rutland in 1525. The 9th Earl became the 1st Duke in 1703. The current incumbent is David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland.
The witchcraft trials of 1618–1619 are the piece of history that sticks. Joan Flower and her daughters Margaret and Philippa were servants at the castle. They were accused of murdering the 6th Earl's two sons by witchcraft. Joan died on the way to trial at Lincoln — she had demanded bread as a test of her innocence and choked on it. Margaret and Philippa were tried, found guilty, and hanged at Lincoln Castle on 11 March 1619. The historian Tracy Borman suggested in 2013 that George Villiers may have poisoned the boys, which is either more or less disturbing depending on your feelings about witchcraft.
The Parish Church of St Peter in the village is Grade II* listed, with Norman origins dating to the twelfth century. Nearby Bottesford has St Mary the Virgin, known as the Lady of the Vale — Grade I listed, with the highest spire in Leicestershire, tombs of eight Earls of Rutland, and a monument to the witchcraft case.
Getting here means a car, realistically. The A607 between Melton Mowbray and Grantham is the main road. Grantham is eight miles away. Bottesford has a station on the East Midlands Railway line between Nottingham, Grantham, and Skegness. Buses exist — Centrebus runs from Grantham every three hours, and the Route 93 connects Bottesford to Grantham hourly — but this is not the kind of place that was designed around public transport.
The castle hosts events through the year: Firework Champions, a bonfire night, a flower and garden show in July, Christmas with a Santa's grotto, a mice trail, and a Boxing Day ramble. Iron ore was once quarried in the parish near Harston. The Duchess makes gin. The cricket pitch at Woolsthorpe still gets used. And on a clear evening, from any of the pub gardens that face the right way, the castle on its ridge looks exactly like the kind of thing a Norman knight would build if you gave him a hilltop and told him to make a point.
