Great Glen

The Italian Greyhound and its garden

The Italian Greyhound faces Great Glen's village green on London Road. Its Grade II listed building has stood for more than 400 years and was previously known as The Old Greyhound and The Pug and Greyhound. The Greyhound name recalls the three greyhound heads on the Nele family's coat of arms, and coaches stopped here by the mid-eighteenth century. Today it serves hand-stretched pizza, pasta and pub classics, with guest rooms next door.

For a longer meal or a gathering, the pub has a garden terrace, a marquee and a separate dining room.

Coaching inns and the valley

A turnpike bridge built across the River Sence in 1751 carried the Leicester–London coaching road through Great Glen. In neighbouring Burton Overy, the circular walk passes The Bell on Main Street.

Great Glen lies about six miles south-east of Leicester in the River Sence valley, amid rolling farmland. The A6 bypass opened in 2003, making London Road and Main Street quieter, although Church Road and Stretton Road became busier routes into Leicester.

Walks and St Cuthbert's

The approximately eight-mile Burton Overy circular starts at the recreation ground off Bindleys Lane. It passes the site of medieval Stretton Magna, then goes through Little Stretton, King's Norton and Burton Overy before returning across fields to Great Glen. The walk includes footpaths, roads and a potentially muddy shortcut near Little Stretton. Footpaths south of the village also lead towards the Grand Union Canal towpath.

St Cuthbert's church stands near the edge of Great Glen. A Saxon predecessor was replaced by a Norman church in the early twelfth century, followed by another rebuild in the early fourteenth century. In 1876, the church was substantially reconstructed apart from its medieval tower. A probably twelfth-century font and stained-glass windows dated 1910 and 1926 are among its details.

An ancient name and modern connections

Great Glen's name preserves an ancient British name associated with the River Sence valley. The Domesday Book records Glen and a corn mill that survives as the village's oldest building. In the sixteenth century, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk and father of Lady Jane Grey, held the manor. After his execution for treason in 1554, his lands were seized by the Crown.

Bus services run to Leicester and Market Harborough along the A6 corridor. Leicester station is six miles away, Market Harborough nine.

The return from Burton Overy

From Burton Overy's Main Street, the walk turns onto Bell Lane and Beadswell Lane, then crosses fields back towards Great Glen.