65km Scenic Road Cycling Adventure | Vale of Belvoir, Nottinghamshire & Leicestershire Villages

Join me on a 65km scenic road cycling ride through the beautiful countryside of South Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, taking in quiet country lanes, rolling hills, and picturesque English villages in and around the Vale of Belvoir.
This route weaves through a fascinating collection of villages whose names share ancient “Hoh” origins—a term linked to heel-shaped hills, boundary landmarks, and possible Anglo-Saxon shrine sites. While the ride has a subtle historical backdrop, the focus is firmly on stunning views, peaceful roads, and classic rural cycling.

🚴 Villages featured on the ride include:
Wysall • Hoton • Wymeswold • Hoby • Ragdale • Ab Kettleby • Holwell • Hose • Long Clawson • Hickling • Kinoulton • Roehoe Wood

Expect gentle climbs, sweeping farmland views, traditional villages, and some of the best quiet lanes the East Midlands has to offer. Whether you’re planning a similar ride, love UK cycling routes, or just enjoy relaxing countryside footage, this ride showcases why this area is a hidden gem for road cyclists.

📍 Route highlights:
• Vale of Belvoir countryside
• South Nottinghamshire & Leicestershire border lanes
• Historic village landscapes
• Peaceful rural roads ideal for road cycling

If you enjoy scenic cycling, UK road rides, and countryside exploration, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and ride along.

1. Intro | South Nottinghamshire Countryside
2. Rolling Lanes to Wysall
3. Hoton & Quiet Leicestershire Roads
4. Wymeswold Village Views
5. Hoby & Ragdale Hills
6. Ab Kettleby to Holwell
7. Hose & Long Clawson Countryside
8. Hickling & Kinoulton Lanes
9. Roehoe Wood & Boundary Landscapes
10. – Outro

Strava link: https://strava.app.link/sCYfG5Mq6Yb

Bob Trubshaw’s video link: https://youtu.be/f2aypf28uqQ?si=mmYwf7SqnhLtlyp4

cycling UK, road cycling UK, Nottinghamshire cycling, Leicestershire cycling, Vale of Belvoir, scenic cycling route, UK countryside ride, road bike ride, quiet country lanes, East Midlands cycling, English villages cycling, long distance cycling, 65km bike ride, British countryside cycling, historic villages UK, road cycling scenery

#CyclingUK
#RoadCycling
#ValeOfBelvoir
#Nottinghamshire
#Leicestershire
#ScenicCycling
#UKCountryside
#QuietLanes
#RoadBike
#VillageCycling

Welcome to uh another episode of Hikes and Bikes. It’s been 2 months since I’ve been on my road bike and about 5 weeks since I’ve been on my uh mountain bike. So, my fitness levels have really dropped off. Welcome back to the channel everyone. Today, we’re going to go on a 65 km ride through parts of Nottinghamshire and into Leicster. Now, when I was planning this ride, I wanted to take in the villages of H Hotton, Hobie, and Hoes, so I could make this a Christmas ho ho ho ride. Yeah, I know. Sorry about that. It was a bit contrived, but anyhow, I thought it was a good idea at the time. And if you think that’s bad, I actually got the idea for the ride from watching a YouTube video on Anglo-Saxon boundary shrines by a guy called Bob Trubshaw who were describing these heel-shaped hills in this in the local area called holes. And on these uh holes, these hills were uh shrines where travelers would make their offerings to the local deities. Anyhow, despite all that, this is a lovely ride and hopefully you’ll enjoy the video. So come along, grab a mince pie, cup of tea, and enjoy the ride. Right. So the possible first location of a boundary shrine is found in the village of Weissol. Is that a heel-shaped hill? I don’t know. Doesn’t look a significant hill now, does it? Well, I guess from this angle it is on the hill. And that’s even further down the hill. So, yeah, it could be. There we go. Going to turn left down here. Remstone Lane. Bit of mud on the road. So, we’re just about to go from Nottinghamshire to Leicester now. Crossing the border. There we go. Right, we’re going into Hutton now. So, can we see where this U-shaped hill is? Is it what we’re on now? Oh, it’s a hill. I can attest to that. So, that’s a hill we’ve just come up. And there’s that church on the hill. So, it’s possible there was a shrine on there back in the day before the church was built. And it is on the boundary between Leicester and Nottinghamshire. So, yeah, who knows? Right, on to the third one now. And that’s a bit of a cycle way. Now we’re going to go to Hobie in Leicester. So let’s get off this busy road. This is the A60. Really busy road now. Oh, what’s that? What’s this building? Quick. Look at this building. Wow. Look at these old timber frame buildings in Hton. There’s another one over the road there. Stunning. Oh, got a lovely bit of smooth tarmac. You can tell we’re in Leicester now. This is another lovely village. Been here through here many times on my bike before. Nice pub here on the left. The windmill. We’re on narrow lane at the moment. Head towards Ragdale. I just got the finger then got flicked off. So, I’m quite high up now. That’s actually cracking views up here. Right, Ragdale. Now, all these roads are a bit greasy. Done a bit of walking around here before now. It’s lovely. Let’s go to uh heads for Hobie now, which is about a mile or so away or a couple of miles away, right? And if you could hit that like, subscribe, and notification bell, I’d be really, really grateful. Thank you very much. >> Absolutely amazing. Hopefully you can see some of this on the camera. So I really enjoyed this part of the ride going from Ragdale to Hobie get some absolutely amazing views of Leicester. So we’re entering Hobie now which uh must mean settlement or farmstead by the uh heel-shaped hill and the suffix B um indicates a Danish or Viking settlement. This is another picturesque Leicester village. I’m not sure I actually have to go this far into the village really, but I’ll I’ll show you anyhow cuz uh it’s really lovely. I can always turn back. It’s a nice pub on the corner around here. Look at these buildings. Amazing. 1879. That was a That was the year of Rockstrift, wasn’t it? 1879. Here we are. The blue blue bell. Yeah, we didn’t really need to come this far down. We should have turned off back there, but I thought I’d have a little cycle through the village cuz it’s such a picturesque village. Look at that building there. Lucky. So, we’re heading to the the next one now on the list, which is Hose. I think I should get paid for uh the Leicester tourist board. I’m always big in Leicester up even though I live in Dottinghamshire. Look at these views. Absolutely amazing. I love this track. So just before I got into Abkettleby, I looked up and saw these uh red kites circling. So I just had to stop and admire them for a minute. >> Oh, feel lucky to see these Lester villages. Absolutely really picturesque. Right, 606. There’s quick left and a quick right. We’re not going to be on here for long. Yep. So, we’re just heading north again and then we’ll turn off on the right in a minute. We’re just going to do a little detour to a place called Hullwell, which is another picturesque tucked away village in the heart of Le countryside. Again, all great views here on these lovely little lanes. The sun’s starting to go a bit golden, isn’t it? As we uh just coming into whole Well, shame there’s no pub or a cafe. Got the church on the left. Oh, is that school house? Oh, you all right? >> Thanks. Look at these buildings. Wow. Right, we’re just above the uh one claw lane just above the veil beaver vea to my left heading towards hose. Right. So, according to Tubshaw, these are the hills, these heel-shaped hills that uh holes gets its name from. And they’re covered in farms now. So, that must be one of them over there. It’s been a great ride though so far. So there’s the church. Long claw for now. Just going through here clean now. Oh, that’s Christmasy. Oh, we’re just going through Canotton now, which means we got Canotton Hill to finish off with. Here it goes. Kenton Hill. Short but brutal. Right, we’ve just come from Kenton and we’re just going over the A46, the Fossway and we’re just heading towards those woods there. They’re called Rojo Woods, which according to uh Bob Tub shot means uh a hill by the um by the well board a hill. Let’s see what we can see. I’m hoping I can cycle down that way. Starting to lose light rapidly now. I’m not too far from home, but I want to get a shift on now. It’s getting dark. Well, I think this is more of a gravel track, but hopefully my tires can hold out. I don’t I don’t want to get a puncture in these woods. So, I’m just cycling next to the northbound carriage of the A46, the old Fossway, the Roman road. So, would there have been a a shrine for travelers back in Saxon times to make some offering in these woods on this hill? So we just got a bit of elevation on the A46 of Hosway. So it is a hill. I mean not massive hills around here. I mean you can see it’s on a hill and these like I said these hills aren’t massive but you know if you were going on the 46 the old Foss way and you know this was a a boundary. You know I guess it would have stood out. You would have had to make your offer in before you carried on traveling. Right. I’m nearly home now. So thank you very much if you’ve watched so far. Um, but there’s just one more thing I want to show you. If you just see that hill over there, where are we? Where are we? Where are we? Where are we? There. That hill over there is actually called Ho Hill. So, is that one of the is that another one of the shrine boundary shrine hills? The heel-shaped hills? Who knows? I bet you can’t contain your excitement, can you? What does that actually mean? Hill. Is that a double tortology? Right, it’s getting really really dark now. So, uh, thank you very very much for watching. So, if you watched it so far and, uh, please, uh, like and subscribe if you haven’t done so already. Until next time.