Vale of Belvoir Ramblers: Watermead and Abbey Parks, Leicester

Starting at Fingers Lake car park, this flat, 9½ mile waterside walk took eleven of us on good tracks around the many lakes in the park, along the banks of the River Soar and the Grand Union Canal and on to visit the remains of the twelfth century Leicester Abbey in Abbey Park. Plenty of birdlife and views of narrow boats, locks, weirs, bridges, a space centre and a pumping station.

The start near Fingers Lake

And off we go

King Lear's Lake. This statue depicts the final scene of Shakespeare's play King Lear - Act V, scene III

One of the many locks on the Grand Union Canal

Weir on the River Soar

Abbey Pumping Station (1891) now a museum of science and technology

The National Space Centre, a museum and educational resource covering the fields of space science and astronomy, along with a space research programme in partnership with the University of Leicester - worth a visit

Boundary wall of the Abbey

Panoramic view of the remains of Leicester Abbey. After Dissolution in 1538, the Abbey buildings were demolished although the main gatehouse, boundary walls and farm buildings were left standing

Abbey ruins and information board

Cardinal Wolsley, accused of treason and on his way back to London, stayed at Leicester Abbey, He said I see the matter against me how it is framed. But if I had served God as diligently as I have done the King, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs ... and promptly died

Abbey Park Bridge over the River Soar

Abbey Park is a late-19th century public park, formed from water meadows. The site was extended in 1925 by the addition of the adjacent Abbey Grounds

Lunch in Abbey Park

Japanese Gardens

On the Watermead Park Climate Trail

Belgrave Bridge carrying Thurcaston Road over the River Soar. It has seven stone arches. Its core is 15th-century, but it has been widened on both sides