The remains of an old quarry, seven meters tall at its highest. Good rambles, a highball arête and some harder eliminates to get stuck into. Sauvastika f7A+ is a great eliminate problem which is a must for those operating at the grade. The boulder is located in Grace Dieu Wood, the other side of Turolough Road from Cademan Wood. This area of the Charnwood Forest has inspired the poetry of both Thomas Bancroft and William Wordsworth.
Topo for the easier lines can be found in the online version of the old Leicestershire Climbs guidebook. Descriptions of the more recent boulder problems can be found on UKClimbing or worked out from Clint Maskell's instagram posts below.
grace_dieu_boulder_2020_07_13.pdf
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Parking: Park in the car park on Melrose Road (52.754230, -1.362953).
​Approach: Walk into the wood. See map here.
​The winding path through Gracedieu Wood is one of the loveliest walks in England. A most romantic rivulet accompanies the path, playing hide-and-seek among the trees and rocks.
- Charnwood Forest, F. T. Mott (1868)
​The scenery about Whitwick, including Gracedieu Wood, is truly magnificent. If the weather should prove fine at Easter, friends from neighbouring and distant places would be delighted, we believe, with a visit to this romantic region. The rock and ravines and cascades will be highly gratifying to all who have a taste for the beauties of nature; and they will be especially delightful to the spiritually-minded follower of Jesus.
- The General Baptist Magazine (1854)
Beneath yon eastern Ridge, the craggy Bound,
Rugged and high, of Charnwood's forest ground,
Stand yet, but, Stranger! hidden from thy view,
The ivied Ruins of forlorn Grace Dieu.
- ​Inscription for a Seat in the Groves of Coleorton, William Wordsworth (1881)
The mountains, crowned with rocky fortresses
​And sheltering woods secure thy happiness.
- From a poem about Grace Dieu, Epigrammes, and Epitaphs, Thomas Bancroft (1639)
​Quoted in J. Spencer (1885)