(S/E) Opposite the Inn at Whitewell, walk up the road past Whitewell Social Hall. Take a footpath on the right up some steps and climb to the house at Seed Hill.
(1) Turn right and follow the track (to the right of the waterworks tunnel compound).
Beyond an old quarry on the left, bear left to a gate, then turn right along the wall.
After the next gate (an old iron kissing gate), follow a fence along the hillside past a series of stiles and gates.
In the last field, ignore the gateway on the right, instead aiming for a point where an arm of woodland meets the road from the far side.
(2) Go through an iron gate into the road and turn left. Take a footpath on the right over a stile just beyond the wood.
Cross the field, erring towards the right-hand side, eventually meeting a projecting corner of the woodland on your right. Follow the woodland edge down to a stile and gate.
Beyond the wood, walk along a grassy terrace with low limestone outcrops to your right, before descending gradually to ford a side-stream close to the main river.
Beyond a kissing gate, leave the river and keep above and to the left of a wooded bank to reach a second kissing gate.
(3) Head slightly left and uphill, fording a second stream, to reach a gate and stile in the far corner.
Turn right and walk down the metalled drive (a footpath on the left by a barn, just before you meet the river, provides a diversion via Doeford Bridge if the stepping stones are impassable – see map).
(4) Opposite Stakes Farmhouse cross the stepping stones; follow the path beyond, then left over a farm bridge into a country lane.
Turn left uphill past a house (The Holly) and then right at a road junction.
(5) When the road bends left, take the farm drive straight on. Follow it past the converted Knot Barn to Lower Greystoneley (keep right). Beyond Ash and Bramblewood Barn enter the woodland on a rough descending track to a ford (slippery – use adjacent footbridge).
(6) Continue uphill to Higher Greystoneley and follow the drive out to the road. Turn right.
After a short distance, leave the road over a stile on the left. Cross another stile then aim for the farm beyond.
Thread left then right between the farm buildings to emerge near the farmhouse.
Turn left along a hedge then, beyond the farmhouse but before the next house, turn right onto a farm track.
(7) Follow this track out of the farmyard to the field’s end, then turn right over a stile next to a gate. Shortly swing left and follow the fence, then in the corner turn right to a ladder stile.
Climb half-right up the hill beyond – don’t miss the views down the valley behind you.
Beyond, descend to a gate and stile, then walk down the field to join a rough track to New Laund. Bypass the farmyard to the right.
(8) At the farm road, turn right (or left if diverting around the stepping stones – see map). Beyond the farmhouse, descend alongside the wood to the river. Cross the stepping stones then turn left to return to the Inn at Whitewell. (S/E)
