(S/E) From the front door of the Hanging Gate, turn right along West Road. Opposite the narrow entrance to Tower Lane (on your left), turn right into a narrow footpath between hedged gardens. Follow the fenced path to a stile then descend into the cutting containing the A49.
(1) Cross the busy road quickly but carefully, and go up the other side. Bear right to a stile then follow the left-hand edge of the field, bearing right at the railway line. Cross the footbridge on your left and head half-right across a field on the other side to a stile by a gate in the corner. Follow the left-hand edge of the next two fields, joining a metalled lane beyond a final stile. After Grange Brook Farm, pass some houses on your left and, ignoring a driveway on the left with a footpath sign, follow the road round to the right.
(2) On reaching the B5153 in Acton Bridge, turn right and walk past Milton Baptist Church on your right. Before the road begins to rise to cross the railway, turn left at a footpath sign over a stile next to a gate. After a short trackway between gardens, bear left and right to the railway, which you follow to the left. After a fenced section between kissing gates, pass a bridge and continue beside the railway for a further three fields, passing (but not crossing) a footbridge and then a mobile phone mast in the last.
(3) At Chapel Lane Bridge, turn left, away from the railway, past a handsome house on the right. At the more modern house at the farm entrance, keep right down a muddy tractor track. Continue along the narrowing green lane as the track ends, eventually descending to a small stone bridge.
(4) Once over the stream, turn immediately right and cross the field to a footbridge. Walk up the left-hand side of the next field to a gate by a stable building. After a second gate, turn left down the drive from Mount Pleasant and then turn right at the road.
(5) Pass houses to left and right, then opposite Rocking Horse Farm (on your left) turn right between buildings and cross a stile to the left of a brick barn. Go over another stile ahead and turn left, then follow the field boundary round to the right and down into the minor valley of Dane’s Gutter. Climb the bank beyond to a gate, then follow the left-hand edge of the following field until you reach Cliff Lane.
(6) Turn left to a T-junction, then turn right down a no-through road. After some cottages and at the entrance to a mobile home park, turn right (with a Weaver Way signpost towards Northwich). Cross the former course of the Weaver and continue to the main Navigation. Turn right and follow the path to and below Dutton Viaduct. Continue past the Horse Bridge (on the opposite bank) to Dutton Locks.
(7) Cross via the lock gates and turn right past the houses. Cross the bridge over the weir stream and follow the metalled track alongside the Weaver for a mile, until you reach Acton Swing Bridge.
(8) Climb the steps next to the brick control tower and turn right across the near footway of the bridge. Follow the A49 round a left-hand bend (ignoring a footpath on the right) and cross the end of Acton Lane onto a combined footway/cycleway.
(9) Just after the Riverside Inn, turn right through a wooden kissing gate onto a footpath. Climb the hill via a series of stiles until you emerge in a green lane, which you follow to the right. At the beginning of the metalled lane, turn left and, beyond two stiles, walk up the right-hand side of a field to the left of the last house. A further stile leads to a gate and thence out to the road (the path here was subject to a minor diversion at the time of writing: follow on-site notices and signage).
(10) Turn right past the Tennis and Bowls Club, then left into Old Lane opposite a thatched and half-timbered cottage. Leave the lane at a house called Acorns, over a stile on the left. After a further stile at the end of a small, narrow piece of land, turn right along the hedge towards the railway. After the next stile, turn immediately left and follow the hedge-line to a stile on your left. Cross the fence and walk parallel to the railway line across two fields, to a stile leading into a narrow path between houses and gardens.
(11) On reaching the road, turn right to the Hazel Pear pub. Turn left before the railway bridge and follow the B5153 past Hazel Pear Wood on your left. After half a mile, cross over the A49 and continue for the short distance beyond, back to the Hanging Gate.(S/E)
