(S/E) From Stonecroft entrance turn left to the village centre. Continue past the Old Nags Head Inn.
(1) At the gatehouse to Grindslow House, take a footpath on the right that descends to cross Grinds Brook. At the top of the steps, turn left along the paved path. Just before a stone building, take an obvious uphill path on the right.
(2) After the gate at the end of Heardman’s Plantation, veer right, then left and follow the pitched path as it zig-zags up to The Nab.
(3) Turn left and continue uphill, aiming for the end of the prominent rocks of Ringing Roger.
(4) Follow a narrow path to the left of the main rocks, before regaining the path beyond. After a cairn, join a partly paved/pitched path beyond a stream, which leads up behind the crag of Nether Tor to the left. The edge path descends beyond Nether Tor to a small stream and a rock on the left resembling an eroded sphinx.
(5) Turn right here onto the plateau (the “seven-minute crossing”). Pick your way across the pathless moor on a northerly bearing. A mushroom-like boulder is a useful marker; keep left to find yourself overlooking the valley of Blackden Brook. Turn left when you meet the northern edge path.
(6) Cross Blackden Brook at the head of the valley. After the Snake Woodlands plantations come into view, pass a second major rock outcrop. 100 yards or so further on, look out for an indistinct path dropping diagonally to the right to a stile in the fence.
From the stile, head down the slope, zig-zagging steeply through scattered rocky outcrops at first and then following the stunted remains of the wall as the slope eases. At the top of the stream valley, cross a series of plank bridges over peaty side-streams until you reach the end of an obvious prepared path to the left of the deepening clough.
(7) Follow this rocky track as it swings left, away from the stream, and then heads down the hillside towards the confluence of Fair Brook and the Ashop. At the bottom, follow the path through a series of gates in the walls of a sheepfold to the stream at the bottom of the Fairbrook valley.
(8) Ford the stream and pick up the path on the other side, turning right to the footbridge over the River Ashop. Cross the river, then swing left and walk up through the pinewoods to emerge on the A57.
(9) Turn left to the Snake Pass Inn. Beyond the pub, continue until you reach coniferous woodland on your left. Shortly afterwards, go down some steps on your left and over a stile into the wood. Follow the path downhill past the Snake Woodland sign.
(10) At the bottom of the valley turn right, following the forest fence on your right. Cross the footbridge and follow the path round the end of the wood and alongside the River Ashop. Continue between river and forest fence, ignoring a gate into the (clear-felled) woodland.
(11) Beyond the end of the wood, keep along the stream into open grassland and bracken. The path crosses a number of side streams, and passes a small (often dry) pool before reaching a ruined shooting hut above a footbridge over the stream. Keep along the same path on the northern bank.
After a further mile or so the valley becomes wider and shallower, and the stream and path rather lose their identity among a maze of rushy channels and shaly banks as you approach Ashop Head.
(12) However, towards the head of the valley you should pick up a paved path that conveys you easily to the Pennine Way at a crossroads by a waymark post. Turn left and climb the steep pitched path that leads up a shoulder of Kinder Scout onto the plateau.
(13) Bear right and follow the edge path for 11⁄4 miles to Kinder Downfall.
(14) Cross the infant River Kinder and continue along the edge for another mile to the trig point at Kinder Low.
(15) Leave the edge path here, aiming left of the prominent Edale Rocks.
(16) Pick up a paved path that leads below the Swine’s Back hill, before veering off left and downhill. Before an obvious crossing, turn left to cut the corner and then follow the stone-pitched track downhill towards Crowden Clough.
(17) At the top of Jacob’s Ladder, by a round cairn, turn left and follow the steep footpath down to Jagger’s Bridge. Follow the track beyond for a mile, past Lee House Farm to Upper Booth.
(18) Turn left into Upper Booth farmyard and follow the waymarked Pennine Way back to the Old Nags Head. Turn right to return to Stonecroft. (S/E)
