(S/E) From Rosie Lee Tearoom front door of the tearoom, turn left up Kinder Road. Pass Hayfield Library and Vicarage Lane on your left. By a house on a bend called Grey Beck, turn right into Spring Vale Road and descend to the stream (River Sett).
(1) Cross the stream and continue out to Valley Road. Turn left. After a row of terraced houses on the right, keep left along the no-through road. Keep left again at a fork below a high stone retaining wall on your right.
Descend to the river and follow the riverside path, ignoring a footbridge. At a fork, keep left between the gateposts, staying close to the river. Walk between the river and the campsite.
(2) Beyond the campsite entrance go straight on, along the metalled road (Edale Road) to the right of the stream; bear right at the confluence of the Sett and Kinder rivers (with views ahead to Bowden packhorse bridge).
The road crosses the river on a bridge below a small weir. At a crossroads, go straight on through the gateposts and follow the track uphill.
(3) Follow the road round to the right as it crosses the stream to reach Tunstead House, which the path skirts via a track on your right. Beyond the buildings, follow a short walled section to reach open fields.
Keep along the left-hand wall of the first field, then cross the middle of the next three fields, heading relentlessly uphill from gate to gate. In the fifth field, as the slope eases off, keep parallel to the right-hand wall to a gateway
and then a further gate into open country by the scant remains of a ruined building.
(4) Turn left briefly across rushy ground to the higher of two gates, then turn immediately right, steeply up the spine of Kinderlow End ridge. The steepest central section is pitched with stones.
Beyond the rocky section the gradient eases, but the path continues uphill along the centre of the ridge to a further rocky outcrop. Pick up the paved path that skirts to the right of Kinder Low Bowl Barrow. Keep left when another paved path joins from the right, following the slabs to the trig point on Kinder Low.
(5) At the trig point, turn left to reach the plateau edge at a cairn. Follow the edge path (North - North-East) for a little over a mile to Kinder Downfall, fording Red Brook above its rocky valley about halfway along. At times, particularly in the rockier sections, there is a choice of paths and the way forward is indistinct, but route-finding is generally simple: keep between the peat on your right and the steeper ground dropping away to your left.
(6) Ford the shallow River Kinder above the Downfall and continue along the plateau edge in a similar fashion to before, except now heading West - North - West.
After a little under a mile, having climbed to a minor rocky summit followed by a level stretch with sandy sections, the path reaches a projecting spur of land where the edge path turns sharp right. Turn left here and leave the Kinder Scout plateau, descending fairly steeply down the grassy shoulder.
(7) Towards the bottom you ford a small stream, then descend further to cross the footbridge over William Clough, just above the head of the reservoir.
Take the rough path leading diagonally up the hill opposite South - West (not the more obvious left- hand path, which leads alongside the reservoir).
(8) At the top of the hill, the path meets a fence and wall and levels off to contour above the reservoir. At a fork above a wood, take the upper (right-hand) path to avoid losing height.
On meeting a track, bear right to a path junction below the white-painted shooting cabin. Turn left (signposted “Hayfield 11⁄2 miles”).
(9) Follow the obvious path through the heather to a National Trust sign for the Snake Path. Go through the kissing gate and follow the track across rough grazing land.
(10) After a stretch alongside a wall, go through a gate and cross the field, aiming for the treetops of Twenty Trees. Follow the wall and then go through a kissing gate on your right, above the clump of trees.
Bear left past the trees to a further kissing gate and commemorative sign. Descend along the bottom of the next field to a gate and stile.
(11) Follow the track beyond, which bends left to join a concrete drive and leads down to the
Kinder Road. Turn right and walk down the road back to Rosie Lee Tearoom. (S/E)
