(S/E) From The Hardwick Inn car park entrance, turn right towards the entrance to Hardwick Park. Go through the gate to the left of the cattle grid and turn left along the woodland edge.
(1) Ignore the gate into the wood on your left, instead continuing alongside the wood. Walk across the grass to a gate and pass below a pond (the lowest of the Row Ponds). Follow the path beyond, with the Great Pond on your left.
(2) Go through a gate at the end of the lake and take the path straight ahead. Cross a track and follow another path in the same direction (North) as before, now with the Miller’s Pond on your left.
At the far end of the pond, ignore the gate on your left and follow the path ahead through the wood, which gradually curves uphill and to the right. Leave the wood through a wooden kissing gate and walk up to the entrance drive.
(3) Turn left past the cattle grid and follow the drive through fields to exit the Park. At the public road, turn left past Stainsby Mill. Keep left at the war memorial to pass below the motorway (M1).
(4) At the junction, cross carefully, go to the right and take a footpath slightly to the left that leads up the wooded bank to a stile.
Cross the field beyond, keeping to the left of the farm building to reach a gate. Drop down to the road and turn right. Walk uphill through Stainsby village, keeping left at the junction with the chestnut tree in the middle. Beyond a farm, keep along the lane as it climbs out of the village.
When the lane bends left, take a field path on the right (West); keep along the bottom (right-hand side) of the first field. Go through a gate and follow a farm track along the top of the second field. At the end, keep right, along the top of a third field, and cross a stile into a fourth.
(5) When the hedge on your left turns left, follow it round. Swing right along the field edge to a stile on your left. Bear right (uphill) in the next field to another stile, and cross the next field to a gate. Beyond a further field, cross a narrow lane (Hawking Lane) and take the path opposite.
(6) Follow the right-hand edge of the field down to a footbridge over a small stream. Keep to the right of the narrow field beyond, climbing to a stile in the far right-hand corner. Head half-right to a double stile into a driveway, where you turn left to emerge in Astwith village.
(7) At the road, go straight on then, when the road bends right, take a signposted footpath on the left (between some old barns on the right and a brick outbuilding on your left) to reach a stone-built cottage. Cross a damson orchard to reach a gate, beyond which head downhill to pass a small water works and cross a stream.
(8) Keep to the woodland edge on your left as far as a waymark, then bear right to a gate. Follow the path up the field beyond, aiming to the right of a solitary tree. On reaching the far corner, follow the right-hand edge of the wood, heading downhill with fine views to Hardwick Hall. Beyond the wood, follow the hedge on your left to a stile, and drop down the wooded bank to the road.
(9) Cross and turn right along the pavement, shortly passing under the motorway (M1) once more. Turn immediately left into Hardwick Park.
Follow the first footpath on the right, near the corner of the Great Pond, and turn right along the waterside path, with the lake to your left. Follow the path as it enters the woodland along a boardwalk, to cross the stream below the duck decoy.
Follow the path through the wood away from the decoy pond when it bends left, to emerge in parkland below the Old Hall. (1) Turn right and retrace your steps along the woodland edge to return to The Hardwick Inn.(S/E)
