(S/E) With your back to Shallow Grange farmhouse, take the footpath on your left over a ladder stile.
(1) Bear slightly right, with the farm on your left and the pond on your right, to a stile in the stone wall. Head diagonally right (South - East) across the next field, in and out of a dip at the head of a side dale, to reach a stile over the wall at the top of the field below a road sign.
(2) Turn left and walk down the main road (A5270), bending right and left as it crosses the head of Horseshoe Dale. After passing a house at the top of the slope, and shortly before the turning to Chelmorton, take a footpath on the left and follow the remains of a wall to the bottom of the field.
(3) Bear right across the next field, above Bullhay Dale on your left, to a stile in the far corner leading back out to the main road (A5270). Walk past the water treatment works on your left, then cross over and take a walled green lane on the right.
(4) Follow the lane until it emerges into a field beyond a small clump of trees. Head half-left to a wall stile by a field gate in the far corner of the field. Follow the walled lane on your right as it turns immediately left, and walk out to the road (Common Lane), passing a small farm building on your right. Cross the lane and follow the walled path opposite until you reach a farm track.
(5) Turn right and follow the track past the farm buildings and keep on until you reach Chelmorton village. Turn left and walk between the pub and church.
(6) Follow the right-hand bridleway, past Bank Pit Spring on your left. Climb the hill and then keep towards the right of a narrow walled area of rough ground (a former mining ‘rake’) to a gate into Pillwell Lane.
Turn right then left over a wall stile with a wooden fingerpost. Cross the field to a stile, then follow the wall below Fivewells Farm through three fields to Sough Lane.
(7) Cross the stile opposite and continue in similar fashion, passing a trig point beyond the wall on your left to Sough Top covered reservoir. Skirt to the right of the reservoir, then follow the path downhill towards Taddington.
Cross a lane (Slipperlow Lane) and take the path almost opposite, which descends to emerge at a road junction via a narrow path between gardens. Turn right past the bus stop and proceed as far as the lychgate.
(8) Turn left into the churchyard, passing the Anglo-Saxon cross shaft, and head to the left of the church to a gate between holly trees. Follow the wooden fence to a stile in the corner.
Cross the A6 dual-carriageway quickly but carefully and cross a stile on the other side. Turn left to the end of the wall, then take a path on the right that heads diagonally (North-West) to a hand-gate in a stone wall.
(9) Walk downhill to Rock Lodge Farm, keeping to the left of a tumbledown wall and then right of the farm buildings. Join a walled path in front of the farmhouse that heads past a dewpond and down the valley.
(10) Pass between the buildings of a second farm, then turn left at a crossroad of paths next to an old barn. Climb the steep slope to the lane in Priestcliffe. Turn right and follow the lane as it curves left to a junction. Turn right to Lydgate Farm and take the track on the left signposted to Miller’s Dale.
(11) After about 100 yards, take a footpath on the right that crosses a series of fields, the line marked by yellow-painted stiles and gateposts. Follow a wall down into a shallow valley and up the other side, crossing to the left-hand side of the wall before reaching a stile in the top corner. Keep along the wall to the next stile, then bear right to a squeeze stile overlooking Miller’s Dale.
(12) Bear right along the fenceline and follow it as it descends around the disused quarry of Priestcliffe Lees. Beyond a bench below the quarry, go through a gate and descend below spoilheaps. Cross a stile into the wood and descend through the trees to the Monsal Trail (for the Anglers Rest, take the footpath opposite that descends to cross the river).
(13) To continue, turn left along the Monsal Trail and, beyond some old lime kilns on the left, cross the viaduct across the valley. Keep along the trail past the visitor centre at the old station.
(14) Beyond another lime kiln, and just before the trail crosses a bridge, take a stepped path on the right that descends to the riverside. Turn right (upstream) along the riverside path. Stay on the right-hand bank past a footbridge.
(15) Level stretches with short boardwalks and rockier sections alternate until you reach Wormhill Springs, where you leave the river briefly to cross a side-stream. More rocky sections, some high above the water, and more boardwalks, lead to a massive overhanging limestone cliff and the first set of stepping stones.
(16) Beyond these, cross the river on a footbridge and pass beneath a railway bridge. Shortly afterwards, descend some stone steps to return to the original bank via a second footbridge. After further riverside walking you reach the second set of stepping stones, beyond which continue in similar vein to pass under a second railway arch.
(17) At a third railway bridge ignore the footbridge over the river, continuing along the northern bank to the footbridge at Blackwell Mill, where you cross the river for the final time. Follow the entrance drive out to the Wyedale car park, passing under three railway bridges en route. Cross the A6 and take the path to the left of the quarry entrance.
(18) Beyond some settling ponds, go through a gate on your right (signposted ‘Deepdale’) and climb steps, before descending a ballasted track to the dale bottom. Walk up the dale, ignoring a crossing path and passing below the entrance to Thirst House Cave.
After a rocky, wooded section the dale opens out; when it forks, take the right-hand dale (Back Dale). After half a mile, just before a stile, head out of the dale up a steep path on your left, alongside a fence. Cross two stiles at the top of the slope, then bear left across a couple of fields back to Shallow Grange farmhouse. (S/E)
