(S/E) From the car park, facing the church, turn left and exit into the lavender field. Walk down the right-hand side and exit in the bottom right-hand corner to a farm track. Turn right then shortly left, onto a track that descends steeply to Swettenham Brook. Cross the bridge then, partway up the hill, turn left over a stile and then a footbridge. Turn right up the grassy slope to emerge by Ash Tree Farm.
(1) Turn left along the track and go through a gate and past Brook Farmhouse. At the cluster of farm buildings beyond, ignore the footpath on the left (our return route) and bear right between the barns before turning right beyond them. Follow this farm drive between fields to the buildings of Deerpark Farm.
(2) At a junction, turn left, then follow the lane right, past a pond, at the entrance to Kermincham Hall. Cross a small valley and follow the driveway out to the road. Turn left and follow the road for half a mile to Twemlow Green. Carry straight on at a junction, past the entrance to Twemlow Hall, to the A535.
(3) Cross and turn left along the pavement, then turn right into Twemlow Lane by The Smithy. Cross Goostrey Lane and carry on along the road, passing the Old Fuel Depot business centre and crossing the railway after 300m or so. Pass Blue Slate Farm on the left.
(4) After a series of bends, look out on the left for a waymarked gate, shortly before the Bidlea Dairy. Walk down the left-hand side of the L-shaped field, then turn right past a lone tree at the end of the property on the right. This leads to a stile into the next field by a pond. Follow the right-hand hedge then turn left and right through a gate at the far end of the field to a second gate leading to a driveway. Walk straight on, past Hermitage Farm on the left. At the entrance to the half-timbered Hollins Farm, follow the drive round a left-hand bend and descend past The Hermitage to the Dane valley.
(5) Before the bridge over the Dane (dated 1707), turn left through a kissing gate and follow the river upstream towards the Twemlow Viaduct. After a second gate the right-of-way cuts across a meander, but the de facto path sticks to the waterside before diverting away from the river to cross a concealed footbridge over a sidestream. Cross a stile and pass under the viaduct (decorated by fans of Harry Styles). Walk up to another stile (“Harry’s Style”) which gives onto the A535.
(6) Cross and turn left along the narrow pavement (which ends at a house). Continue with care past a layby on the left and then, just after the Twemlow signs and before a farm entrance on the left, turn right over a stile by a house. Follow the left-hand side of the field to the far left-hand corner, where a stile leads into the next field. Bear right along the top of the bank above the River Dane, to a kissing gate. Drop down to a footbridge over a side-stream and then climb to a kissing gate into the next field. Head to the left of a wooded bank in the middle of the field, then past a lone tree to climb to a gate at the top of a wood. Beyond the gate and stile, bear right (leaving the obvious farm track) along the woodland edge, then climb a stile on the right and descend through the wood to a footbridge over another Dane tributary. Climb the slope to the left of the wooded bank beyond, then cross the field to a stile in the opposite hedge. Pass below and to the right of a small wood with a duckpond, then bear left uphill along a track. Follow the track right at the top, then go through a kissing gate on the right and follow the brackeny path on the other side of the fence above the steep valley side. This path meets a farm track, then keeps right of the hedge to pass to the right of Brook Farm.
(7) Go through a kissing gate then, at the end of a brick barn, turn left to another. From this point on, you are retracing your steps from your outward journey: turn right along the track past Brook Farmhouse. At Ash Tree Farm, turn right down the track that descends to Swettenham Brook. Cross the bridge at the bottom and climb the hill beyond to a junction. Turn right then, very shortly, left by a footpath sign. This leads to the lavender field next to the Swettenham Arms – walk up the left-hand side of the field back to the pub.(S/E)
