From the castle, turn right along the High Street, then right again up Wood Street. Before you reach the brow of the hill, turn left on the Gritstone Trail to the Old Man of Mow, which is situated on the site of a cairn.

Continue along the track to a junction of three paths. Keep ahead, signposted the Gritstone Trail, just to the left of the radio mast. Go down steps, and at the end of the narrow field take the upper path (not the more obvious lower track) through woodland.

Go left on the metalled road and walk this along the ridge for 0.75 miles (1.2km) until it bends left at Pot Bank Farm. Go straight ahead on the obvious path.

Follow this path until it reaches another road. Turn left down the hill and continue straight down another track, to the left of the former Methodist church. Just after a house on the right, the path squeezes through a slot in the wall. Stay straight down through the fields, over the stile. At Castle Farm, go through the gate and follow the road round. After 250yds (229m), after a brick shed on your right, go through a gap in the hedge.

Keeping to the right of Fairfields, cross the stile under a tree and head left across the field to cross a farm driveway. Keeping the same direction, cross a succession of fields and stiles, aiming to the left of the white house in the distance ahead. In the last field, follow the hedge around to the left before crossing another stile onto the road.

Head right along this road, going left on Dodds Lane to cross the railway and then the canal. Drop down to the tow path on the Macclesfield Canal and turn right along it for 1.25 miles (2km).

At Bridge No. 85 cross the canal and, after 200yds (183m), go left up Yew Tree Lane. Go under the railway, keep right at a wide fork, and after 300yds (274m) take a left fork up a steep track and, soon after, the less obvious gated track, right, into a field. Head right of the farm and follow the hedge up. At the top, cross a stile into the wood.

At the top of the wood, cross another stile into a field and continue to the top of the ridge. Turn right and make your way back past the Old Man and into Mow Cop