Start: The Old Hall Inn, Whitehough, Chinley, High Peak SK23 6EJ
(S/E) From the road junction in the middle of Whitehough, follow the main village road downhill towards Chinley, passing between The Old Hall Inn on your left and the former Primitive Methodist Church on your right.
(1) After about 200 yards turn right along the Peak Forest Tramway Trail.
(2) Beyond the Forge Mill site (about ½ mile) turn left off the tramway onto a narrower path that meets the Black Brook and continues beside the stream (with a water treatment works on your right). At the road cross a pipeline via a stone bridge then turn left.
(3) At Bridgeholme Mill, turn right, with the stream and mill building on your left and an industrial estate on your right, to reach a narrow squeeze stile into fields. Pass through a couple of fields, aiming for the viaducts beyond. A ladder stile leads under the two viaducts and the path beyond heads over the stream and out to the main road in Chapel Milton.
(4) Cross carefully into Bowden Lane. After a very short distance, take a footpath on the left, which curves up the slope behind a rushy pond. Cross a wall via a stone stile then head parallel to the A6 through a gap in the next hedge. In the next field, cross to the point opposite where wall becomes hedge, and follow the field edge left with the hedge on your right. Beyond a stile, continue in similar vein, then pass through a gate and drop into a hollow way. Turn left.
(5) Cross the footbridge at the bottom and follow the stream beyond to the road in Wash. Take a few steps to the right, then follow a paved footpath on the left uphill along the garden wall of a cottage. At the top, cross the lane and take the footpath to the left of the driveway opposite. Follow this footpath uphill and over the railway. Beyond the railway, follow the right-hand edge of the field to a metal gate into a walled path that leads in turn to a driveway.
(6) When this driveway meets another, turn right and then left, then right again between converted farm buildings to a stile into open fields. Cross the stone stile on the opposite side of the field then head half-left to a further stile by a Peak and Northern sign. Cut the corner of the next field to a similar stile, then carry on in the same direction to a further Peak and Northern sign by a gap in the wall.
(7) Rather than dropping through the gate beyond, keep right, above the wooded valley, crossing two dry-stone walls via step stiles to reach a farm road near a stone barn. Turn left and pass between stone farmhouses to cross the stream and reach the road. Turn left down the road for a short distance, then cross a slab stile on your right, to the right of the entrance to Redgate End Farm Cottage. Walk uphill to a wooden step stile and through a short walled section beyond.
(8) Just beyond the corner of the wall ahead, a signpost indicates the concession path to South Head to the right (should this route be unavailable for any reason, return to the road and divert via Beet Farm and the Pennine Bridleway to South Head Summit). The concessionary path passes through a field gate and then follows a wall on the left, before crossing to the other side of the wall via a stile. From that point on it follows the ridge uphill, rarely straying far from the wall. Towards the top the path passes some old quarries before crossing rough ground to the summit.
(9) From the summit, head left down a steep path to meet the Pennine Bridleway at the col between South Head and Mount Famine. Turn left. Follow the obvious bridleway as it gradually descends, passing through a couple of gateways, before bearing right at a junction of tracks.
(10) Turn left at a crossroads (at the point where the Pennine Bridleway turns right) and descend past a quarry to the main A624 road. Turn left along the left-hand verge, then cross carefully and walk along the lane past Peep-o-Day Farm.
(11) When the lane bends left, follow the farm track straight on. Follow this uphill past farm buildings, then fork left. Turn left through a gateway to pass the isolated farmhouse of Whiterakes. Beyond this the next mile takes you through the extensive remains of former stone quarries. Ignore any crossing paths up and down the slope, eventually descending to a lane, where you turn left.
(12) At a T-junction turn right along a no-through road, then turn left into Chinley Park. Descend across the park, keeping to the right-hand side to pass a pond.
(13) At the bottom of the Park, near a small quarry, turn left through allotments then cross the railway footbridge. Turn right through Leaden Knowl, then left signposted ‘Stephanie Works’. Pass the works entrance, cross the stream and tramway and follow the road beyond uphill back to Whitehough, and The Old Hall Inn
