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(S/E) From the front door of The Sportsmann Inn, turn left for a few paces, then cross the road and go through the gap in the wall opposite. Descend to the river and cross the footbridge at the bottom.
(1) Turn left and follow the riverside path. Walk between the river and the campsite then, at the campsite entrance, turn left over the road bridge.
(2) Turn right past Bowden Bridge car park. When the road bends slightly left at Bowden Bridge Cottage, turn right onto the riverside track. At the entrance to Oakbank, turn right over the packhorse bridge.
In the corner beyond, turn left through a gate. Climb a walled path and go through a gate and past a converted barn to emerge at Hill Houses.
(3) Turn left past the farmhouse on your left and go through a gate. Follow the track beyond, bending left then right to reach Booth Farm after half a mile. Beyond Booth, descend to a lane. Turn right, uphill, passing between the buildings of Farlands.
(4) Opposite a bench and path on the left, turn right through a gateway. Follow the track across the field up to the edge of a coniferous plantation on your left. Follow the edge of the wood to its end, ignoring the Oaken Clough bridleway that heads off right at PNFS sign no. 285.
(5) Beyond the end of the wood, follow the track ahead to a stile by a gate and National Trust sign, then ford the stream on your left. Cross the National Trust stile and follow the path beyond up the hillside; bear right then left between broken walls to a gate in a more complete wall.
(6) Turn left, parallel to the wall, then when the vague track bears left, turn right on a narrow path that descends to meet another wall obliquely.
Follow the wall to a junction of walls then bear right along the obvious descending path that curves left down to a footbridge.
(7) Cross the bridge and turn left, taking the higher (right-hand) path that passes above a walled clump of birch trees. Bear left along the wall towards the reservoir, leaving it to ford a small stream then climbing to a hand-gate. The path beyond contours above trees then curves right and descends to a gate.
(8) Ford a side-stream and continue to cross the footbridge over William Clough. Turn left and follow the path above and along the reservoir wall.
At a fork, take the right-hand (upper) path that climbs slightly through the heather, leading away from the reservoir. Rejoin the reservoir wall at a hand-gate and continue along the wall, below open woodland.
After an information board erected to mark the centenary of the reservoir, level with the dam, descend above the waterworks, still following the reservoir wall. The last part of the path is pitched and may be slippery underfoot.
(9) Go through a gate into the reservoir access road and turn right. Follow the road for 400 yards to the sheepwash, then continue for a further half-mile to Bowden Bridge car park (2). Beyond the car park, follow Kinder Road for a further third of a mile back to The Sportsmann Inn. (S/E)
Association / Club / Walk leader
Easy 
Difficult 
Visorando Member
