Start: Alderley Edge National Trust Car Park (free for members).
Parking: At the National Trust Car Park.
Distance: 2 miles.
Ordnance Survey Maps: Explorer 268, Wilmslow, Macclesfield and Congleton.(GR SJ859772).
Dog Factors:
Road walking: None.
Livestock: None.
Stiles: None.
Nearest vets: The Vets’ Place, Wilmslow.

The Walk

1  From the car park, walk up to the front of the Wizard Tea-Room and turn right on the broad track. At the path junction, keep ahead (right) along the edge of the wood. Just before the path bends right, there is a wooden gate on the left-hand side.

2  From the Golden Stone, go back to the wooden gate and through it. Take the first path on the left, climbing gently. Reaching a mound with pine trees, the path on the left leads down to the Old Alderley Quarry and you may care to take a look before continuing on the main path. On reaching wooden paling on the left, turn right on an all-ability path, which very soon crosses a hollowed-out area. Continue a few yards to where the path bends left and joins a broader path.

3  Ahead and to the right you will see a fence. Take the path immediately to the right of the fence. This soon passes the Wizard’s Hole (a small cave on the left), after which you can see some old mines below you on the right. Continue past the mines to Stormy Point, a red sandstone cliff.

4  Walk up to the stand on the top of the sandstone edge. Here the old split rock is known as the Devil’s Grave. Turn your back on the view and take the all-ability path immediately to your left. Where this path begins to bend right you will see the Druids’ Circle on your left. Continue round the bend to reach the Beacon.

5  At the Beacon, turn right (ie: directly away from the fields) and walk down hill. A path joins from the left, but continue to the bottom of the slope before turning left on a lesser path. Follow this around to pass first the Holy Well (said to cure barrenness) and then the wishing Well. Continue ahead, rising up steps to a T-junction.

6  Turn right here and in 20 yards or so, fork right again on the lower path. Soon you pass the sheer red face of Castle Rock on your left and after it, an overhang with some rocks sticking up from the ground beneath.

7  Back at the overhanging rock, climb up the steps, alongside. At the top turn left on the path between fences to emerge on top of Castle Rock with yet more views. Now go ahead alongside the field, then keep to the right around a stone wall to pass behind the Beacon again. Continue ahead, then straight over at a cross-tracks. Soon the fenced edge of Engine Vein Quarry is ahead of you. Turn right along the fence briefly, then right, away from the quarry and downhill to return to the car park.

From Cheshire – A Dog Walker’s Guide, by author Judy Smith, is published by Countryside Books, available from local bookshops, Countryside Books, 3 Catherine Road, Newbury, Berkshire; www.countrysidebooks.co.uk. (ISBN 978 1 84674 302 3).

It is advisable for anyone who plans to follow the walk to take a copy of the relevant Ordnance Survey map.