From Clough House car park, it’s a pleasant 4½ mile circuit out to Three Shires Head and back. Taking in secluded river valleys, mature woodland, a couple of miniature waterfalls, open sheep pasture and heather moorland, there are also some gentle hills to stretch the legs nicely — 285m ascent/descent in total. Should take about 1¼ hours if you don’t hang about, but on a nice day there are plenty of excuses to dally, particularly at the packhorse bridge at Three Shires Head.

The route: Clough House car park to Three Shires Head, and back

The route remains within Cheshire throughout, but follows the county boundary with Derbyshire, and then Staffordshire, near Three Shires Head. Technically, you could stand with one foot in Cheshire, one foot in Derbyshire, and one foot a hand in Staffordshire, but you’ll get very wet trying…

The interactive OS map below shows the route. You could walk this circuit in either direction, but if you go clockwise (heading east past Cumberland House), you’ll avoid a steep walk up the road at the start.

Note that if you’re subscribed to this blog as a feed, and are reading this post in a “reader” (such as Google Reader or FeedDemon), you’ll need to click through to the WildVista website to see the interactive OS map.