[1] From the small car park opposite Worsley Court House, now a Grade II-listed events venue (and open some Sundays for lunch), turn right and follow the road across the canal, then turn immediately right onto a private road that leads to the towpath. Turn left onto the towpath, in the direction of the motorway bridge. Follow the towpath for 1.5 miles to reach Boothstown.

[2] Cross over the pedestrian bridge opposite the Moorings pub. Follow the edge of the canal basin. Just before the gate into the marina, follow the path behind a hedge that runs alongside the canal, heading back towards Worsley on the opposite side from the way you came.

[3] At Worsley, the path leaves the canal and enters the car park where you started. Cross the road and follow the footpath sign past a dental surgery towards the mock-Tudor Packet House, where people used to wait for the horse-drawn passenger (‘packet’) boats into Manchester. Queen Victoria was once taken for a cruise on a horse-drawn barge here. The hubbub of the crowd caused one horse to take fright and jump into the canal. Cross the little footbridge and keep on the path up to the road and across to School Brow and Worsley Delph, where the underground canals exit. You can see the entrances to two tunnels – now closed – that led into the mines.

[4] Walk up the cobbled lane to a woodland path. After 10 metres, turn right and continue beside a stream and private gardens. At the end of the fence, turn right and walk along the boardwalk, still following the stream. At top of steps, turn right to cross a bridge over the stream. Turn left to Old Warke Dam. There is a lovely view of the lake and a grand mock-Tudor house, the Aviary, built by the third Duke of Bridgewater’s great-nephew in the 1840s as a hunting lodge. Keep on the tarmac path round the lake towards a gatehouse. Pass between this and the lake, following a sign to Beesley Green on a tarmac path through beech woods.

[5] At the footbridge, turn left, signposted Worsley Delph (950m). Stay on the path through woods and beside a field, cross the Aviary’s driveway and head back into the woods. At the bottom of the steps, turn right. At the boardwalk, turn right up the steps, left at top of steps and down the path back to Worsley Delph and on to the car park.