[1] START From Flash Bar Stores (SK032678), cross the A53 to the bus shelter and follow the minor road on your L. Take the first R and, at Highfield Farm, turn L. After 200m, cross the stile to your L and follow the path between dry-stone walls. At a gate, follow the track ahead. At the next gate, don’t go through but follow the footpath sign and not-so-clear path, bearing R, for a gentle ascent over moorland to a ridge and a Y-junction of paths. Bear R here past a small outcrop – a miniature version of the nearby rock formation, The Roaches. After 200m, you reach a cleft where a stream begins.

[2] Turn L to follow the stream on the opposite side of a little valley. You are now on the Dane Valley Way (DVW) but there are no waymarkers yet. This isn’t the head of the Dane, which is about 500m further north. Follow the path to join a farm track. After a new cattle grid and a footpath gate, follow the track to your L (there’s a driveway to Orchard Farm to your R) to join a tarmac road. After crossing a stream, turn R. After another 100m, there’s a DVW waymarker on your R. Follow this R, along a dry stone wall, to another DVW marker and a concrete road. At a hairpin bend in the farm track, the unmarked DVW is the grassy path to your L, following the contour of the hillside to the head of a small valley and a sheltered viewpoint. Keep following the DVW, the A54 looming ever closer but not detracting from the calls of lapwings and curlews. Bear L down a rocky path through the remains of a quarry, following a DVW marker.

[3] Cross the stream on uneven stepping stones and ascend the path to a DVW sign on your L. Follow this until you’re almost at the A54, then turn L down a steep path by the industrial heritage of the Dane Bower Colliery chimney. Follow the River Dane downstream on the path, sporting sections of flagstone pavement, to Three Shire Heads – an excellent picnic and swimming spot. Cross the packhorse bridge and turn R, still following the DVW. After 250m, at a set of gate posts, bear L at the junction of two paths, ignoring the DVW that goes downhill. The path becomes a farm track, then tarmac. Follow this minor road through a gate to a lay-by, where peace is temporarily spoilt by motocross bikes.

[4] Turn R here down a concrete track and follow the wooden fence to a walkers’ gate by Wicken Walls cottage. Turn L and follow the stone wall to the end of the field. Go over the wall and straight ahead for 40m to a stream. Cross the footbridge and negotiate the overgrown path. At a five-bar gate, turn L, following a dry stone wall. Follow the footpath signs uphill, across fields and stiles, then turn R onto a driveway for 50m, before turning L and heading towards stone cottage between deciduous trees. At a minor road, turn L and continue the steep ascent to Flash. Admiring the view behind makes a good excuse for a breather. In Flash, turn R in front of the church. Follow the churchyard wall to your L, then go through a farmyard to fields. Cross the fields to the A53 through a set of new kissing gates. Cross the A53 to Nield Bank driveway, directly opposite. This is also the Manifold Way. Follow the driveway to a house then bear L uphill, following the waymarker through gorse. Keep following the Manifold Way markers to a minor road and turn L back to the start.