Thruscross

Start from the car park point 1.  Leave by the main entrance, cross the road into the wood and following the black way mark arrows walk through the wood to Breaks Gill at point 2. Cross the gill and proceed passing a former lane and eventually a ruined mill on the right at point 3. Continue through the wood until you reach the gap stile at point 4.

Turn right onto a path alongside the wall to a footbridge over the stream and onto the public road. Turn right.  Follow the road for a short distance to point 5.  Here you have a choice of two routes, one that runs along the edge of the reservoir or another that takes you up onto the moor.

Route A  - reservoir edge and wood

At point 5 turn right through a pedestrian gate and follow the path with the reservoir on your right passing the ruin of Holme Field Head point 6 on the left and continue to point 7. Here the path splits. You can either take the easier route to the left which runs over the stile and through the fields along the edge of the wood, down the steps to the river, point 8.  Alternatively, continue straight ahead through the wood to a stile on to the steps near point 8.  This section is steep, muddy and quite difficult.

Route B - open fields and moor

Continue on the road uphill past the entrance to Scaife Hill House on the right. Continue to the next track on the right. Follow this track, passing the entrance to Whitmoor House on the right and in around 605 metres turn left to follow the path to the wood.  Turn left keeping the wood on your right to the bridge at point 8.

Whichever route you take after crossing the bridge over the River Washburn at point 8 there is one final decision to make.  You can either cross the stile on the right into the wood and follow the path running by the waters edge and through the wood via point 9 and finally out onto the moor to point 10 or head over the stile directly in front and uphill over the moor to point 10.

From point 10 continue on the moor path to a ladder stile at the edge of the wood, follow the path to the edge of the water. Turn left following the edge of the reservoir past a small plantation on the left to cross the old tarmac track at point 11. Go straight across and follow the surfaced path to a gap in the fence alongside the public road at point 12 (beware of traffic). Here turn right and follow the road over Thruscross Dam and at the end of the dam go through the gap on the left and then almost immediately turn right up a flight of stone steps back to the car park.

OS Map: Explorer Map 297

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