The walk begins at the Tea Junction in Hulme End, where the old railway building now serves as a natural starting point for the Manifold Valley, and from here you follow the Manifold Way south, settling into an easy, level stretch along the former railway as the river moves quietly alongside and the valley opens without effort.

After fifteen to twenty minutes the route leaves this steady line at the signed turn toward Thor’s Cave and Wetton, and the character of the walk changes as you climb away from the valley floor, gaining height on a clear path that asks a little more of the legs while remaining straightforward, with the ground falling away behind you as the limestone hillside begins to take shape.

Thor’s Cave appears high in the slope before you reach it, its wide entrance set into the rock, and once inside there is a natural pause as the view opens back across the Manifold Valley, the position doing the work without distraction, making it a place to take in the ground you have crossed before continuing on.

From the cave the route carries on toward Wetton and then descends back into the valley, where the walking becomes easier again as you approach Wetton Mill and meet the river, the bridge and café marking a clear transition point in the route.

At Wetton Mill you cross the bridge, turn right, and then bear left onto the green lane which climbs steadily up the side of the valley, the track rising at a consistent pace as it leaves the river behind and opens out toward Swaisley, which sits quietly in the landscape rather than forming a defined village.

From Swaisley you follow the road onward past Ecton, where the shape of the land begins to reflect its mining past, and a short distance beyond the entrance to the Ecton copper mines you bear left in the road and pass through the middle of a small farm, after which a footpath on the left leads away from the road and out across the water meadows.

This final section returns you gently to the valley floor, crossing open ground beside the river before rejoining the Manifold Trail close to Hulme End, and from here it is a short and familiar walk back to the Tea Junction, completing a loop that moves cleanly from valley to hillside and back again without repetition.