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Mullingar, cipher is one meaning of a four-letter word. Noting that you have two choices for the unchecked letter and two for the use of "over" in the wordplay, there's not too much searching to do.

Sorry to be a pain, but is the message giving the instruction and the start point 24 letters in total ending somewhere in 10d? Because if it is, I just get gobbledygook from following the instruction.

Gitto, yes it is. It’s 3,5,8,4,4. If you start the next part where indicated, the first move takes you northeast out of the grid

Thanks Quisling - I was counting the start cell as part of the message due to my own stupidity,

Understandable. It would seem logical to use the starting cell, but neither message does

I don't believe it, but I have now completed this! The instruction was hard to follow at times due to being unable to source a clearly legible copy of what was required. However, once I discounted the letter in the start cell, it seemed pretty obvious from the first 4 letters what the message was going to be and, hey presto, that hunch worked. The end game certainly tested me to my limits. How people can construct puzzles like this is beyond my comprehension. Truly remarkable.

I’m glad you’ve got there, gitto. I too thought this was a tour de force. Pandiculator is an elite setter, make no mistake. Huge respect and thanks to them

Ditto, I echo your admiration of Pandiculator's construction. And we should add our gratitude for the directional help, which substantially reduced the problem of illegibility.

And, of course, Ditto should read Gitto. Sorry about that, and many thanks (not) to auto-correct.

Quisling & RHSL, I couldn't even dream up the idea, never mind the execution! I shall add Pandiculator to my "approach with extreme trepidation" list.