The antiferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition in MnO at 118 K occurs at a much lower temperature than anticipated from its Curie-Weiss constant theta~550 K. Consequently, strong local spin order persists within the paramagnetic phase; the system is not at all well described in terms of a "classical" picture of random spins. Here we seek to apply a combination of single-crystal magnetic diffuse scattering and powder neutron total scattering measurements to study the local magnetic structure in paramagnetic MnO and its evolution with temperature. In particular we are interested in characterising the paramagnetic-paramagnetic transition at 530 K. This experiment will also serve as a test case to determine the reliability of extracting magnetic nanostructures from GEM data, with the view of applying the approach to other disordered spin systems for which single crystals are not available.