Cotehele Quay - River Tamar - Calstock - Metherell

Dave Pawley

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This walk is full of interest and beauty. It starts from the National Trust car park at Cotehele Quay, where there are toilets, a tea shop, a small free museum and ice creams. The walk includes woodland, then goes along the side of the Tamar, where steamers from Plymouth bring passengers 17 miles upriver at high tide to stop off at Calstock, before returning them to the Barbican once again.

Pass under the magnificent span of the old railway viaduct high above the Tamar and then follow the riverbank along reclaimed land as the now narrow river runs downstream just below you. Continue along the path until it leaves the river and heads uphill. Recently a little circular loop has been opened to take you around some old mine-workings and some wildlife-watching spots, a nice addition to an already lovely walk.

Back to the track and a road section of about a mile follows, which can be broken up with a visit to Calstock Church.

Soon the walk descends again through woods as the track zigzags right down to the Danescoombe Valley, up to the small hamlet of Danescoombe and then up a footpath through woods and a long-disused paper-mill and on to the village of Norris Green. Along another footpath and you will be in a large village called Metherell with a very nice pub, the Carpenters Arms. The rest of the walk takes you downhill again to the side of the stream which still does turn the waterwheel at Cotehele Mill, now a working attraction and one non-NT members must pay to see.

You emerge from woods just by Cotehele Bridge for the last few hundred yards back to Cotehele Quay and the tea shops, ice creams and pasties made in the tea shop.

England - South West England - Cornwall - Tamar Valley