Walk 3
Walk 3 - Ferry Circuit
3miles (5km) ~ 1.5 - 2 hours
Take a circular walk from the ferry on the Devon bank.
The Ferry Circuit is approximately 3 miles (5km) in length, offering superb views up and down the Tamar Valley. It should take between 11/2 and 2 hours to complete.
Alternatively, you can do a shortened walk of about 2 miles (3.4km) by taking the train back to Calstock from Bere Alston Station. The walk as far as the station takes between 1 and 11/2 hours.
An optional extra is an added half mile each way (1km) to and from the village of Bere Alston with its shops, cafe, toilets and pub (Bere Alston Village Link). This will add about 15-20 minutes each way, plus however long you stop in the village.
Ferry Circuit
Take the ferry from Calstock to Ferry Farm on the Devon Bank. From the landing turn right onto the embankment permissive path towards the viaduct. Pass under the viaduct and continue on the embankment as it swings around a bend in the Tamar.
This section shows the variety of the Tamar Valley landscape: riverside meadows, reed beds, steep wooded slopes with rocky outcrops, a tributary side valley and the village of Calstock with its characteristic viaduct. These elements go to make up a superb landscape setting, making it easy to see why the valley has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
As you approach the bend in the river keep a lookout for the chapel in the woods ahead, perched high on the opposite bank.
At the end of the embankment cross the stile on the left and continue along the bottom of the field, next to the hedge, and parallel to the river. Pass a ruined farm building and carry on ahead through a gap into another field. Keep straight ahead, still parallel to the river, to a gate and stile into the wood.
Cotehele Quay is now seen on the opposite bank.
Follow the track through the woods. Soon it starts to rise, leading to a gate into a yard. Continue ahead, passing in front of the house and through another gate ahead. At the lane beyond this gate bear left, uphill. The lane gives a superb view downriver; the waterside meadows on the opposite bank are especially clear. As you climb the lane, the market garden strips on the hillside across the river come into view. These strips, traditional to the valley, were once very common in the area, but these are among the few now remaining.
The lane climbs through a farmyard then starts to level out to come to a junction. Turn right here and follow the lane for about 1/4 mile (400m). Just beyond the pronounced dip in the lane take the footpath on the left through the gate. Follow the track under the railway bridge and through another gate.
To return direct to the ferry bear left over the field and downhill into the valley bottom to a stile into a wood. Then follow the directions from* below.
If you wish to return to Calstock by train, or to visit Bere Alston, go straight ahead from the railway bridge across the field to the stile next to the house, cross the stile and turn right. Go under a railway bridge and turn left for the station.
Bere Alston Village Link
Turn left at the station approach but take the higher path on the right, above the station forecourt. Pass some houses and at a junction of paths keep ahead, turning right shortly afterwards up some steps into a wood. (N.B. if you get to a railway bridge you have gone too far). Climb the steps and follow the path uphill, emerging from the wood onto a fenced path up over a field.
There are superb views over the valley from the top of this path, Calstock and its viaduct and Kit Hill with its chimney especially prominent.
Go through the kissing gate at the top and bear right ahead up the lane. Go straight over at the crossroads into Drakes Park, then turn left at the bottom of this road for the village centre.
To return to the station and the Ferry Circuit, retrace your steps: go down Station Road then turn right into Drakes Park. Go straight over at the crossroads at the top. Where the road bears right, turn left through the kissing gate and then downhill along the fenced path.
Continue into the wood and follow the main path until it descends steps to a track. Turn left here then bear left at the junction and continue to the station.
To return to the ferry go down to the road and turn right, under the railway bridge. A short way past the bridge cross the stile on the left and go diagonally over the field down into the valley, using the chimney on Kit Hill on the horizon as a guide.
*Cross the stile in the valley bottom then follow the path through the woods, keeping left at the obvious fork. After a while the path drops to the riverside, and Calstock and the viaduct come into view. Continue on the path towards the viaduct.
Pass in front of the farmhouse then go through the gate on the right to the ferry landing.