Great South West Walk

Wednesday August 1

Section 1. Plymouth to Wembury. Miles: 14.8. Grading: Easy

Start time and location
Could you please report for registration at the Cremyll car park (Plymouth side) at 8am.
The walk will commence at 8.30am.

Parking
Plenty of parking avaialble at start points.

Bus services
There are buses from Plymouth to Mountbatten (7 & 7A), Bovisand (17, summer only), Heybrook Bay (49) and Wembury (48). All services are run by First Western National – for timetables and information ring 01752 402060.

Trains
Plymouth is on the Penzance to Paddington main line, so you can reach the rest of the country from here. The station is, however, at the opposite end of the city to the Coast Path, but within walking distance. For more information, please telephone National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950.

Maps
Ordnance Survey Landranger series (scale 1:50 000) Number 201, Plymouth and Launceston.
Ordnance Survey Explorer series (scale 1:25 000) Number 108, Lower Tamar Valley and Plymouth.
Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure series (1:25,000) Number 20, South Devon

General information
City area: accommodation, shops (including chemists), pubs, restaurants, cafés, car parks, toilets, and public telephones.
The Barbican area: accommodation, shops, pubs, restaurants, cafés, car parks, toilets, and public telephones.
Turnchapel: accommodation, pubs, car parks, public telephone and toilets.
Mountbatten Point: pub, café, public telephone and toilets.
Jennycliff: café, car park and toilets.
Bovisand: refreshments, car park and toilets.
Wembury Beach: refreshments, car park and toilets.
Wembury: accommodation, refreshments, car park, public telephone and toilets.

The route

PLYMOUTH (RIVER TAMAR) TO MOUNTBATTEN POINT
Annual Guide Section 56 (7.5 miles: 12.0 km) Grading: Easy

Thanks to the City Council there have been vast improvements here resulting in the enjoyment of walking along the waterfront. This Association has achieved almost all of its objectives to improve the lot of the walker.

We will assume, for the purpose of this guide, that you have stepped ashore at Admirals Hard, Stonehouse, having crossed by ferry from Cremyll. If not, then there is a bus service from the City Centre to nearby Durnford Street, so you can start where you should, at the ferry point.

On stepping ashore a new sign not only tells you that you have regained the South West Coast Path, but informs you that behind you it is 352 miles to Minehead and 10 miles to Jennycliff (in fact it is 411 miles to Minehead). We ought to mention now about keeping your eyes open as you walk along Plymouth’s waterfront which is, many believe, the finest urban seascape in the land.
On landing you will find a café and a pub. Pause to inspect the café frontage; there is a plaque in the form of a knitted full English breakfast. By the end of your City walk you will pass by several of these. All eating establishments on the Coast Path along the City Waterfront have these plaques.

The walk ahead of you is marked well and has many reminders of Plymouth’s history in the shape of signs and works of art.

If refreshments are not required pass by the café, Elvira’s, and pub and turn right into Cremyll Street and walk along it until you are confronted by the enormous gates of the Royal Navy Victualling Depot, the Royal William Yard.

Pause for a while, not only to admire the massive gateway, but to look for direction signs. We are hoping to gain a waterfront walkway through the Royal William Yard to Devil’s Point. So by the time you read this it may have been installed. If this wonderful improvement has been made then follow the signs.

Up until 1824 storehouses for the Royal Navy were scattered all around the harbours. The idea of a new victualling yard with storehouses was conceived in that year and was completed in 1835. The first of the buildings was named Clarence Block after the Duke of Clarence who became King William IV, and his statue dominates the imposing main entrance.

If a path has not yet been created through the yard, bear left along the short Admiralty Road to a small car park at Firestone Bay. A fine view of Drake’s Island is ahead.

Originally the only building on the island was a chapel dedicated to St Nicholas and this is the island’s name. Around about 1550 this chapel was demolished and fortifications erected. Sir Francis Drake was appointed governor of the island in 1586 hence the name change. The Ministry of Defence relinquished the island in 1956 to the National Trust. It is now leased to the City and used for youth adventure training.

At Firestone Point you can turn right and go out to Western King Point and Devil’s Point for views back across the Tamar and out into Plymouth Sound. You will have to retrace your steps back, and before leaving this car park make sure you see the ancient Artillery Tower, now an unusual and very fine restaurant.

Whether you have been fortunate to walk through the Royal William Yard or have followed the old route you now need Durnford Street.

From now on you need to keep a watchful eye on your feet. There are plaques set into the pavements. For instance Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived in Durnford Street. As you progress look out for quotes from the Sherlock Holmes books.

Continue along Durnford Street towards the City. You will pass by the Royal Marines on guard outside the Royal Marine Barracks - take the first right which leads into Caroline Place and on into Millbay Road.

As you progress along Millbay Road you will have good views over Millbay Docks, possibly with the hustle and bustle of a cross-channel ferry loading or unloading.

Maintain a careful watch for a length of blue painted street railings. The rails have been cleverly twisted and will reveal a famous order given by Sir John Hawkins to the fleet off Northern Spain in 1564.

The next item to watch out for, well you can’t miss it really, is the actual 4 foot (1.22 m) spanner that was used to adjust the gates of the Millbay dry dock built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Continue along Millbay Road to the Wall of Stars. In the days of the great transatlantic steamers many famous figures came ashore here to catch the train for London rather than sail on to Southampton.

Just a little further on is the stack of gold bullion, which is a reminder that one of the cargoes handled here was gold en route to and from the countries of the Empire and the United States. It was almost an everyday occurrence to see bullion stacked and guarded by a single unarmed policeman.

At the junction with West Hoe Road you will find the Eddystone Lighthouse Pavement and the lead nugget.

At the junction with West Hoe Road, turn right and continue along it. You are entering the West Hoe area where scores of B & B establishments are to be found.

Continuing along you will see a terrace of houses (mostly small hotels) on your right. Watch out for a path seaward and behind these houses. This path is known as Rusty Anchor and provides a seaward diversion from the main road. On your return to the road it now becomes Grand Parade which provides you with a coast walk all the way around to the Barbican. Stay on this promenade until you notice the large open-air swimming pool. We advise that on reaching it you cross the road to steps opposite and climb up onto Plymouth Hoe and past the lighthouse, Smeaton’s Tower.

Stand and look around. Eastwards you can see the South Devon coast, where you should be later in the day. Stretching away westwards is the coast of Cornwall, and ahead is the wide aspect of the Sound. Behind you is the well-known statue of Sir Francis Drake still scanning the horizon for the Spanish Armada and behind him is the picturesque, broad Armada Way dropping down into the city centre.

Smeaton’s Tower, which was substantially renovated in 2002, is open to the public and you can climb to the top. In 1695 Henry Winstanley built a wooden lighthouse on the dangerous Eddystone Reef, 17 miles (27 km) out at sea. This was washed away together with its builder seven years later. Another was built and in 1711 it was destroyed by fire. This lighthouse that you see on the Hoe was built by John Smeaton in 1759, but the waves undermined the rocks upon which it stood, so it was dismantled and re-erected stone by stone, here on the Hoe. Another, still operating was built in its place.

As you gaze seawards, to your left are the massive walls of the Royal Citadel which was built as a result of the Dutch Wars of 1664/67. Charles II recognised the importance of Plymouth as a naval base and had this massive fort built to improve the defences of the town. It is believed that somewhere within this fort is where Sir Francis Drake played bowls prior to tackling the Spanish Armada.

Retrace your steps to the swimming pool and continue along the foreshore passing the great limestone walls of the Royal Citadel. You are now on Madeira Road and the Royal Citadel walls remain on your left almost all the way down into the Barbican area. When you reach the level immediately on your right, opposite the Admiral McBride Inn, is West Pier, a small jetty which is of great historic interest.

This is the location of the Mayflower Steps and it is worthwhile visiting these to read the several commemorative plaques mounted on the quay wall. Not only did the Pilgrim Fathers sail from here in 1620 but many other famous people departed from, and arrived at, this quay. The Tourist Information Centre (TIC) is only 100 yards (91 m) away.

THE BARBICAN
If you have time the Barbican is worth exploring. Watch out for Island House (which is also the Tourist Information Centre) opposite the old fish market. The house was built some time between 1580 and 1600. It is believed that an earlier house was here in 1490. The outside wall holds a list of names of the Pilgrim Fathers, that is, the crew and passengers of the Mayflower, who are supposed to have stayed at this house and others in the area before sailing in 1620 for North America.

Behind Island House is New Street, where, time permitting, you ought to explore the Elizabethan House and maybe take refreshment at Green Lanterns. The Elizabethan House is one of the finest known examples of a 16th century building.

The Barbican area of Plymouth is the most ancient part of the town. It was around Sutton Pool that the first houses were built by fishermen who lived on the low-lying shore above mud banks. This little village spread inland developing gradually along narrow twisting cobbled lanes. In contrast the modern city centre has been rebuilt along wide, straight avenues after being completely destroyed by bombs in 1941.

At Phoenix Wharf your ferry to Mountbatten Point awaits if you are not taking the walk around.

If you have decided to continue your walk along this waterfront walk, read on.

The Sutton Harbour lock gates are private property and as such this is a permissive route only. They are, however, used all day and every day by pedestrians.

Aim for the lock gates and walk across. You will find your crossing is generally unimpeded as the gates are only opened to allow boats through.

On passing the National Marine Aquarium you will find silver fish at your feet.

Continue on into Teats Hill Road. Here is the Queen Anne’s Battery, now an extremely busy yachting centre, and well worth a visit. The writer can well remember many fascinating hours spent here watching preparations for the Tall Ships Race. Continue on and turn right into Breakwater Hill. You will be surrounded by cars in various stages of being scrapped, and if you find that interesting, stop a while and watch the sparks flying at the adjacent scrap yard.

Alongside the vehicle scrap yard is the newly erected ‘Navigation Beacon’ that is in the shape of a rocket ship – a reminder that this is still the South West Coast Path.

Continue on up the hill; it will level off and you will find yourself on top of limestone cliffs overlooking the Cattewater, and below you a huge oil terminal/depot.

The road drops down, passing a giant medallion of St Christopher, into the area known as Cattedown Wharf. Continue on along Finnegan Road to Laira Bridge Road where you turn right. As you cross this bridge you cross the River Plym which rises many miles away high upon Dartmoor. It is a busy dual carriageway, and at the first roundabout you need to turn right into Oreston Road.

As you do so, you may like to rest awhile upon a seat ingeniously created out of railway sleepers, and examine the Oreston Rhinoceros. Nearby an Oreston cave has yielded up fossil remains of creatures that once roamed around the area.

Stay with Oreston Road to the top, bear right and at Rollis Park Road, turn right to descend to Oreston Quay. At the far end enter Park Road and stay with it to the top of the hill. Tucked away in the left hand corner is the entrance to a path. Climb the ancient stone stile and continue along. You will cross Broad Park and into another footpath which leads down to Radford Lake.

At Radford Lake walk across the causeway and under the Castle, which was once the lodge to a large house, now no more. At the end of the causeway turn right onto a path that will take you alongside the southern shore of Hooe Lake with sewage works on your left. You will join a small road which leads down to Hooe Lake Road. In front of you is a large expanse of grass with a children’s play area over on the left, and Hooe Lake on the right. Proceed across this grass to a road, Barton Road, where you turn right. Stay on this road, passing by a Ministry of Defence area. Passing through gates you enter Turnchapel and your urban walking is almost over.

Refreshment is available at the Boringdon Arms and the New Inn.

Immediately behind the New Inn is St John’s Road, a steep hill, that you need to take. Follow this up to a small car park on your right.

As you enter the car park look to your right and enter a path dropping downhill towards the shoreline. Follow this and enter the new Coast Path at Mountbatten. Walk out to the point, passing the pier that receives ferry passengers from The Barbican.

If you have come by ferry then please take up your walk description from here.

MOUNTBATTEN POINT TO WEMBURY (WARREN POINT FERRY)
Annual Guide Section 57 (7.3 miles: 11.8 km) Grading: Easy

Mountbatten Point was home to the RAF Air Sea Rescue from 1918 to 1995 and for all those years out of bounds to civilians. This new path was installed during 1997/98. It is a wonderful improvement for which this Association is grateful to those who caused it to happen.

Continue on around the point and follow another new path that will take you up steps to the Martello Tower. Walk around Batten Bay and Dunstone Point up onto the large recreation area of Jennycliff (seasonal refreshments). Continue south along the cliff top edge of that grassy area. You are now in for another treat.

Jennycliff Bay is a good starting place for day walkers and for those who have come through Plymouth by bus. Here there is a free car park, a frequent bus service, a good swimming beach and a café. Urban development has suddenly stopped and you are in the country. There is a blue metal marker at Jennycliff matching theone at Admirals Hard, which shows it is 175.5 miles to Poole. It is, in fact, 212 miles.

Up until 1998 Coast Path walkers always had to risk life and limb on the busy road for about 0.25 mile (0.4 km) - not any more, because a woodland walk has been created seaward and below the road.

You enter the woodlands at the southernmost point of the field and walk an up and down woodland path until you join up with the old coast path where you turn right. There are more woodlands around you but the path soon emerges onto the open high cliffs to give a marvellous view of Plymouth and Drake’s Island with yesterday’s Cornish walk and the Tamar across the Sound. Soon the breakwater is seen, started in 1812 and made of limestone from quarries in nearby Oreston and granite from Dartmoor; the wide openings for shipping at each end of the breakwater help to prevent the Sound from silting up. Now the path descends, partly by steps, and the tiny Bovisand Harbour comes into view below the cliff.

Pause a while and reflect that since Turnchapel you have not set foot upon a vehicular road. This alignment improvement came about due to the efforts of Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Development Corporation and, we like to think, this Association.

This is 19th century armed forces country - Fort Stamford, between Turnchapel and Jennycliff has already been left behind, whilst Staddon Fort and the huge rifle range wall are above us. Bovisand developed in two ways - forts and the harbour. The harbour came first, in 1824 at the time the breakwater was being finished, to provide ships with fresh water. Water tenders took on water which was piped to the harbour from a reservoir on high ground above Staddon Point, supplying sailing ships at anchor and saving them the difficulties of sailing up to the dockyard through the channel at Devil’s Point, against wind that is often adverse or variable. The forts at Bovisand were two of Palmerston’s ‘follies’ and the first, Staddon Heights Battery, can just be seen below the path before it crosses a wide, moat-like ditch that protected the forts from attack from the land. You can also make out the defensive caponiers, which are covered walkways with slits, at the top and bottom of this ditch.

A flight of steps takes the path down to road level, close to a row of white coastguard cottages. If walking in the opposite direction, clockwise around the Coast Path, these steps are not conspicuous, but are signposted at the eastern end of the cottages. When the road is reached the Coast Path is to the left, but Fort Bovisand is a short distance to the right; as it is the best preserved of the forts it is worth a short diversion.

FORT BOVISAND
The twenty-three huge gun casemates look out to the south and to the west in a curve above the harbour, and their massive granite walls, up to 30 feet (9 m) thick in places, with iron shields, can be seen from the road. These were built to meet the threat of the new ‘ironclad’ warships, against which the guns of the Staddon battery just above gave insufficient protection. The last of the big muzzle loading guns, with nine or ten inch bores, each weighing up to eighteen tons, were made in Woolwich Arsenal and brought to Bovisand harbour by sea. They were installed in the casemates, but within 30 years they were made obsolete by quick-firing breech-loading guns, and at the turn of the century they had been removed. The fort continued in use until 1957, and after some years of neglect the fort and harbour have taken on a new lease of life. This is now Europe’s largest diving training centre, and the harbour is busy with the divers and their small boats. The recompression chamber is used by hospital patients with a variety of medical problems, as well as for the divers. There are refreshments available at Fort Bovisand.

Walk back along the road past the coastguard cottages, a parking area, and a summer bus stop. About 250 yards (225 m) from the coastguard cottages the white notice board of the Bovisand Lodge Caravan Park marks the start of the path, which goes down broad steps to Bovisand Bay beach. This was an older watering-place for ships, but instead of a harbour there were mooring buoys that were first recorded in 1627.

On the other side of the beach the path goes up to join the tarmac road through the Bovisand Chalet Park. These chalets and the less conspicuous caravans behind Bovisand beach are almost the only holiday developments around Plymouth Sound, which has been preserved by its strategic importance. This chalet park does not obstruct the views of Plymouth Sound, is neatly kept and provides car parking, a café and telephone. Beyond the chalets the path is grassy, with a white navigation beacon amongst gorse and bracken on low cliffs.

The view of Plymouth is disappearing, but Rame Head emerges beyond Penlee Point on the far side of the Sound. Closer, the waves break over the Renney Rocks, and the outermost rock, the Shag Stone, is marked by a red and yellow pillar. The P & O Steamship Nepaul sunk in 1890 after striking the Shag Stone in fog, fortunately without loss of life.

The path now begins to turn eastwards and gives the first view of a pyramidal rocky island, the Mew Stone. How many Gull Rocks, Shag Stones or Mew Stones can be seen from the South West Coast Path? Heybrook Bay is a residential village of modern houses with a small hotel right on the Coast Path; a pub, a telephone and a bus service back to Plymouth are a little way up the road.

You should make plans now for crossing the River Yealm as the ferry service is limited (see note 1).

From now on the Coast Path is level and well marked and you pass by what was the Royal Navy Gunnery School, HMS Cambridge.

Despite its steep slopes the offshore Mew Stone has been inhabited, and you can see the ruins of a house on the more sheltered eastern side. In 1744 a local man guilty of a petty crime was transported to the Mew Stone for 7 years; his daughter Black Bess chose to stay, married and had 3 children on the rock. In the 19th century Sam Wakeham lived there rent-free, and if visitors waved a white handkerchief he would row them across for two pence - or for some snuff. His tenancy came to an end when an excise man found that Sam was not averse to a little smuggling! Between HMS Cambridge and Wembury the path is level, with low cliffs and a long rocky beach that is a marine conservancy area and a good place for watching seabirds.

WEMBURY
At Wembury the beach is more sandy and surfers come from afar all through the year when the conditions are right. The village is set back almost a mile from the sea, but the church, the mill (now a café) and car park, are close to the shore. The waterwheel has gone, but the millstream can still be seen, and there is some of the old machinery in the ceiling of the café room. The church tower has always been a landmark for ships and still serves as a daymark for yachts entering the River Yealm - steering due north towards the church avoids rocks in the bay. The tower had a metal cresset for holding grease or oil to use as a beacon and served as a look-out in the last war. There are legends of an earlier village below the church that was washed away by the sea. No records of such a disaster exist, though the porch of a church is often on the village side. Perhaps you can imagine such a village, but can you envisage the whole of Wembury Bay as a huge port for transatlantic liners? Less than a hundred years ago there were plans to enclose the bay with breakwaters to the Mew Stone and across to Gara Head. Instead of this, Southampton was developed, and we can enjoy the unspoilt coastline.

Look into the well-kept church and see the original medieval Devon wagon roof of the south aisle and south porch. There are fine monuments and links with the armed services and Australia. In the churchyard you can find sombre reminders of tragedies at sea. Beyond the River Yealm another church by the sea is partially ruined, and is even further from its village - Noss Mayo.

From Wembury church to the River Yealm the Coast Path goes across National Trust land, over cliffs which are higher on this side. At the kissing gate there is a fisherman’s path to the edge of the unstable cliff, but keep to the main path by a wire fence. Cross the little valley and stream below New Barton Farm to reach a miniature white cottage overlooking the river. This is the Rocket House, where life-saving apparatus was stored. The sand bar across the Yealm, which is dangerous in south westerly gales, is nearby.

At the Rocket House there are three paths to choose from – the first is the lane to the left, through a five-bar gate, goes inland to Wembury and Knighton. The second, straight ahead, is the National Trust path that goes to the river, but the Coast Path is to the right along a rough track used by cars to the cottages by the river. Go through a gate and walk in front of these cottages, but do not take these steps to the water’s edge as the ferry steps are a little further on by the ferry notice and a National Trust sign. The ferry boat is based on the pontoon on the Newton Ferrers side of the river, and you must wave and shout ‘Ferry’ as loudly as you can. The ferry will come over, but if the ferry service is not available, you may be lucky and attract someone already afloat who will take you across. To continue along the Coast Path you should land at Wide Slip on the Noss Mayo side of Newton Creek.

Those who do not cross the river must go back to the Rocket House, as the riverside path soon ends. Use the other (National Trust) path which goes steeply uphill behind the cottages and has the best views of the river. The straight lane (Passage Lane) through the Rocket House gate is the quickest way to reach Wembury village or Knighton, where you can catch the first of the two buses that you take to Noss Mayo – please see note 1 below.

NOTES

1. Crossing the River Yealm
You must cross by boat as the river is deep and the tide is strong. The ferry service has operated every day including Sundays during the Easter week then Whitsun until mid-September from 1000 to 1100 and from 1300 to 1600, but there may be changes in the future. It is strongly recommended that an advance phone call be made to the ferryman (01752 862151) in order to avoid any problems. Up-to-date information is printed in our current Annual Guide book.

When the ferry is not available, and you cannot hitch a lift across by making yourself conspicuous, you can get to Noss Mayo by taking two buses. Go back to Wembury village or Knighton via the Rocket House and the straight lane through the gate, and catch a number 48 Western National bus to Plymouth, then take a number 94 bus to Noss Mayo. Number 48 buses run every day including Sundays, but the 94 service is Monday to Saturday only. A taxi ride is quicker and shorter than the buses; Wembury Cabs (01752 862151) or Tim’s Taxis (01752 830225) are available at all times. The National Taxi Hotline is a freephone service on 0800 654321.

2. Circular Day Walks
Part, or all of this section of the South West Coast Path can be combined with inland paths or bus services to make many circular routes of varying lengths. See the bus service section below for information.

The whole of the hinterland between Jennycliff and the River Yealm is criss-crossed by clearly marked paths, making this an excellent area for circular day walks. The inland paths are well signposted and numbered, and these are fully described in the Wembury Parish Footpath Guide with its map and pocket route cards (available from Wembury Post Office stores, at £4.80 – this has recently been updated and now contains colour maps).

If you have any question on any of the above please do not hesitate to contact one the event organisers found on the Contact us page click here

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