Calstock

The Tamar River is navigable for another three miles past Calstock, but most craft turn around once they reach the village. In the past the river would have been busy with boats shipping copper ore downstream and bringing limestone up. One of the last remaining Tamar sailing barges, the Shamrock, is slowly being restored on the quayside at Cotehele, in the hope that she will one day sail down the river again.

The National Trust’s Cotehele estate is a short walk from Calstock and a must visit if you are in the area. As well as extensive grounds running down to the river, the Tudor house will take you back in time with its tapestries and great hall. Visit around Christmas time to view the garland, a huge ‘rope’ of dried flowers that runs from one end of the hall to the other. Made up of up to between 20,000 to 35,000 flowers and each year different, it’s very much part of Christmas in the Tamar Valley.

The river passes orchards that were once prime growing land for fruit including strawberries, apples and cherries. At Halton Quay you can experience the peacefulness of the valley as you stand and watch the river flow past, heading for Pentillie, a mile further on. Public access is only on open days, but you can stay in the ‘castle and explore the grounds, and pretend you own one of the finest parts of Cornwall.

With the river marking the boundary between Cornwall and Devon, it would be wrong of Visit Cornwall to presume everybody staying in Calstock won’t at some point stray into Devon. The railway (The Tamar Valley Line) crosses the river 120 feet above the village and heads onto the Bere Peninsula where it stops at two pretty villages, Bere Alston and Bere Ferrers, both wonderful places for country walks.

Upstream from Calstock is the village of Gunnislake. Here 16th century bridge crosses the river, the lowest spot to cross until the Tamar Bridge was built at Saltash in 1961. From the river the road climbs with the remains of Devon Great Consols on the left, a very rich mining area in the 19th century. The copper mined here was shipped out from Morwellham Quay, on the river between Calstock and Gunnislake and now a tourist attraction.

The nearby market town of Tavistock became rich on the mining money and is a pleasant place to visit. It sits beside the River Tavy and in its centre is the covered pannier market, featuring an ever changing wealth of stalls selling everything from hats to cakes. Tavistock is also the gateway to Dartmoor National Park which is only a few miles out of town, and one of the wildest parts of South-west England.