Regular Walks: Cotehele Quay and Danescombe Valley Circular

 A regular follower of the walks I describe has asked for more details of some of our more local routes. We quite often walk from Cotehele Quay and we consider ourselves lucky to have a number of variants that we can take depending on time available, mood, weather etc. Here's a 3.5 miler we did recently. With a refreshment stop at Cotehele Barn, it took around 2 hours.

We started at the quay car park, headed along the river track, up the Danescoombe Valley and then back to Cotehele through the woods on the 'top level' track.

We leave the car park and turn right along the river track to Calstock.  Possibly one of my least interesting photographs ever.

The area of low lying meadow just passed the car park is destined to become flooded wetlands as part of flood prevention measures. The embankment was broached a couple of weeks ago and it will be interesting to see how the wildlife evolves. I'm going to be involved in surveying the birdlife on a regular basis. At the moment, low tide just produces mud but give it a while and the waders will come as the flora and fauna stabilises to the new conditions.

The first building we come to is The 'Chapel in the Woods', or, more properly, the Chapel of SS George and Thomas Becket, which was erected by Sir Richard Edgecumbe, the builder of Cotehele House. The story behind these bald facts is quite intriguing. In 1483 Sir Richard joined a rebellion against King Richard III. The rebellion was quashed, and the king's men under Sir Henry Trenowth of Bodrugan pursued Edgecumbe through the woods. He must have thought the end was near, but, thinking quickly, Sir Richard threw his hat upon the waters of the river that runs through the woods, and hid in the trees. His enemies saw the floating hat and assumed that Sir Richard had been drowned while trying to cross the water. They left, and Sir Richard was able to complete his escape and make his way to safety in Brittany. A few years later, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and took the throne as Henry VII. Sir Richard was able to return from exile and reclaim his estate at Cotehele. He wanted to give thanks for his escape so, sometime between 1485 and 1490 he built this small single-cell chapel at the spot where he had cast his hat into the river. The chapel measures only 6.3m by 4.6m and is built of coursed slate and stone rubble.

And then on to the look-out point taking in the view over the Tamar to the viaduct at Calstock. The word 'iconic' comes to mind. After taking it all in, continue on the track (up and down) and turn left when some houses are met.

A few yards up the track and you come to he old saw mill at the bottom of the Danescoombe Valley. Built in 1878, it was relatively short-lived and had gone out of use by the turn of the 20th century. It took its power from the stream that runs down the valley and, as it is at the bottom of the valley, it the lowest of the water-powered sites in the valley. A leat was taken off about 300 foot upstream leading to a cistern 30 foot above the mill. Water from this was piped to the turbine in the saw pit, but no evidence of this remains.

Head up the track for a while longer and you come across a group of houses associated with the 'local' mine, variously known as Wheal Calstock, the Danescoombe Valley Mine or Cotehele Consols. The first house was built in the early 19th-century as the mine office and the next housed a Cornish beam engine and was later reused as a blacksmith's shop on the ground floor, with a miner's dry (changing room) on the floor above. Both are available to rent from the National Trust.

A little further on and you pass the house called Mispickel, named after the arsenic containing ore that was mined here. The house itself comprises of two converted mine buildings and comes with its own adit and entrance to a silver mine.

Even further on, you come to a cluster of buildings associated with the Danescombe Mine, a former copper and arsenic mine, which was worked on and off throughout the 19th century. Its beginnings are obscure, but it was working before 1837 when it was restarted under leases granted by Lord Ashburton and the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. This company was wound up in 1842. The buildings were leased off the National Trust in the 1990s by the Landmark Trust and extensively restored to form a unique holiday let.

The Engine House as it was before restoration. If you want to find out more take a look at the Landmark Trust website (here).

All along the path as it heads up there are the remains of various mining artefacts. This might have been a shaft. It's probably a good idea not to venture too far from the path and wander into the woods. Who knows what hole you might fall down?

Continue up the path until a lane is reached and then take the track immediately on the left. And this takes you to..........

.........Cotehele House, by a back entrance. A quick refreshment stop in the Barn Restaurant and it's time to head back to the starting point at the Quay.

There are a number of options at this point and one that we like is the one that goes through this tunnel and .......

.....into the Valley Garden, which drops down almost to the Chapel. We are just coming up to one of the best times of year for this stretch, when the autumnal colours are a joy to behold.