Yelverton Circular

 A nice sunny day and our Thursday walk took us across the Tamar into Devon. It promised to be a good day. Was it? Read on........................

A pretty straightforward route for this one: assemble at Yelverton and then head south along the cycle way for a couple of miles. Then follow Drake’s Leat over open moorland before dropping down to the rivers at Shaugh Bridge. From there we negotiated a riverside path along the West Bank of the Meavy back to our starting point. A delightfully varied walk and one for which we clocked up 7.8 miles, our longest for a while.

I did say that we walked along the cycle way and so we did. But it’s much more than that. This is the most obvious/flattest way to get from the moor to the bustling towns and ports of Plymouth and Devonport. As such it’s full of history with two leats and a mineral tramway in the vicinity, almost running parallel to each other. Of course, you can walk or cycle without knowing any of this. And why not? But a knowledge of the history does help you interpret what you come across and put them into a proper context. And, to my way of thinking, making the walk much more interesting. The above information board is a good place to start your quest for knowledge.

Granite sleeper beds for the track of the old Plymouth and Dartmoor Mineral Railway/Tramway, which took  minerals, including granite, down from the moor to the waterside and Plymouth. It dates from the early 1800s and was later superseded by the steam railway. Until then, horse power ruled supreme and it must have made the journeys very leisurely affairs.

Drake’s Leat which took water from the River Meavy down to the North Hill reservoir in Plymouth. Drake was a canny devil as he charged mills, farms etc a fee for getting supplies from the leat. Looking at the granite slabs lining the sides gives you an idea of how much effort went into building it. It was built to last, and it has.

Just a panorama looking east-ish with Sheepstor in the distance. A green and pleasant land.

Meals on the hoof. The mare was not too impressed with being hassled by the foal for a meal. But it got there in the end.

Where two rivers meet. The Meavy come in from the left and the Plym from the right. The relatively dry spell we’ve had recently meant that there was none of the usual dramatic torrents.

We followed a footpath along the West Bank of the Meavy. Mainly in dappled shade. A kingfisher zoomed past but I missed that.

There were enough obstacles to make it a little more adventurous than normal. What joy is there in a completely flat walk with no chance of tripping and breaking an ankle?

And when the path becomes impassable, you scramble up to the next level, assuming that there is one and not just more of the same. In this case we were fortunate as we came out on an old railway track.

These are quite ancient deciduous woodlands with gnarled trees to match. And a suitably gnarled person with a camera to take the photograph.

This stump has been in situ for a while. An interesting shape with lots of hiding places for insects.

The white of the May blossom makes a marked contrast with the green of the other trees.

A few residual Bluebells. Well  passed their best but still with enough colour to give the glade a blue shimmer.

And a few more against some very lush Ground Elder. Is this the last few Bluebells we’ll see this year? Everyone says it’s been a good year for them but, strictly speaking, last year was the one they should be praising as that’s when the strength of this year’s growth is laid down. Will this year be an equally good year for next year’s bulbs?

And lastly, the sound of running water. The River Plym taken from Shaugh Bridge.