Portwrinkle to Plymouth
Walked by Sally and Richard, Wednesday 25th May 2011
About 16 miles, 15 miles progress on South West Coast Path - plus one ferry
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
I slept badly so felt a bit tired, but that was the only negative thing about today. We had a most enjoyable walk, on a day that was dry and mostly sunny, but not too hot. In other words it was ideal for walking. We got up at 7am, breakfasted at 8am and the taxi picked us up from Bridgeside at 9.15am, after we'd bought rolls for lunch. We drove from Looe to Portwrinkle by a more inland route than on the reverse journey yesterday. This was interesting because it took us by way of Hessenford, the village at the top of the Seaton Valley Countryside Park. The taxi driver dropped us off back where he had picked us up last night and we set off walking at around 9.45am, so having to come from Looe delayed us slightly but not a lot. Just as we were leaving we passed the four walkers from Canada and the USA - they had stayed at a small B&B above Portwrinke and were not walking today, but heading straight to Plymouth.
We left Portwrinkle by way of a path opposite the Whitsand Bay Hotel (which apparently was once Thanckes Manor at Torpoint, moved to Portwrinkle in 1909 - how bizarre). We climbed steeply to the golf course and soon reached the Tregantle firing ranges, which you sometimes have to walk around on the road. We were lucky; the ranges were open, with a good path taking us up to Tregantle Fort, one of many forts in the area built in the 19th Century to protect Plymouth from the French. The fort is now used to accommodate the soldiers who use the ranges. The guidebooks describe a walk along the road at this point, but there's a new path that cuts down to the edge of the MoD land above Long Beach.
The path then ran close to the road, but separate from it, to Sharrow Point; there were surfers in the sea at the cove below. Unfortunately at this point we did have to walk along the road, past the huts and chalets at Freathy. Eventually we reached the Whitsand Bay Holiday Park and left the road. There was a steep descent followed by a steep ascent, then just as we reached the road, we descended away from it again, past more huts and chalets, perching on the appropriately named Wiggle Cliff.
After ascending to the road again, we descended more purposefully, heading for a row of old coastguard cottages and the former Polhawn Fort. We passed tennis courts and continued to climb, and suddenly Rame Head (which had been hidden by Queener point for a while) came into view again. We stopped for lunch, then climbed to the 14th Century chapel on Rame Head itself.
We followed the path from west to east to the next headland at Penlee Point, watching several naval vessels coming out of Plymouth Sound, presumably engaged in an exercise of some sort. We think that the horn we could hear was coming from one of these ships; the Trinity House fog signal , marked on some maps at Penlee Point, is no longer there. Penlee Point did however have an interesting information board about protected wrecks, here of 'The Coronation' which sank in 1691. From Penlee Point we walked through woodland to the twin villages of Kingsand (which used to be in Devon) and Cawsand (always in Cornwall), which we had visited in 2004.
We stopped for a cup of tea at the Devenport Inn in Kingsand, then walked up through the village to Mount Edgcumbe Country Park. The next section was initially a 'stroll in the park', walking towards Picklecombe Fort (now flats). However, near the fort the path took an uphill diversion (described in the guidebook) and then a diversion within the first diversion (presumably because of an even more recent landslip than that described in the guidebook). The diversions were not particularly well signposted, and towards the top we met a group of fishermen carrying their fishing rods and a group of cyclists carrying their bikes up the steep steps. However the views to Plymouth Breakwater, Drake's Island and other features in Plymouth Sound were excellent.
We descended again and rejoined the original route, reaching a 'temple' (presumably a folly) overlooking a lake, complete with ducks. We then passed through the more formal gardens and left Mount Edgcumbe Country Park at Cremyll. The 4.30pm Cremyll to Plymouth ferry was just approaching, so we ran to catch it. It was only as we were pulling away from Cremyll that it sank in that we were leaving Cornwall after 290 or so miles of walking round its coast. I felt quite sad; it has been such a wonderful walk.
The ferry took us to Admirals Hard. Some swans had nested just by the blue South West Coast Path sign pronouncing that it is 10 miles to Jennycliff and 352 miles to Minehead. I might normally have been irritated by the fact that it is actually 411 miles back to Minehead, but on this occasion I was more interested in the two gorgeous cygnets.
We kept walking, now on the Plymouth Waterfront Walkway as well as the South West Coast Path, past the Royal William Yard (built in the 1800s to supply the Royal Navy with food and drink, and currently being converted into apartments etc.), up Durmford Street (onetime home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, so with Sherlock Holmes quotes captured on the pavement) and past the docks on Millbay Street (with 'stars in the wall' to tell of famous people who disembarked here, and a replica pile of gold bars - the real things were apparently to be seen lying around).
We left the path and walked the short distance to the Camelot Hotel on Elliot Street, close to The Hoe. Helen Stone was in the process of painting (they are 'ripping out' the old furnishings and replacing them, room by room). We were in Room 13 - old style but very large, with views out of the bay window to the sea. In the evening we walked down to The Hoe, with its many famous historical associations and home of Smeaton's Tower (originally the Eddystone Lighthouse). We walked round the Royal Citadel, built in the 17th Century and still a military barracks, a point driven home to us by the fact that a helicopter landed and took off again from within the Citadel as we watched. We reached Sutton Harbour, with the Mayflower Steps (point of embarkation for the Pilgrim Fathers on board 'Mayflower', and various other historic departures). We ate at Platters (in the Barbican, the oldest part of Plymouth) on the recommendation of Helen Stone from the hotel. We're not too bothered about its claim to fame as somewhere that Andrew Lloyd Weber eats, but we did have a lovely meal (fish again - what else?) sitting with a man and woman in Plymouth for work, who visit Platters whenever they can. After eating we returned to the Mayflower Steps (quieter now) and watched the foot bridge at the entrance to Sutton Harbour rise. The weather was getting increasingly threatening, so we returned to the hotel.
