Plymouth to Noss Mayo, including Revelstoke Drive to Blackstone Point

We woke to a slightly misty morning. The sun soon came out and it was a warm day; just slightly too warm for walking, though there was a slight haze for most of the day. Breakfast at Gallery Guesthouse was a repeat of yesterday's (before our day of family history research in Modbury) - scrambled egg, bacon and mushrooms, cooked by Chris and served by Karen - delicious. We left Gallery Guesthouse soon after 9am and stopped at Sainsburys for provisions for lunch on our way down to The Barbican. We just caught the 9.45 Mount Batten ferry - much bigger boat than when we used it on Tuesday evening, though there were only two passengers other than us.

There was a 'flying boats' station at Mount Batten from 1917, and at some point Lawrence of Arabia was stationed here. There are various memorials and information boards. We climbed up past the Tower and on to the grassy bank of Jennycliff, watching sailing boats marshalling for a race. We climbed through a lovely wooded stretch and passed Bovisand Fort. One of the guidebooks says this is now a training school for underwater activities. Whatever, the fort is not particularly attractive as you walk above it, but it is quite distinctive when you look back from Bovisand Bay. Bovisand Bay was busy, and we descended to it behind a friendly grandmother, helping a large number of grandchildren down to the beach.

The path meandered on to Heybrook Bay and we stopped for lunch, sitting on a bench overlooking the Renney Rocks and the Shag Stone, with the Great Mew Stone also in view around the corner. Just as we were finishing lunch, our peace was shattered by a rather loud group of 9 male walkers. However the next section of the path, to Wembury, was much better than I'd expected. I'd expected caravan parks etc., but there weren't any, and the Royal Navy gunnery school (HMS Cambridge on some maps) has been cleared. There were good views to the Great Mew Stone and ahead to the Church and car park at Wembury Beach - not surprisingly given the glorious weather, there were a lot of people about. We passed the start of the Two Moors Way and stopped for local ice cream in the Old Mill Cafe, right by Wembury Beach.

We knew we had time to kill before the ferry across the Yealm started its afternoon operation at 3pm, so we walked slowly to Warren Point, with the lovely wooded estuary coming into view. As we were approaching the ferry point, we disturbed some grazing ponies and we then found a step to sit on to wait. Some other walkers arrived and the ferry did - it was low tide, so the ferry came up onto the beach. We took three sailors back to their boat in the middle of the estuary then on to the Noss Mayo landing point, again landing on the beach and 'walking the plank' to get off.

The sensible thing at this stage would have been to turn to the right from the beach and continue along the SW Coast Path along Revelstoke Drive to just beyond Blackstone Point and then to turn inland along the footpath to the National Trust car park, then left onto the road and almost immediately right down the track to our B&B, Revelstoke Coombe (at 546473). However this is not what we did! Having said that, what we did gave us a lovely walk in both the afternoon and the evening, and gave us the opportunity to explore Noss Mayo properly.

We turned left at the beach to the official landing stage, then followed a path and a delightful tree-lined road to Noss Mayo, with Newton Creek and Newton Ferrars on the other side just visible through the trees. When the trees ended we could properly admire the pretty villages, each with a church high up on a hill. At Noss Mayo we turned up alongside the Noss Creek and passed 'The Ship', then we walked around the creek to 'The Swan' to check their menu and to look at the village from a different direction. It was low tide, but otherwise the views were superb, and the fact that it was low tide meant that we were able to return via a 'tidal path' across Noss Creek. The path was referred to as a 'Voss' on the signposts – apparently ‘Voss’ is used in Devon to mean a raised footpath across a muddy estuary, so the similarity to ‘Noss’ (meaning ‘nose’ or ‘headland’) in ‘Noss Mayo’ (‘Matthew’s headland’) is purely coincidental.

It was still quite early but we decided to follow the instructions provided up to Revelstoke Coombe which is a kilometre or so up a track above Noss Mayo. It was very easy to find, but there was no-one in. Richard tried ringing the house and eventually rang Jane Barnett's mobile, to discover that she was working at Chelsea Flower Show - but her husband was expecting us. Roger got back about 5pm, having been delayed in Plymouth, and all was right with the world! We had tea and cake on the patio with Roger Barnett, discovering that the house, like the nearby carriage drive, is reputed to have been built by Lord Revelstoke (aka Edward Baring, of Barings Bank) but abandoned around 100 years ago when Barings Bank when bust for the first time. Jane and Roger bought the house 6 years ago and have improved and extended it. We had a lovely big room on the front.

In the evening, we decided to reduce the length of tomorrow's leg by completing the circular route described on page 92 of Le Messurier - in reverse - and stopping off in Noss Mayo for something to eat on our way back to Revelstoke Coombe. We set off a bit before 6pm, turning right from the house and climbing quite steeply, through delightful countryside. We reached the road and turned left and then right onto another track which quickly brought us to the coast and the coast path. There were some pretty cows and calves just at the point at which we reached Revelstoke Drive, a carriage drive built in the 19th Century to enable Lord Revelstoke, who lived at Membland, east of Noss Mayo, to show off his property to his guests. We followed this to the west, across 'The Warren', apparently so called because in the 19th Century it was managed for the propogation of rabbits. There were impressive (if difficult to photograph) views ahead to the low sun over the Great Mew Stone. We turned the corner of the headland and now the views were down to the estuary, with lots of boats coming and going now that the tide was higher.

We walked back into Noss Mayo and went to The Ship where we had a lovely meal sitting outside, watching the action in Noss Creek and being amused by our fellow customers at the pub. The group of nine men, from this morning, had turned up here - later in the evening we watched them driving off in a minibus.

Following day