麻豆社

This walk is already a chosen favourite of the Plym Ramblers. It's one of 20 written up in the second edition of their book On the Beaten Track.

It was suggested by keen rambler and one of the group's founder members Brian Steele. I met Brian, his wife Sally, and their friends Dave and Chris Bishop, who are all members of the group, on a hot May morning.

Ahead of us was what Brian described as an easy five mile circular route starting alongside the River Yealm and travelling through lanes and over fields and farmland.

"It's just through some of the most attractive areas of South Hams," said Brian. "It's got the countryside, the lanes, along the river and some historical bits as well.

The walk took place on a hot day in May

"As a group we all enjoy coming out and walking. It's a social thing and we also spend quite a lot of time enjoying the fresh air."

From the car park in the village turn down Torr Hill and then right into Church Lane to pass St Bartholomew's Church on your right.

Continue ahead into the field and play park, and then into the woods where the path then bears left to the edge of the River Yealm. Cross the wooden footbridge and take the track upstream with the Yealm on your left.

You emerge onto a lane, which meets the B3186, Yealmpton to Newton Ferrers Road. Cross this to continue along the banks of the Yealm, shortly leaving the river to come out in a housing estate.

Follow the footpath sign around the back of the houses, coming out into fields. The waymarks sign you across the open land and then along a track, passing a highways storage depot.

There's no knowing who you might meet...

Join a lane and when you meet a tarmac road turn right for Dunstone. As you pass through the hamlet a statue of St Dunstan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, can be seen on the right, set high in the wall.

St Dunstan is also reputed to be responsible for the lucky horseshoe story. "He was asked to re-shoe the devil鈥檚 horse," explained Dave.

"In the meantime, St Dunstan nailed a horse shoe to the devil himself and wouldn't let him go until he'd promised never to enter a building with a horseshoe nailed to the door.

"And that could be why horseshoes are considered lucky."

Continue uphill and straight ahead, passing Dunstone Farm House on the right. You shortly reach a stile on the right, which you go over and into a field. Head across a series of fields along the valley until you reach a tarmac lane through a field gate.

Looking up through a canopy of trees

Turn right here past South and North Fursdon Farms and then follow the footpath left off the lane, where it crosses a small stream, over stiles, and uphill through woodland.

Enter a field through a wooden gate and turn right, until you reach a gap to access a gravel track, with farm buildings on the right. Turn left up the track away from the farm and after 300 yards the track turns sharply to the left.

Continue for a further 200 yards and turn right, to cross over a stile by a public footpath sign and follow the waymarkers diagonally right across the field.

The high ground offers fine views across the lower slopes of Dartmoor - Brent Tor, Shell Top, Lee Moor, and the edge of Plymouth. As the crow flies, you're not that far from the city, but you wouldn't know it at all.

Yealmpton is in the valley before you. After 300 yards, cross a wooden stile and drop down into a field. Bear left at the next waymarked stile and cross over to follow the path, continue through the fields and over stiles following the waymarks out to a cross roads at Higher Torr.

Continue straight ahead and after 200 yards at a sharp bend to the left, leave the road and follow a public footpath sign to the right through a wooden gate. This path runs alongside a streambed on the left.

After 200 yards, cross a road and continue to follow the path by the stream. After a further 200 yards the track reaches the B3186 again. Turn right and follow the road across the river and up Torr Hill back into Yealmpton village.

This is a very pleasant walk, typical of the South Hams gently rolling hills.