Beginning at its source at Woolley Moor, only three and a half miles from the North Coast, the River Tamar flows all along the Cornish and Devon boarder into its estuary at Plymouth Sound. Trains cross the river: the Tamar Valley Line runs from Plymouth to Gunnislake passing over the Calstock Viaduct, and the Brunel rail bridge, an incredible engineering feat, spans the river to link Devon and Cornwall at Plymouth. Only the Devil dare not cross the Tamar, his hooves digging in reluctant on its Devon banks.
The Lower Tamar is famous for its stately homes, Cotehele, Anthony and Mount Edgcumbe. Cotehele is a magical place where Cornish apple orchards have been carefully nurtured. The Mother Orchard has three hundred trees, and one hundred and twenty-five varieties of apples, and the Old Orchard has a variety of ancient fruit trees. Grown aplenty at Cotehele are flowers, these are dried over the summer, in midwinter woven into a spectacular sixty-foot Christmas garland hung in Great Hall. You can walk down through the gardens to the Tamar and along the riverside to visit the village of Calstock. Calstock Arts offers music, theatre and comedy, whilst the village also has a wetland walk alongside the river full of herons and waterfowl.
The Tamar Valley by Calstock is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and World Heritage Site for mining.
All along the spine of the Tamar trills the lament of the earth nymph Tamara, tasked with igniting the spirit of the river as it dances in swathes of blue-green-grey from the moors to the sea.
