Our resident dog walker, Alex from the Falmouth store, kicks off the new year with another lovely walk in the Cornwall area.
January is here and with it, comes the wintry weather; cold, wet, dark and some might even say miserable. January can often lead to the winter blues, so what’s the remedy? Well, exercise and lots of sunlight is recommended, so I brace the wind and rain, and get down for a walk near the Helford for a hearty walk with the dog!
The Helford River is an estuary which stretches from Falmouth to Gweek and features 7 creeks, one of which was made famous by the Cornish writer Daphne Du Maurier in her book ‘Frenchmen’s Creek’. It features beaches, quays and is accessible through many amazing villages.
The Helford features lots of spectacular walks, but this particular one will help you embrace two of the best things about bad weather: mud and puddles! For this walk, you will certainly need some decent wellies as the path is well used and can get pretty muddy. The footpath starts at Doctors Lane near Constantine. The path is quite wide but requires you climbing stone stepped styles, so disabled access isn’t great. The path will then take you through fields past Goonhillings farm, a beautiful place which you can go and stay at if you wanted to get more acquainted with the landscape.
The path takes you right through large fields which host incredible views across the Cornish countryside. The path isn’t particularly long, so this walk isn’t too taxing but on a beautiful day would be perfect for a dawdle to take some great photographs.
Your destination is situated to the right on the Helford River; Scott’s Quay. The Quay was built by and named after a lawyer named Scott in the early 1800’s. It was originally built to load granite from local quarries and was very large, but over time it deteriorated due to lack of maintenance after the mining industry depleted and became unusable. In 1936, it was restored (albeit on a much smaller scale) to provide public access to the River.
The quay is small but very quaint and there is an interesting array of boats and dinghys belonging to the farm which they rent out to visitors. The views from here are amazing, you can see up and down the river where Polwheveral Creek and Polpenwith Creek meet. There is a tonne of varied wildlife living in and around the River and it’s a great place for a swim, sail or kayak.
On your return journey, you can walk along the quay or back through the woods for a little more adventure!
Lex rating: 7/10 – The Helford is a beautiful place and provides lots of interesting aspects. This isn’t the best walk around the Helford, but it certainly is a great one to give you great views and get your dog’s legs stretched.
