A varied short walk for early spring

Distance: About four miles – about two hours with time to photograph. Ideally walked in the second half of March for the very best of the flowers.

Park at Denham bridge, on the road between Buckland Manor and Bere Alston. Do not bring your articulated lorry to this spot, with no way over the bridge, no way to turn and no mobile signal to send for the help you would need. Enjoy the sight of this old narrow and zig-zag bridge. Go up the lane by the Tavy and take the second driveway diagonally back down to Tavy level at Ludbrook. Stop and be amazed by the display of squills and other flowers. Camera obligatory! 

The riverside meadow is covered by spring squills; a haze of blue paler than bluebells, and a month earlier. These flowers are more usually found in small patches on local cliff tops; I would claim this meadow as being unique. This was voted as the official flower of County Down in 2012. The meadow really is a stunning sight. Note also a patch of marsh marigold, unusual for this area.

As you carry on along the footpath, it is best to strike up onto the parallel permissive path unless the river is very low indeed. Ludbrook Weir is a spectacular sight half way to Hatch Mill. There look for the remains of the waterwheel and a display of old farm machinery; I am always particularly amused to see the label reading Lanson on the end of the last one; Launceston with fewer letters I presume. 

Continue up the lane from the farm for half a mile, choosing the two left forks to climb up to the edge of open moorland. You will need to fossick into woodland to your right to find Berra Tor, hidden until you are a few tens of metres away. This is unusual in that it is not granite, but Devon Killa, sedimentary rock altered by the heat of the magma coming up from below. 

Keep along on the very edge of the open moor, noting the ditch and wall of a medieval enclosure (Settlement). Before you turn off the open moor, look left to admire the view. The main part of Dartmoor is visible on anything like a clear day. 

Now you are back on lanes for three-quarters of a mile. The footpath on the map starts as a driveway and takes you past a large area of native daffodils, not to be confused with the many and various commercial varieties planted delightfully but perhaps over showily just about everywhere at this time of the year. The final section runs along the top of a very steep slope down to the Tavy. A profusion of wood anemones tumbles down-slope. Finally, you join the steep lane above Denham Bridge at its hairpin bend. You might wish to go once more down the Ludbrook drive for another look at the squills before a final descent to your car.

It is not possible to include photographs of all “The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring Tra La”. Do look them up before you walk!

Ron Smith