The River Dart begins on Dartmoor and ends here, and it’s hard to believe it’s the same river both times. Up on the moor, it’s all sheep, granite and wide-open sky. Down at Dartmouth, it slows into a working harbour watched over by the Britannia Royal Naval College on the hill opposite, in the town where Thomas Newcomen built the world’s first practical steam engine, back in 1712. It’s been a harbour for the best part of a thousand years. Dogs are a fairly recent addition.
The walk to the castle
The walk out to Dartmouth Castle hugs the river the whole way, and it’s a lovely start: first past Bayard’s Cove, a tiny quay where Richard the Lionheart’s fleet is said to have gathered before the Third Crusade, and where the Mayflower dropped anchor four centuries later on her way out of England.
A dog won’t care much about any of that, he’ll be far more interested in the boats bobbing along the water and the gulls working the tideline, but it’s a nice thing to know is under your feet all the same. The castle itself has guarded this stretch of river for over 600 years, cared for today by English Heritage, sitting right where the estuary finally meets the open sea. Warfleet Creek, just beside it, is said to take its name from the war fleets that gathered here before the Crusades.
Above the castle: Gallants Bower
Keep climbing past the castle and you’ll reach Gallants Bower, one of our favourite short detours on this stretch of coast. The Royalists built it during the Civil War to defend the town, though it took them until 1646 to finish, and rather embarrassingly, Parliamentarian forces under General Fairfax had the garrison surrendering within months, a fort that barely got to do the one job it was built for.
What it lacks in military glory it makes up for in views: from the top you can see the whole estuary spread out below, and in April the woodland floor turns into a carpet of bluebells. Keep the lead on through Little Dartmouth on the way up, since sheep and cattle graze the open ground here.
Crossing the river
There’s no bridge across the lower Dart, and there never has been, so the Higher Ferry and Lower Ferry do the work instead, one for cars and one for walkers, both an easy crossing most dogs take completely in their stride. Land on the Kingswear side and you’ll walk alongside the Dartmouth Steam Railway for a stretch, engine and dog sharing the same narrow path, before the route climbs away from the water.
Back on the Dartmouth side, Coronation Park sits right by the Higher Ferry slip, built on land reclaimed from the river in 1937, which is why it’s so flat and low against a shoreline that does the opposite everywhere else nearby. Keep going and the coast path picks up on the far bank, heading north towards Brixham, a different walk entirely to anything on the Dartmouth side.
Further south: Blackpool Sands
For a longer day out, follow the coast path from Little Dartmouth through Stoke Fleming to Blackpool Sands, a Blue Flag beach about five miles from town, or closer to ten there and back if you skip the bus home. Blackpool Sands does carry a seasonal dog restriction over the warmer months, reviewed every year rather than set in stone, so it’s worth double-checking the current dates before you build a whole day around a swim there.
Further upriver: Dittisham
Fancy heading the other way instead? A second ferry links Greenway Quay to the village of Dittisham, and people have been making that exact crossing since the Bronze Age, something like four thousand years of getting from one bank to the other by boat rather than bridge.
The path there winds past Greenway, a National Trust house that was once Agatha Christie’s holiday home and still feels exactly like one: unassuming, tucked into its own woodland, more garden than grand estate. Dittisham itself is one steep street of cottages down to the quay, with the Ferry Boat Inn sitting right on the water’s edge, perfectly placed for timing your walk around lunch.
Loop back to Dartmouth via Kingswear and both ferries and you’re looking at somewhere between eight and twelve miles, so it’s one to save for later in the week, once your dog has settled in.
Where to base yourself
Dartmouth sits within easy reach of the wider Devon collection we curate, close enough that a morning at the castle and an afternoon on the ferry make a natural pairing rather than two separate outings. The tide really runs the whole show here: moored boats swing round with it twice a day, the mudflats above Warfleet Creek fill and empty on the same rhythm, and a dog who spent the moor learning to watch out for livestock will spend the estuary learning to watch the water instead.
