Drive to the car park just outside Cremyll: It's situated on the left-hand
side of the road as you approach the village, after driving past several
car park signs on the right-hand side. Walk to the rear left-hand side
of the car park and you'll see a path through the hedge. Go through
and turn to the right; follow past a few houses, toilets are on the
right, just before the road. When you get to the road, turn right and
you'll see the gates of Edgecumbe in front of you. Through the gates
and turn left towards the small gatehouse; while here, look to your
right and you'll see Edgecumbe House at the top of the hill with its
wide avenue of trees giving a very stately ambience. Passing through
the gatehouse, keep to the left around "The Orangery" with its ornamental
garden of statues and fountain and you'll arrive at the sea-wall overlooking
Plymouth.
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Follow the path along, past the Battery, then through a small gate
and onwards. You'll see the low wall on the left leading to a small
(rocky) beach, a miniature Greek temple on the right, followed by a
slight rise leading to a delightful lake in a very nice woodland setting.
After this, the path goes uphill much more, becoming quite steep for
a short distance, before coming to a gate leading to an open space with
a Folly (in the shape of a ruined church) on top of the hill. The path
skirts the bottom of this hill and goes into the woods, then divides;
it's probably best to keep to the upward path, although they meet later
anyway. You then walk past the Lodge known as "Lady Emma's Cottage"
before the path starts to go uphill more (not too steep, though), then
a zig-zag to reach one of the drives of the Estate. Turn left, in front
is an archway over the path; very picturesque, I thought. After a while,
the path divides: Keep to the left - downhill, then soon you pass through
a gate and out of the Estate.
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The path downhill is very pleasant, with open space on the right;
at the bottom is a gate leading to a small metalled road: Walk to the
right for a few metres, turning to the left opposite a pleasant-looking
house. Now the path is uphill, but not steep; at the top it's a very
nice level walk with distant views of Kingsand and Cawsand in front.
Eventually, you have a long path through open grassland to a gate, then
you're in Kingsand. After the gate, look to the left and you'll see
the coastpath sign: follow downhill, to a crossroads. You can turn left
or straight on: If you go straight on, turn left at the main road (a
very narrow one!) and you'll end up by the angling shop opposite the
Rising Sun pub. Keep walking up the hill beside the pub, then after
you reach the top you'll start to go down towards Cawsand with the beach
on your left. Keep straight on, past a small war memorial on your right;
in front, the road bears to the right, the coastpath is on the left.
Usually the walk from Cremyll is very popular, but you'll find that
most people just walk to Kingsand or Cawsand: After this point it gets
a lot quieter.
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Follow the path upwards out of the village, past the back of a few
properties; further on another group of houses. Keep following the path,
eventually joining a narrow metalled road through lovely woodland: In
Spring, these woods must be a riot of colour; they seem to be full of
bluebells, unfortunately, we were here too early to see them. After
a while, the road leaves the trees and you're out in the open at Penlee
Point. Sit on a seat and admire the view of Rame Head.
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Continuing on, follow the road for a short while until the road bears
to the right, and you'll see the coastpath sign straight in front. After
a while, there's a signpost to the right to a car park, then a little
later, again to the right to Rame Church; keep straight on, firstly
across a broad swathe of grass, then along a wide ride until you get
to a solitary footpath sign. Don't go straight on, you'll fall over
the cliff! Either take time out to walk up to the chapel at the top
of the headland, or turn right and walk up the large field towards the
Coastguard station and then into the car park.
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