- Distance:1.4 miles
- Walk grade:Easy
- Start from:Camelford car park
- Recommended footwear:Walking shoes or boots
Highlights
- Camelford - an old market town
- Riverside scenery along the Camel
Directions
- From the car park in Camelford, walk right through camelford passing the 2 pubs and up the hill passing the coop and the police station
- Just past the Police station on the other side of the road take the footpath
- Follow the path though the fields until it bends around Fentaroon Farm and comes out on a lane (Fentaroon Road)
- Do not show any threatening behaviour towards calves (approaching them closely, making loud noises or walking between a calf and its mother) as you may provoke the mother to defend her young. Generally the best plan is to walk along the hedges.
- If cows approach you, do not run away as this will encourage them to chase you. Stand your ground and stretch out your arms to increase your size.
- Avoid taking dogs in fields with cows, particularly with calves. If you must, release the dog if cows charge as the dog will outrun the cows and the cows will generally chase the dog rather than you.
- Turn left on the lane and follow it round a bend to the right
- After a short distance a footpath leads off the lane to the left. Take this.
- Follow the footpath which runs through woods alongside the River Camel
- The path bends away from the river to left and through an arched passageway called 'The Moors' onto the High Street
- Turn right to walk back down to the car park
- The Darlington is an 800 year old coaching Inn in the market square
- The Mason's Arms is an 18th century building opposite the library
Camelford is the local market town which gained its status as a town in 1259 after being granted its first Charter by King Henry III. In the centre of Camelford, what is now the library was once the Town Hall and the cobbled area it stands in what used to be the market square. Camelford Town hall was erected in 1806 over the Market House where in the early 1800s a wife could be bought for 2-3 shillings!
If you are crossing fields with cows in:
In spring wild garlic can be harvested. Unlike domestic garlic, the leaves are the useful bit rather than the bulb, so cut/pull off the leaves (don't pull up the plants). The leaves are quite delicate so you can use quite large quantities in cooking, so you'll want to harvest it in the kind of quantities you'd buy salad leaves in from the supermarket. There are some lillies that look fairly similar (and some are poisonous) but the smell is the giveaway: if it doesn't smell of garlic/onions then it's not wild garlic.
The River Camel runs for 30 miles from Bodmin Moor to Padstow Bay. The name Cam-El is from the Cornish meaning "crooked one". The River Camel is classed as a SSSI and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EC Habitats Directive. Bullhead, Atlantic Salmon and Otters breed in the river. There is a salmon hatchery where salmon caught by local fishermen are bred from and the resulting eggs hatched and grown for a year in a protected environment before being released to boost the wild salmon population in the River Camel and Fowey.
As you'd naturally expect from a market town, Camelford has some old pubs:
