delightfully decayed from their acidic effluent. north Quay is the first stop out of town. A short walk up the hill takes you to the wonderful Sharpham estate – home of the gorgeous Sharpham wine and cheese ranges - and rosie’s vineyard Café which serves amazing local food in a small scale alfresco setting (weather permitting!). visit www.
sharpham.com and
www.thevineyardcafe.co.uk for more details. there are lovely walks around the estate with stunning views across the river. And if you’re lucky, you might stumble across some outdoor art too such as Jacob lane’s commis- sioned sculpture in the pond, now almost hidden in the under- growth. back out on the river we passed the wreckage of King- swear Castle - “the last steamboat to come up the river Dart” and used as a quarantine hospital during the last typhoid epidemic. its spirit, and engines, lives on in the Kingswear
Experience! Taste the Fine English wines &
cheeses, produced from our Estate on the banks of the River Dart.
Tours are available which include a wine tasting.
Alfresco dining in summer. 01803 732203
www.sharpham.com
Castle ii on the river Medway in Kent - photographic evidence of which is on Dartmouth’s bayards Cove inn wall.
Around Sharpham, the riverbank becomes beautifully wild, with huge thickets of mature oak trees on both sides of the river. this set- ting has inspired many a film and tv producer and is portrayed as the Amazon rainforest in the long running 1970s television series the Onedin line. Around every corner there are idyllic camping and picnic oases, many accessed only from the river and hidden by the huge oak canopy. At the site of a larger spot sits another Sharpham sculpture – this one of an eight-foot long granite fish said to be represent- ing the “largest salmon caught in river” (i think this is a local joke!) whether you can find the big one or not, the salmon fishing is said to be excellent at this point of the Dart, and the river rat runs fishing trips around here. A busy looking seal, who briefly came up to the surface, appeared to agree on the Dart’s tasty bounty. the salmon sculpture is opposite the tiny “village” of Duncannon – a handful of waterfront properties and an old transport route into
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