Drake’s Trail

Drake’s Trail is a cycleway and recreational path that follows the old GWR route from Plymouth to Tavistock for much of its course. The South Devon and Tavistock Railway opened in 1859, becoming part of the GWR in 1876. The Plymouth terminus was at Millbay. Passenger trains were eventually withdrawn from the route in 1962.

We cycled the route in two sections on different days – Yelverton to Tavistock and then Plym Bridge to Yelverton. It crosses a hilly and scenic landscape, rising from the city suburbs through wooded valleys to open moorland around Yelverton. Brunel had his work cut out with the frequent tunnels and viaducts that were necessary. Shaugh Bridge platform survives alongside the path in the northern section. To the south, the cycleway from the National Trust car park at Plym Bridge runs close to the Plym Valley Railway, now a reopened heritage line as far as Marsh Mills, a distance of one and a half miles.