River Dart tidal section 3
Bow Creek (Stoke Gabriel to [beyond] Tuckenhay)

Map: OS Outdoor Leisure 20.
South Devon, Brixham to Newton Ferrers
Parking: Stoke Gabriel Quay, SX848569.
River access: Stoke Gabriel Quay,
Distance: ~2.7 miles (one way).
Hazards: Shallow sections, bigger boats, wind, mud, currents and the tide.
Paddlers: Monkey_pork and Geisha.
Did we forget anything: No, didn’t seem to this time.

This is the Third of our river Dart guides.
This section covers the run up from Stoke Gabriel to up beyond Tuckenhay on the Harbourne, a section of river called Bow Creek.

Same as earlier trips, start off at Stoke Gabriel, and paddle upstream NW towards the mouth of the Harbourne at Bow Creek at SX838568.

The mouth of the creek is pretty wide, but shallow on the downstream side. There are another couple of things to watch out for – depending on the tide and wind, there can be quite a current flow out of the creek, we went up on a rising tide, trying it against the tide would be a lot of effort. The prevailing wind is from the west too, which often means it runs down this creek.

The second thing to watch is that the main Dart navigation channel swings in close to the mouth of the creek to avoid the sand and mud banks on the Stoke Gabriel side, so big boats will swing in towards the creek quite surprisingly quickly.

[Looking west, up Bow Creek form the Dart - the main Dart navigation channel is between me and the mouth of Bow Creek].

Having got across this bit you enter the creek itself – it’s not an especially long paddle, but it does seem to take a while to do, maybe it’s the river flow that slows one up, even on a rising tide.

The creek itself is lovely, we were blessed with a calm day, which showed it out at it’s best. On the Tuckenhay side (to the south), the meadows come right down to the river. There is a footpath along here too, starting and ending in the little village of Cornworthy (SX828556).

[Looking behind me at the water meadows along the Cornworthy side].


[This is a bit further behind me, back out towards the Dart, the field in the distance is between Duncannon and Stoke Gabriel].

The river then is pretty much a straight run upto Tuckenhay at this point, in the right conditions you can really idle about on this section.

[Geisha adopts his long established pattern of advanced paddling, which is almost entirely based upon how much air is in his rear bag].


[Gently approaching Tuckenhay, just off in the distance].

Tuckenhay is lovely, especially approached from the water.

[Tuckenhay].

There is a small shallow creek off to the south (just past the thached cottage) with some interesting houses along it. The stream (the River Wash) that joins the Harbourne here has been used to power the paper mill just up the valley (which was converted into housing a few years ago). The engineering is still there. There are also the ponds from a trout farm up the valley, where I once quietly watched a pair of Mink for a while. I know they are generally seen as a problem, but they did look stunningly beautiful playing there in the bright, deep silver stream that cut through the marshy, willow and flower strewn meadow on that crystal clear spring morning long ago in my youth …

Anyway, on we go, before it all slips away.

Tuckenhay is where the canoe racing took place, but today we were out to push on past that point.

[More Tuckenhay, the quay just to my right here is a tiny bit of NT land !].

The stream narrows and gets shallow now, ideal for ducks and those slippy little Devonshire brown trout, but not really ideal for us. This was an ok tide, not the biggest of our tides, but still ok enough to push on a bit yet.

[Almost at the end].

... And this is it, the tidal limit pretty much. It’s a place called ‘Last Change Quay’ (although it’s only recently been called that). There are stepping-stones over the stream here, and from this point it becomes unnavigable. This is SX824564

[That's it, the stones mark the end of the river - that Dory there must only get to go out every two weeks when the spring tide puts a little bit more volume up this far].

A higher tide would get you another couple o’ hundred maters up stream, but that really would be it. The Harbourne carries on as a small stream here through to it’s source on the edge of Dartmoor, and only ever a mile or two away as the Crow files, from the river it eventually joins where we entered this section.

On the way back we met the stand of the tide and the river fattened and became even more sleepy than it had been on the way up …

[MP poling with his paddle, just off that bit of NT land].

The return leg is the reverse of the ingoing of course, except that there is the opportunity for beer. By now the tide was falling fast, so we pretty much sped out of the creek, but still had time to call in for tea on the point at SX836566 which is home to a couple of wrecked wooden boats (and lots of mud). These wrecks would be covered at a full tide, so can present a bit of a hazard on a high tide.




[Looking out towards Duncannon, as one of the big Dart tour boats pulls past].

That's it, another section of this River covered.