Pram-Friendly Walks in the Dart Valley
Pram-friendly walks in the Dart Valley are surprisingly easy to find once you know where to look. The valley has steep wooded slopes on both sides, so most footpaths involve at least one stile or a kissing gate that turns a buggy into an obstacle course. The good news: there are three or four well-surfaced level routes that work brilliantly with prams, wheelchairs, mobility scooters and toddlers on balance bikes.
Here are the pram-friendly walks in the Dart Valley that locals trust, with honest notes on surfaces, gates and where to find a coffee at the far end.
Totnes to Dartington along the Deer Park Trail
This is the one to start with. The Totnes to Dartington shared foot and cycle path runs for two miles from Borough Park in Totnes to the Cider Press Centre at Dartington, hugging the River Dart and Bidwell Brook. It was designed for accessibility, with very gentle gradients, a paved surface throughout and benches at sensible intervals.
Park at Borough Park (TQ9 5BJ) for free, or pay-and-display at Steamer Quay just over the river. Wheelchair-accessible toilets are at the Totnes Pavilion at one end and at the Cider Press Centre at the other. The Cider Press has cafes, an excellent toy shop and a bookshop, so it makes a strong endpoint for small humans.
The full out-and-back is four miles, but you can shorten to whatever suits the nap schedule. Buggies of any kind roll easily, and a one-handed coffee is perfectly possible.
Steamer Quay to Longmarsh and back
From Steamer Quay car park in Totnes (TQ9 5AL), turn downstream with the river on your left and follow the wide, firm-surfaced riverside path. It runs for around three quarters of a mile along Longmarsh, past the rowing club pontoons and out to a small bench area where the path narrows. Turn around here and you’ve done a comfortable 1.5-mile flat round trip.
The surface is firm gravel and compacted earth. After heavy rain a couple of puddles form but nothing that defeats an all-terrain buggy. No gates, no stiles. There’s a kiosk cafe at Steamer Quay in summer and public toilets at the quay car park.
The Dartington Estate main drive and gardens
Dartington Hall’s main drive and the level paths through the gardens are buggy-friendly, with the gardens themselves split between accessible loops and steeper hidden corners. Park at the main Dartington car park (TQ9 6EE), follow signs into the gardens and stick to the lawn-level path through the tiltyard. The gardens are open daily with a small admission fee.
For a longer pram outing, combine the gardens with the Totnes to Dartington path (above) by walking down through the estate to the Cider Press Centre and onwards to Totnes.
Sharpham main drive
The drive into the Sharpham estate from Ashprington is a wide, tarmacked private road that the estate permits walkers to use. From the gate near Ashprington church it descends gently for around a mile to the old Sharpham House and the river beyond. You can do a there-and-back of two to two and a half miles with no stiles and only a couple of gentle slopes.
It is genuinely flat enough for an all-terrain buggy, but city-style prams will rattle on the gravelled patches near the bottom. Note that the wider field paths off the drive are not buggy friendly; stick to the surfaced drive.
Buckfast Abbey grounds
Slightly further afield, but worth mentioning: the Buckfast Abbey precinct (TQ11 0EE) has paved paths between the abbey church, the sensory garden, the millennium garden and the riverside lawn. There’s a baby change in the visitor toilets, a restaurant, a play-friendly lawn and absolutely no traffic to worry about. Pram-friendly walks in the Dart Valley don’t get more straightforward than this.
What to pack and when to go
Even on the surfaced routes, take a rain cover; valley weather is its own thing. Bring sun protection in summer; some sections have very little shade. Most of these walks are doable year round but the Sharpham drive can be muddy at the very bottom in winter.
What to look out for at the gate
Even on supposedly accessible routes, a single narrow kissing gate can scupper a wider buggy. A few tips that locals know: the Totnes to Dartington path is kept consistently wide enough for an off-road buggy or a wheelchair, but the gate at the Dartington end is sometimes left half-open by pedestrians, so check the catch. The Steamer Quay path has no gates but the surface narrows past Longmarsh; turn back when the path drops below shoulder-width. The Sharpham drive has one gate at the top by Ashprington church, which opens easily. The Buckfast Abbey grounds have no pram-unfriendly gates anywhere.
If you’re after something with more distance and don’t mind a stile or two as the children get older, our family walks guide has a longer list of beginner-friendly routes around Totnes and Dartington. For coffee stops along the way, see our cafe guide.