The estate is served by a steam railway service with trains from Paignton and Kingswear stopping at Greenway Halt station.

[4] An early history book of Devon described Greenway as "very pleasantly and commodiously situated, with delightsome prospect to behold the barks and boats".

[6] In the late 16th century a Tudor mansion called Greenway Court was built by Otto and Katherine Gilbert, members of a Devon seafaring family.

[8][9] In 1588 John was given the responsibility of 160 prisoners of war captured during the Spanish Armada; he put them to work on the estate, levelling the grounds.

[3][10] Little is known about the original Tudor building, although given the status of the family, Burdett considers it was "probably designed on a grand scale".

[11] In around 1700 the Gilberts made nearby Compton Castle their family seat and sold Greenway to Thomas Martyn, a resident of Totnes, also in Devon.

The estate was purchased, although only briefly, by a Sir Thomas Dinsdale, but was soon sold for £18,000 to Colonel Edward Carlyon,[b] whose family owned Tregrehan House, in Cornwall.

Greenway was let out to a series of tenants until it was sold twice in quick succession, the last time to Richard Harvey—a Cornish copper and tin magnate—and his wife Susannah.

[16] The Harveys developed the estate extensively, restoring the stables and lodge house, installing two new greenhouses and redecorating the interior.

[c] Bolitho, the industrialist MP for St Ives, added what Burdett describes as "a Cornish influence"[17] on the gardens, introducing plants such as camellias, magnolias, rhododendrons and laurels.

The large riverside gardens contain plants from the southern hemisphere, whilst the Barn Gallery shows work by contemporary local artists.

Greenway Estate and its surroundings in their entirety or in parts are described in the following novels:[24] The character Sir Carmichael Clarke, a wealthy man from Churston, is one of three victims to have a copy of the A.B.C.

The location of the estate opposite the village of Dittisham, divided from each other by the River Dart, plays an important part for the alibi and a nightly swim of one of the suspects.

Greenway's house and gardens are also used as the setting for Agatha Christie's short story 'The Shadow on the Glass' in the collection The Mysterious Mr Quin,[25] first published in 1930, eight years before she bought the estate.