In April 2011, having completed the Zennor Churchway and Tinners Way trail, I started on my research for a series of walks, complete with full route directions, on Bodmin Moor. Eventually, I hope to complete about 30 walks, including a few that, although with the confines of the moor, are not really moorland walks. January 2012: - 25 researched, 22 uploaded - 5 walks from Minions, 7 from Temple, Bolventor and along the A30, 3 from Colliford Lake, 3 from St. Breward and 4 from the Camelford area. More on my existing Bodmin Moor page.
I include this personal note, written in January 2012, partly so that my readers may at last know what Jane and I look like - tolerable for our mid-70s I hope - and partly because of a change of circumstances that may somewhat circumscribe my outdoor activities. In December 2011 I was rushed off to hospital with a still unexplained but particularly nasty chest infection. I was laid up for 4 weeks and am still undergoing all sorts of tests. Back on my feet again in January 2012, I am working hard at getting my fitness back. While I'm making fairly god progress, it looks like I may never regain my old fitness. So this web site, which had become essentially a walkers handbook, may have to revert to being more of a visitpors guide again. Happily, when illness struck, I had more-or-less completed my series of Bodmin Moor walks and enforced leisure has meant that I have been able to upload most of them - see above. I may have to make future walks a little shorter and easier and may well settle for a further series of short walks from locations along the Coast Path.
We were last at Hidden Valley Garden in July 2006, at which time it was very immature, far from complete and of very little interest. For an outing at he end of August 2011, we took a friend's suggestion and went back to Hidden Valley, combining it with a re-visit of Marsh Villa and a walk along the cliffs from Carlyon Bay to Par and back. It was a good day and I am happy to report that Hidden Valley Garden is now well worth seeing and, with its re-visit policy, very good value.
For years I have been hoping to do this one but, although I have long known and walked parts of each, I had to wait until 2011 to discover full details. I am, therefore, greatly indebted to a Craig Weatherhill publication on the Zennor Churchway and to Ian Cooke for his superb booklet on the Tinners Way route that Craig and Hugh Miners researched many years ago. My round walk goes from St. Ives to Cape Cornwall mostly on the Zennor Churchway, returning over the high moors mostly on the Tinners Way. The complete trail is now fully uploaded.
This trail appeared in the out-of-print Celtic Way. It was devised by Alexandra Pratt and runs for 32½ or 44½ miles - depending on how you do it - aound West Penwith. It's an ideal trail for walkers with an interest in antiquities and glorious countryside. I walked it in 2006 and have since covered much of it on other walks. In March 2011 I revised my Penwith Round page and added a PDF file of the original route directions and interest. In places I have amended the original text to take account of rights of way changes but have not, I trust, changed its spirit.
I re-walked this, mostly with my friends and neighbours Bob and Pam, between October 2009 and May 2010. Now complete, it takes the form of 36 moderate stages - varying between 4¼ and 13½ miles - from Welcombe Mouth, just over the Devon border, to Cremyll, opposite Plymouth, 312 miles on the GPS. It includes detailed GPS data, descriptions and my diary for each stage. There is also information on interest on and accessible to the path, on public transport, car parking, refreshments, toilets and some brief guidance about where you may find accommodation.
I started this project in June 2010 and completed it in February 2011. Format is broadly similar to my Coast Path Page. Altogether there are 32 walks. Start points are Northcott Mouth, Boscastle, Polzeath, Padstow, Holywell Bay, Chapel Porth, Portreath, Zennor, Pendeen Watch, Sennen, Porthcurno, Lamorna, Porthleven, Mullion, Kynance, Landewednack, Coverack, Porthoustock, The Roseland, Carne Beach, Porthuney Cove, Penare, Pentewan, Polkerris, Fowey and Kingsand.
This was a Heritage Lottery funded project, due to be completed in 2008. As all such projects do, it encountered problems and ran late, eventually being more or less completed in 2010. I walked all these trails while they were being worked on, not always on the final route. In 2010 I walked them again - the Coast-to-Coast, the Redruth and Chacewater, the Portreath Branchline, the Tresavean and the Great Flat Lode. I have also devised my own Tolgus Trail and Walkers Alternative Coast-to-Coast.
Like the Mining Trails, the Clay Trails were devised as cycle routes, most as part the Cornish Way cycle route, itself part of the National Cycle Network. They also make easy walking routes. Present routes are Wheal Martyn, Bugle and Par Beach to the Eden Project; and Pentewan to St. Austell and Wheal Martyn. I have also devised a round walk from Pentewan, using a clay trail, a cycle route to Mevagissey, and the coast path. There are rumours that a new route will link Goss Moor with Bugle and therefore Eden; I have devised my own off-road walk.
The Land's End Trail runs from Land's End to Avebury. Its Cornish Section, as far as Tavistock in Devon, is now complete. Robert Preston and I have been working on the Tavistock to Avebury Section. The PDF Route File is complete so you can walk the complete route but, after Wiveliscombe, Robert's Commentary continues on the PDF file, Interest has ground to a halt and sketch maps remain to be done. Bear with us and eventually all will be completed.
