| Land's End Trail Interest | Land's End to Tavistock |
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| The Land's End Trail was conceived by Hugh Miners and researched by a group of Cornish Ramblers - Robert Wicks, Robert Preston and Robin Menneer. They published the route from Land's End to Avebury in the early 1990s Now in 2009 Robert Preston and Oliver Howes are re-walking the trail, checking directions and making amendments. Details of the route from Land's End to Tavistock, including sketch maps, are now published here. Go to The Cornish Section below to see an introductory web page, the full Route Details with sketch maps as a PDF file, Oliver's Commentary on the trail and a page of Trail Interest. The draft details of Tavistock to Avebury are, for the time being, available (£5 post paid) from Robert Preston (Tel: (0) 1 872 262 334). Oliver has re-walked Tavistock to Belstone and those details are on the web as Tavistock to Avebury below. Robert walked Belstone to Avebury in April 2009, raising funds for Truro Cathedral's Central Tower Appeal. We shall be revising the original route directions and adding them, stage by stage, to these pages. Trail Interest in the PDF files is shwn in bold italics but not linked. However, if you open the Commentary pages, Trail Interest is linked there. At present trail maps appear as sketch maps. Better maps are under development and will be added later. In due course the complete LET will appear on these pages as Land's End to Avebury in both directions. WE SUGGEST OPENING THE PDF FILES IN SEPARATE TABS. |
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INDEX TO THE INTEREST HIGHLIGHTS ALONG THE LAND'S END TRAIL
Land's End - and why not to go there
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It is difficult to find words to express the shame for what has been done to Land's End. Both Jane and I remember it from our childhood as a place of magic with an end-of-the-world feeling, the only human intervention a small hotel and a tearoom. Then in 1981 Welsh entrepreneur David Goldstone outbid the National Trust for the estate. He sold on to the mysterious Peter de Savary (Skibo Castle, Bovey Castle and Caribbean resorts) in 1987. De Savary bought John o'Groats in 1989 but then got into financial trouble and sold both in 1991 to Isle of Man entrepreneur Graham Ferguson Lacey. Now the hotel has been greatly extended and vulgarised and a small and tatty theme park introduced to separate the visitor from his money. Much of the clifftop is roped off and inaccessible. And even the famed direction sign (New York 3147 miles) is subject to a fee if you want to be pictured by it. What a sad place it is! For a real end-of-the-world feeling you would do far better to go a mere five miles or so north to Cape Cornwall, which is owned by the National Trust but which, in the way of 'visitor attractions' has only the summer ice cream wagon in the car park. This is more like the real Cornwall.. |
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If you have to go to Land's End, there is a large pay car park |
Tregiffian Vean Chambered Cairn near Land's End
| The fact that there is a better known Tregiffian neolithic long barrow close to the Merry Maidens in the Lamorna area confused me for a long while. So in April 2008, when doing a walk from Land's End, I looked at the OS map, saw that 'chambered cairn' was shown between Higher Tregiffian and Tregiffian farms, and decided to include it in my walk. It was easy to find, in a long field through which a path runs between the farms and, despite its small size, visible from quite a distance. When I got to it, my first thought was that this was no chambered cairn at all but just a heap of stones that a farmer had piled in a field. However, when I got home and looked it up on the web I found a posting by Pure Joy on The Modern Antiquarian , quoting Craig Weatherhill's book Belerion, Ancient Sites of Land's End as follows: "This barrow has suffered dreadfully and it is only a shadow of the fine and unusual monument excavated by W.C.Borlase in 1878. It was then a kerbed mound 6.4m in diameter, containing a rather odd-shaped chamber. This was 2.4m long, 0.9m wide and just 0.5m high, but its inner end opened out to a width of 1.2m and a height of 1.0m. Like the tomb at Tregeseal the entrance was blocked by a single slab. The roof of the chamber consisted of three slabs and the tomb contained ashes and an urn". Sad that an important ancient monument - it is of the Scillonian type - should have been allowed to be so badly damaged. |  |
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Chapel Carn Brea Bronze Age Tomb
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Even if you have no
interest in antiquities, this is a spot that is well worth visiting for
its location and views. Chapel Carn Brea - not to be confused with
Carn Brea at Camborne/Redruth, is Cornwall's most westerly hill.
Although rising only to 650 feet, the panorama is quite stupendous.
Below you spreads a patchwork of small fields, the settlement of
St. Just, and Land's End and both coasts. You may see, as I did,
planes flying into tiny Land's End airfield. To the southeast you
can see Lizard Point, 21 miles away; to the west you can see Longships
Lighthouse off Land's End; to the southwest you may see the Scilly
Isles, some 31 miles distant.
If you are interested in antiquities and history, what you will find at the very top of the hill is a Bronze Age chambered cairn, a vast burial mound covered with rocks. It is very badly disturbed and degraded; a medieval hermitage was built here, using stones from the cairn and, in the second world war, a radar station was built on it. Fairly nearby is another odd feature, close by a rocky tor, which none of the authorities I have consulted mention but which I think is an earlier neolithic long barrow. There is also a charred area where local pagans burn midsummer bonfires. The hill is fairly steep but easy to climb. There is a car park at its foot from which you can also walk to Carn Euny iron age village by way of St. Euny's Well. |
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Bartine Castle, Bartinney Downs and Tredinney Common
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In February 2007,
on a gloriously warm and sunny day, I went back to West Penwith to revisit
Chapel Carn Brea, St. Euny's Well and Carn Euny. I parked below Chapel
Carn Brea (a car park much favoured by dog walkers) and after walking up
it, came back past the car and crossed the road to the path to the well
and iron age village. It always surprises me to find no-one else
at such a fascinating spot as Carn Euny though, to be fair, it is not very
easily accessible by car. On the way back, just after the well,
I decided to turn up a path onto Bartinney Downs. The downs, like
so much high land in West Penwith, are covered with furze and brambles
but,
happily, paths have been cut through for horse riders. On the way
up the hill (740 feet) I found a probable cairn. At the top was the
almost unidentifiable iron age Bartine Castle. There was a possible
cairn close to the trig point. I continued north towards Bartinney,
turned west to Numphra Common, then south to Tredinney Common to find a
boundary stone. The path then took me back to close to my car park.
Partly Open Access land |
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Tregeseal Stone Circle and Kenidjack Holed Stones
| Sadly this circle of around twenty stones, having been restored, is rapidly being engulfed again in bracken. It had turned quite dark and drizzly by the time I got here, so images were poor. Happily I got these on another occasion while walking the Trail.. |
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| Chun Castle and the nearby Chun Quoit neolithic burial chamber are among Cornwall's least accessible ancient monuments. Footpaths to the site are not signed and you will need to find Trehyllys Farm (please ask the farmer's permission to park) near Great Bosullow, a mile off the Penzance to Morvah road. It is worth it; the ragged ruins of Chun Castle suggest the former size of this iron age fort. Almost 200 feet in diameter, its tumbled walls must have been six feet thick - and in 1951 Jacquetta Hawkes recorded that, in living memory, its walls had stood twelve feet high. She believed it to have been connected with the tin trade. While you will need to use considerable imagination, this is an impressively dominant site, which must have been much like an Irish rath and similar to Staigue Fort in Ireland's County Kerry. Use OS Explorer Sheet 102, whether coming by car or in the course of a hike. When I wrote this it had not occurred to me that you can equally well approach the site from Bosullow Common along the path past Trehyllys Settlement or, even better, as you do on the Trail, from Woon Gumpus Common, from where keen eyes will spot the quoit on the hilltop. |
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Trehyllys
Iron Age Village - information from The Modern Antiquarian
Mentioned by Craig
Weatherhill, in "Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly" (Cornwall
Books - 1985, revised 1997 & 2000) – "This superb, unexcavated Iron
Age/Romano-British village consist of three detached courtyard houses,
a number of detached round houses, and an interlocking complex of round
houses incorporating a fourth courtyard house and possibly the remains
of a small above ground fogou. Walls still reach a height of 1.8m in places
and the buildings are surrounded by a bewildering array of tiny contemporary
fields and garden plots. The settlement is situated immediately beside
a preserved stretch of the main prehistoric trackway of the peninsula,
and is known to have extended to the northern side of the track. The only
remains there are a stone-lined well and a stone hump which preserves part
of a fifth courtyard house." The site is on private land and is wired
off. However, if you wish to visit, you can make an appointment by
calling 01736 261402. The site is overgrown and even in winter I
was unable to get a worthwhile photo.
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Men-an-Tol stones and Men Scryfa inscribed stone
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Off the narrow road from Morvah to Penzance is one of Cornwall's most fascinating ancient monuments, Men-an-Tol. Park opposite the small former chapel at Bosullow and walk up a well-made farm track, leading towards Nine Maidens Common, to find the site which is signed over a stile halwway along the lane on the right. Two rather phallic uprights stand either side of an upright circular stone with a large hole through it. It is this 'stone with a hole' that gives the site its name. Almost certainly ormerly part of a burial chamber, the present upright stones stand either side of the circular stone which would probably have been the entrance to the grave. The stones are said to have curative rather than fertility properties. Passing through the hole will cure a child of tuberculosis or rickets, an adult of rheumatism. On the way along the lane, elaborate stone walls enclose small fields, close to a ruined farmstead and a recently abandoned one. Further up the lane, on the way to the Nine Maidens, Men Scryfa, an inscribed stone, stands in a field on the left. You can also follow the road towards Penzance to encounter other ancient sites - Lanyon Quoit just a mile on, Madron Chapel and Wishing Well another 1½ miles. The well is one of those where people tie strips of cloth in the trees, in prayer for the sick or in memory of the dead. |
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Park at Bosullow Common and walk north-east up the lane |
The Four Parish
Stone
I have passed this
massive flat rock many times. It was only after Robin Menneer had
mentioned the Four Parish Stone to me that, next time I passed that way,
I took a close look at it. The Trail passes right by it, shortly
after a path heads north towards Carn Galver mine and the coast.
All I have been able to find out about it is a small item on Morvah village's
web site. I quote the item in full.
At a point where
the four parishes of Zennor, Morvah, Gulval, and Madron meet, is a flat
stone with a cross cut on it. Saxon kings are said to have dined
on this stone. The only tradition which is known amongst the peasantry
of Sennen is, that Prince Arthur and the Kings who aided him against the
Danes, in the great battle fought near Vellan-Drucher, dined on the Table-mên,
after which they defeated the Danes.
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Nine Maidens Stone Circle in West Penwith
| Standing high on gorse and heather moorland in West Penwith, not far from Men-an-Tol, Nine Maidens stone circle must be one of those, like the Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds, where you cannot count the stones. Look at Megalithic Portal or the Modern Antiquarian and you will find many differing reports of the number of stones there were and are here. At its restoration in 2004, three were said to have been re-erected to add to the existing six. In September 2006 Jane and I counted eleven. If Nine Maidens followed the same prectice as other West Penwith circles, there would originally have been nineteen stones. |
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I know Carn Euny and Chysauster iron age villages well but had no idea that there was another with substantial remains in West Penwith. It was by pure chance, during a walk from Carn Galver car park - visiting the Nine Maidens and looking for boundary stones - that I came across Bodrifty. Within a badly degraded embanked enclosure are the remains of eight iron age roundhouses. Sadly an excavation in the 1950s did a lot of damage but the site, on a gently sloping hillside just north of Bodrifty Farm, is still well worth seeing. The location was apparently occupied in the Bronze Age but what you see now is what remains of occupation from 600BC to around 43AD. If you follow the yellow markers from the site you will find a good roundhouse reconstruction, done by Bodrifty Farm owner Fred Mustill. I believe this was done primarily for the benefit of school groups but anyone is welcome. I have passed through since on several occasions, particularly when walking the Land's End Trail. I have also learned that there are other similar iron age village remains in West Penwith, at places such as Trehyllys, Higher Porthmeor and Mulfra though these are even more degraded than Bodrifty and somewhat less accessible |
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OS Explorer 102 grid ref: 355/455 |
| Believed to be remains of Neolithic burials, where the mound has weathered away, these quoits are known elsewhere as Cromlechs or Dolmens. Cornwall's best known are Lanyon Quoit in West Penwith and Trethevy Quoit on Bodmin Moor. This is probably just because they are easily accessible by car. Zennor and Mulfra Quoits, like their West Penwith companion Chun Quoit, are accessible only to those to like to walk the hills. My own view is that, of all five, Zennor is the finest - and the most unusual for having several standing stones to its front. From Zennor Quoit you can see the north coast, from Mulfra you can see the south coast and St. Michael's Mount. |
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Castle an Dinas, Rogers Tower and Baker's Pit
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I learned about Baker's Pit from the promotion for heathland restoration and an article in Cornwall Today. Not that the Cornwall Wildlife Trust nature reserve was what interested me, rather I wanted to see what I could find of the former china clay workings. When I looked at OS Explorer 102 to locate it, I realised there was a lot of other interest not far away: the other Castle an Dinas iron age hill fort (the well known one is near St. Columb), an 18th century folly on it and a nearby working granite quarry. So in early October 2007 I parked in the car park at Chysauster and set off on a walk that should have taken three hours but took five. I set off down the road for half-a-mile then took a path (initially through woodland) north-east to Gulval Downs. There I followed a path south-east to Castle an Dinas granite quarry, an impressive working site. Next it was roughly north east up to Castle an Dinas hill fort, easily spotted not by its rudimentary earthworks but by a folly known as Rogers Tower. The banks and ditches are badly degraded but the views magnificent in all directions. Next I headed north west to find Baker's Pit and associated engine house and dries. I had intended to make my way directly back to Chysauster. Instead I made it dreckly - by way of Woonsmith, Conquer Downs, Kerrowwell Cottage and Carnaquidden Farm. A rewarding walk. |
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OS Explorer 102 |
| Castle an Dinas quarry is still a working granite quarry with some impressive modern machinery. I have been able to find out nothing about Rogers Tower except that it is thought to have been built in the 18th century, a time when so many follies were constructed, by a local land owner named Rogers. Partly built on the outer bank of Castle an Dinas hill fort, the views looking south over Mount's Bay are superb. The folly looks a little like a child's sandcastle. China clay was worked at Baker's Pit from about 1758, not long after its discovery by William Cookworthy at Tregonning Hill in 1746. It acquired tha name Baker's Pit when William Baker bought it in 1868. It was Baker who built the engine house that stands near the main pit, pictured below. On Baker's death the business was acquired by his partners Loverings, eventually to become part of English China Clays. The pit and associated works finally closed in 1942. Not far from the pit you can see a tall brick chimney; behind it are the old clay dries. You can find more about it on the Trevithick Society's website. |
| Although the iron age hill fort that tops Trencrom Hill - also known as Trecrobben Hill - provides the historic and archaeological interest, the unfailing attraction of the hill is the magnificent views from the summit, despite its moderate height of only around 700 feet. As you look clockwise from the west you see Rogers Tower, Trink and Rosewall hills, St. Ives Bay, the Hayle Estuary, Godolphin and Tregonning hills and St. Michael's Mount. The feeling from this vast panorama is utterly ravishing. I have been up on Trencrom Hill on many occasions: first when walking St. Michael's Way from Lelant to Marazion and later when walking the Land's End Trail between Bosullow and St. Erth. If you are just visiting the hill itself, you don't have to walk that far; there is a small car park at the southern foot of the hill, on a minor road from Lelant Downs towards Cripplesease. On one of the paths leading north off the hill I discovered a well, sealed off with a padlocked metal cover. Apparently it is reputed to have holy properties but its great depth is considered to be a danger, hence its sealing. Below the hill, to its north-west, is the attractive hamlet of Trencrom with remains of a defunct mine, Wheal Alice. |  |
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Walking the second stage of the east to west Land's End Trail, I finished in St. Erth and was pleasantly surprised to find a delightful church. The church guide says that St Erth (or Erc or Ercus) was Irish, a brother of St. Ia and St. Uny and a close friend of St. Patrick. Tradition has it that he is buried beneath the church. Outside St. Erth church is conventionally Cornish with its three-stage pinnacled tower, same height nave and two aisles, and decorated and perpendicular windows. Inside is quite a surprise. Wooden barrel vaulted roofs have elaborate bosses and, at the chancel end, painted decoration. Corbels carry carved stone heads and two carved angels look out of dormer windows. The Trewinnard Chapel, in the south aisle, is colourful with painted roof and bosses, a gilded altar and reredos and a beautifully carved screen. The chancel, too, is colourful with more roof decoration, painted carved oak reredos and a good stained glass window. The surprise is that all this elaboration is late Victorian and Edwardian. There are associations with Harveys of Hayle; it was here that Richard Trevithick married John Harvey's daughter Jane. There are two Cornish crosses in the churchyard, one close to the porch, the other incorporated in a grave. A most unusual cross stands in the square in the village, its head rectangular but not in the form of a lantern. |
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| After my Land's End Trail walk that finished in St. Erth, I read the guide book and realised that I had missed a lot in the graveyard. So I returned a week later in December 2007, when also visiting Cape Cornwall and Towednack Church. The graveyard is large and well stocked with graves. Most significant are those of the Harvey family (of Harvey's of Hayle) and of the related Trevithick family. Richard Trevithick married John Harvey's daughter Jane; it is a shame that he is not here but in an unmarked grave in Dartford, Kent. By the south-east corner of the church is a handsome chest tomb. There are two Cornish crosses, one near the south-east corner of the church, another topping a tomb to the north side of the church. There are also a couple of cast iron crosses, marking (I think) childrens graves |
| It is surprisingly difficult to find out anything about the Hayle River. Usually I rely on the Cornish Rivers Project as a source of information but, this time, nothing. Looking at the Ordnance Survey map, it seems to me that it rises at Trelabnas, about 1½ south-south-west of Crowan (near Praze-an-Beeble). It then flows westwards, passing through the northern edge of the Godolphin estate on its way to Tregembo, where it turns north-west on its way through the villages of Relubbus and St. Erth and on to Lelant Saltings, where the estuary begins, joining the Atlantic in St. Ives Bay. All seem to agree that its length is about 12 miles. Its first recorded name is heylpenford though the penford bit sounds English. There are two meanings suggested for heyl - estuary or fordable river. I am now familiar with three parts of the Hayle. I have walked along it for a little way on the Godolphin estate, from Trannack Mill to St. Erth [doing St. Erth to Leedstown on the Land's End Trail], and on both banks of the estuary. The only other part that appears walkable is a short section south of Trannack Mill as far Relubbus. Between Trannack Mill and St. Erth a wide grassy path follows the west bank of the little river. Here the Hayle has been dredged, its banks cleared and revetted in places. A delightful walk with parking by the charming church in St. Erth. |
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| Ample parking in St. Erth between the church and the river |
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Crowan is an attractive little village with buildings speaking of its former importance as the St. Aubyn family's 'churchtown'. Victorian gothic Church House, presumably the former rectory, is now divided in two. Coverack House (that might be a new name) is handsomely Georgian with a plain porch. Down the hill towards Praze is an attractive converted mill building, still complete with its waterwheel. St. Crewenna is thought to have come from Ireland, possibly with St. Breaca (of Breage) but nothing is known of him/her. Crowan village (as a 'chuchtown') was once the focus of the great Clowance estate of the St. Aubyn family. The family have departed for St. Michael's Mount (as Lords St. Levan) and Pencarrow (as the Molesworth-St. Aubyns). Clowance itself is a now a timeshare, country club and golf club. From the outside the (probably) 14th century church looked rather dull when I visited it on a Land's End Trail walk from Leedstown to Beacon. The interest is in the memorials to the St. Aubyns inside. Earliest is the remnant of brasses of around 1420. Most elaborate is that of 1772 to Sir John St. Aubyn by sculptor Joseph Wilton. I liked the delightful collage tapestry telling the story of the village and neighbouring estate villages such as the mining settlement of Praze-an-Beeble |
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Crowan is signed off B3303 Camborne-Helston |
Carwynnen Quoit - or the Giant's Quoit
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Carwynnen Quoit, also
known as the Giant's Quoit, is a collapsed neolithic burial chamber.
To look at it now you might wonder if it were not just a heap of rocks
but there is an image of it standing in The
Modern Antiquarian. Apparently it was re-erected in the mid 20th
century, only to collapse again in 1983. It seems there may be moves
afoot to re-erect it again. Not easy to find, you need to get to
the tiny settlement of Carwynnen, take the hill up towards Troon and scramble
over the hedge on the left just after the campsite.
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| When I walked from Beacon to Clowance on the Land's End Trail, I was really surprised by Treslothan hamlet. All very grey and Victorian gothic but all beautifully maintained. This was the estate village of Pendarves House and survived intact when the Georgian home of the Pendarves family was demolished in 1955. All built in the 1840s by architect George Whitwick, the church, houses and former school are all of the same silvery grey granite and surround a war memorial. Next to the church is the Pendarves Mausoleum. Buried in the churchyard is self-taught Camborne born poet John Harris. On a corner by woods is the former village well. |  |
| 1 mile west of Troon by country lanes |
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Cornish Mines and Engines at Camborne
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Camborne was Britain's major centre of copper and tin mining during the 19th century. Around 1870, as the copper became exhausted, the 'Great Flat Lode' of tin was discovered. New shafts were sunk, more engine houses built. Sadly only South Crofty Mine (in mothballs) remains capable of production but substantial relics stand in their hundreds. The National Trust and the Trevithick Trust (Richard Trevithick was the Cornish engineer who invented the high pressure engine that enabled deep mining) have restored two at Pool, close to Trevithick's birthplace. In 2002 we toured the Discovery Centre at Taylor's Shaft and were immensely impressed by the massive Harvey's Cornish Beam Engine, one of the largest ever built. Nearby, we saw the smaller working engine in steam at Michell's Shaft. We have also enjoyed seeing Levant Engine in steam at the National Trust's site, beautifully located on a cliff-top near Cape Cornwall. We walked too - up Carn Brea Hill and past other mining relics. We report elsewhere on the 'Great Flat Lode Trail' and the Coast-to-Coast Mineral Tramway Trail between Devoran and Portreath |
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Kresenn Kernow, the Cornwall Centre in Redruth
| When I walked a section of the Redruth and Chacewater Trail in June 2008, I had time to spare to wander around Redruth. I was glad I did because, on Alma Place off Fore Street, I encountered the excellent Cornwall Centre. At heart the Cornish Studies Library, with a vast collection of Cornish books, pamphlets, journals and photographs, it is much more than just that. In the foyer is the local TIC with helpful staff and ample good local information. In a front exhibition room I saw a good display of local crafts. For me, though, the highlights were through a door off the foyer. A corridor and stairs lead down to Market Way and the old Buttermarket. Along the corridor are the first few frames of the Tregellas Tapestries. At the foot of the stairs you come to Market Way, a small mall with a mix of shops and a café (all day breakfasts). Through the mall is the old Butter market. While the stalls here were of little interest, what took my attention was a replica of Richard Murdoch's 'Flyer' steam driven road car and the remainder of the 56 frames of the Treeless Tapestry. Inspired and supervised by Cornish Bard Rite Treeless Pope, the superb Tapestry covers the history of Cornwall from Prehistoric times to the present day. A few frames deal with myth and legend rather than fact - Jesse's visit to Cornwall and the story of Triton and Assault. |  |
| Alma Place is off pedestrianized Fore St. near the clock tower |
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Carn Brae - the hill overlooking Cambourne and Redruth
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This impressive hill, a ridge a mile long, towers over Cameroon and Redruth. Views are superb but mostly to the north. The visible archaeology is something of a disappointment. An important neolithic settlement of the early 4th millennium BC had an 8 acre enclosure surrounded by an 11 acre enclosure, occupied by a hundred or so people. Later, iron age occupants streamed for minerals and traded as far as Kent. In medieval times stone was quarried and the Bassetts hunted from their 'castle' hunting lodge, Carn Brea Castle. Most prominent feature of the hill is the great monument commemorating Francis Bassett, Lord de Dunstanville, mine owner and banker. The hill is much overgrown with furze, brambles and bracken and all I have been able to find are a couple of standing stone, some boundary stones and two hut circles. Perhaps a serious heath fire might expose what the experts found in the 1970s. Although, when visiting Carn Brea, which I have done many times, I prefer to walk, making a variation to the Great Flat Lode Trail, you can drive to the top of the hill. A track leads up from Carnkie village and you park not far from Carn Brea Castle. Carn Brea should not be confused with Chapel Carn Brea, with its vast cairn, which is nor far from St. Just-in-Penwith. |
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Best place nearby for a pint and a pasty is the Countryman at Piece |
| Carn Brea Castle is really a medieval hunting lodge, built atop Carn Brea in the 15th century (or possibly adapted from an earlier chapel) by the Bassett family of nearby Tehidy as a hunting lodge. Its appearance, of a miniature medieval fortress, earned it its name. |
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In 2006 UNESCO World
Heritage status was granted to large areas of the mining landscape of Cornwall
and West Devon. While much of the credit for this achievement must
go to organisations like the Trevithick Trust and the National Trust, and
to many concerned individuals, Cornwall County Council acted as a major
driver. Indeed their Mineral Tramways Project has, in its way, underpinned
the whole project by opening up access to many of the important sites in
the Camborne/Redruth area.
We first leaned of the existence of mineral tramways when walking around Minions on Bodmin Moor and finding double lines of granite setts. When we learned of the opening of the Mineral Tramways - the Great Flat Lode and the Coast to Coast - we walked those and loved them. At the time of writing, work is under way to open up another 20 miles in 2008 - the Redruth and Chacewater Railway, the Portreath Branchline from Brea, a Tolgus Trail linking the Coast to Coast to Redruth, the short Tresavean Trail above Lanner, and a Tehidy Trail through Tehidy Park from Portreath. I have already walked the approximate line of most of the new trails. Progress has been a little disappointing, thanks to problems with access agreements, and I doubt whether the scheduled 2008 openings will all happen. |
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Web sites for Mineral Tramways and Mining Heritage |
Carn Marth - the next hill east from Carn Brea
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When we did a Redruth
and Chacewater guided mineral tramway walk in August 2007 Jane was very
much taken with the detour we took up Carn Marth. I had been up there
before and liked it so I was happy to take up Jane's suggestion that we
revisit the hill and take a circular walk on clear paths. We parked
in the same place as on the tramways guided walk - close to the covered
reservoir at the very top end of Lanner. The great attraction of
this spot is that it is handy for several trails and paths - the Redruth
and Chacewater, the Tresavean Trail and a track heading towards Seleggan
and the Great Flat Lode Trail.
It surprised us to learn that Carn Marth, at 775 feet, is actually 20 feet higher than Carn Brea. But, when you get up there, you realise how much better the views are. North-east to St. Agnes Beacon, east to the hills of clay country, south to Carrick Roads and Pendennis Point. There is a fair bit of interest up on the Carn, too: three granite quarries, one with a small amphitheatre created in it, another filled with deep blue water when the sun is out; and several attractive farmhouses on the lower slopes. Our route took us past Myrtle Farm, Carn Marth Farm and Gordon Farm. On the way up from Lanner Reservoir you pass an engine house, Baronet's Shaft of Pennance Consols Mine, its adjacent Count House now a private home. |
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Beginning of Carn Marth Lane on the Redruth & Chacewater Trail |
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St. Day is in the Mining Villages Regeneration Project, part of the World Heritage Project; others are Carharrack, Stithians, Lanner and Gwennap. There are trail leaflets for each village and its surrounds. Best is for St. Day, most interesting of the villages. The name St. Day was acquired when the Breton saint of that name, later Bishop of Nevers, founded a monastic cell here in the late 7th century. In medieval times it was a stopping point on the pilgrimage to St. Michael's Mount. In the 19th century, it was a major producer of copper . The mines are gone but are in evidence everywhere around. There are two trails. The Village Trail includes the ruined church, the narrow-mullioned Manor Workshop, the handsome Clock Tower and the attractive Old Post Office. Don't miss the old market square, and its attractive new Mills Terrace, or Mills Street, charity housing founded by local success William John Mills. The Outer Trail includes two shutes (springs), the Parish Pound, a boundary stone, Gwennap Pit and, if the owners of Menheer Farm are in, a Roman milestone. If former mining villages interest you, this ne is well worth allowing extra time for whilst on the trail. |
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John Wesley first came to Cornwall in 1743 and one of the first areas he visited was the copper belt to the south of Camborne and Redruth. One of the first places he preached was the busy complex of mines at Gwennap, an area he returned to time and again over the years. When Wesley came to the area in September the weather was particularly stormy and, for protection from the wind and so the crowd could hear him, he preached in a natural amphitheatre created by a mine-shaft collapse. He returned there 17 times, preaching to crowds claimed to be as large as 30,000. In 1806 local mine captains rebuilt the pit with its present 13 concentric rings of turfed seating. In 1836 Busveal chapel was built close by. In the 1980s sculptor Guy Sanders created the series of commemorative panels. A small visitor centre is open from Whitsun to September. A service is held every Whit Monday. Gwennap Pit is not an easy place to find but the effort is worth it for the special atmosphere. From A30 east of Redruth take B3298 south, turn right into St. Day centre, then west. Not far from Gwennap Pit is Carharrack Museum of Cornish Methodism in Carharrack's Methodist Church. It has a small collection of Wesleyana and artefacts of Cornish Methodist history and is open by appointment only with Mr Barrie S May - 01209 820381. |
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The Trail also passes by Wesley's Cottage museum in Five Lanes |
Coast to Coast Mineral Tramways - Portreath to Devoran
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During winter 2006
I had walked the Copper Trail around Bodmin Moor. In May I walked
St. Michael's Way and the Saints Way, both coast to coast trails.
In June 2006 I added in another trail, this one from Portreath on the north
coast to Devoran on the south. The trail, open to cyclists and horse
riders as well as walkers, follows horse-drawn tramways that once served
the rich tin and copper mines to the east of Redruth; first the old
Portreath Tramroad to Scorrier, then the Redruth and Chacewater Railway.
It is easy walking, gentle gradients take you up to only 300 feet at Scorrier.
there is some refreshment along the way, pubs and cafés at Portreath,
the Fox and Hounds at Scorrier, a café at the cycle hire depot at
Bissoe and the excellent Old Quay Inn at Devoran.
Jane and I had previously walked the central part of the trail - the Wheal Busy and Beside Loops - so to complete the route I walked Portreath to Scorrier and back and Devoran to Poldice and back. The former has little interest, but the latter and the Loops are filled with mine remains and lovely views. Waymarking is tasteful and good. Sadly there is no public transport usefully linking any of the points along the route but serious walkers will do the whole route, and back again, in the day. |
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12 miles coast to coast, 18 miles including the loops |
| It may surprise visitors
to Oliver's Cornwall that I should include an item on the Cornish Cyder
Farm at Callestick Veor near Penhallow. I don't usually do
'tourist attractions' and you will find no mention on these pages of the
Eden Project, Flambards, Crealy Adventure Park and their like. But,
when Jane and I called in there to get some tea on our way back from visiting
Roseland House Garden, we were impressed so here it is. David and
Kay Healey bought the farm in 1986 in order to produce cider. Orchards
were planted and farm buildings beautifully converted. Now they produce
several grades of cider (including scrumpy), apple brandy, country wines,
fruit juices and superb whole fruit jams.
Entry to the site is free though there are charges for tractor-drawn farm tours and guided tours of the production areas. There is a small cider museum and animals to entertain the children . The busy shop looks good and sells Cornish Cyder Farm's own products, some of them expensive. The restaurant is simple and has plenty of umbrellaed outside tables. There is a straightforward lunch menu and we can strongly recommend the cream teas, served with generous amounts of clotted cream and their own jam. Signage to the site is clear and there is ample car parking. |
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| Directly on the Trail and a good place for refreshments |
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During a walk in November 2007 from Zelah to Chiverton Cross, as part of the Land's End Trail, I passed through a lot of places with the Callestick (or Callestock) name. Originally they would all have been the Callestoc recorded in Domesday Book. I counted Little Callestock, Callestick, Old Callestick Mine and Callestock Veor (Great) plus Callestick Vean (Little) which wasn't on my route. The present village of Callestick, the largest of the settlements, was presumably originally Callestock Veor. It is an attractive place in more senses than one. A handsome Georgian farmhouse, beautifully presented cottages, a former Methodist chapel converted to a home, a well kept Methodist graveyard, a small maker of quality ice cream and the Cornish Cyder Farm. I stopped at the latter for a coffee and cake when on the Land's End Trail in 2007. In September 2008 I was again walking the Land's End Trail - this time west to east - with my friend and neighbour Richard. It was a warm day and, feeling in need of refreshment, we stopped at Callestick Farm for a first-class ice cream. They also do bacon baps and cream teas. They are open all year (though in winter just Wed to Sat). I recommend Callestick Farm. |
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| Although Mitchell never benefitted from Cornwall's many mining booms, in its time it was a town of some importance. Set in a rich lowland farming area, it was also an important staging post on the main coach road from London. From the look of them it's a reasonable assumption that both the attractive Plume of Feathers inn and nearby Raleigh House were once coaching inns. There are other attractive buildings in town, too: the delightful Georgian Wellesley Farm and a row of cottages on the main street. Politically, Mitchell also once had its importance. You may wonder at the names Raleigh and Wellesley in a minor Cornish town but here is, in fact, a very simple if surprising explanation. From 1547 to the Reform Act of 1832 it was a 'rotten borough', it's very few property owning voters returning two members to parliament. Indeed, in 1593 Devon born Sir Walter Raleigh was one of these as in 1807 was Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington. I remember well when the main road to holiday country of St. Ives and Penzance passes right along Mitchell's main street. Then the holiday season must have made it a traffic nightmare for its residents; now Mitchell is bypassed by the modern A30 and is a sleepy attractive village. |  |
| Signed from A30, 15 miles west of Bodmin |
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Castle-an-Dinas near St. Columb Major
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The largest and most
easily accessible iron age hill fort in Cornwall, not to be confused
with one of the same name in West Penwith, Castle-an-Dinas stands on a
700 foot hilltop to the south-east of St. Columb Major. There are
two rings of banks and ditches, the outer perimeter a full half mile, the
area around 10 acres.
4000 years ago all that stood here were two bronze age barrows, still just discernable. Over 2000 years ago, when the fort was constructed, it would have been a hive of activity. In 1646, in the Civil Wars, it saw Hopton's royalist forces camping overnight. Fifty years ago it was the site of a major wulfram (tungsten) mine and an aerial ropeway ran from the ramparts to the works buildings that still stand by the car park. Now it is just populated by sheep and goats, who probably pay no attention at all to the great panoramas - a toposcope stands by a barrow. A lot of stories surround this isolated spot. Reputedly it was the site of King Arthur's hunting lodge and the place where Cador, King of Cornwall and husband of Arthur's mother Igerne, died. It is said that ghostly armies have been seen in the skies above the fort. Both murders and executions have taken place here. Standing on the ramparts, and enjoying the long views, it is hard to imagine any of these events. |
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Off un-numbered road, 2 miles E of junction of A39 and A3059 |
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Until the 1970s a branch railroad in the Camel Valley linked Padstow and Wadebridge with the main line at Bodmin. Now it is an 18-mile hiking, horse riding and cycling trail, extended to Wenford Bridge on a former quarry tramway, again alongside the river. For the cyclist it then effectively continues as the Camelford Way as far as the town of Camelford, making a total trail of some 26 miles. If you are visiting Bodmin, an short extension to th trail follows what was once a packhorse route as far as Bodmin Jail. You can get refreshments in Padstow and Wadebridge, at a tea garden near Dunmere, at the excellent Borough Arms at Dunmere and at a tea room off the trail in Tresarret. Hikers, beware summer vacation time when there can often be far too many cyclists for comfort, particularly between Padstow and Wadebridge. Horses and hikers are supposed to take precedence over cyclists but not many cyclists choose to behave as if they know that. Bikes can be hired in Padstow, Wadebridge and Bodmin. For walkers the level firm terrain could not be easier - but can be extremely boring compared with the Coast Path or Bodmin Moor. The most interesting section to walk is that between Padstow and Wadebridge which follows the delightful estuary of the River Camel. |
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Trail leaflet from Tourist Information Centres |
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Passing through now, on the road to Wadebridge, Bodmin appears, at first glance to be a rather scruffy, inconsequential town. But first appearances can deceive. As you drop down into the town, look to your right and you will see Cornwall's finest and most important parish church, dedicated to St. Petroc, who founded a monastery here around AD550. Turn left by it and you will find yourself in Mount Folly Square, filled with handsome Victorian buildings: The Shire Hall housed the county's Assize Courts until 1988, the Public Rooms were once the social heart of the town. Continue past these, along the Lostwithiel Road, and you will discover former county regiment barracks and a railway station that served a line to Wadebridge, opened in 1834. Or follow the road to Wadebridge and you will see signs for Bodmin Jail and pass Westheath Park, now an upmarket housing development and technology park but once site of the county lunatic asylum. Put all these together and you will realise that this was once once a place of great significance, the County Town from 1836 to 1988. There are several things for the visitor to see and do, though litle advertised. The Shire Hall houses the TIC, exhibitons and a Court Room Museum. Bodmin Jail is now a Jail Museum with restaurant. The Town Museum is in the Public Rooms. St.Petroc's Church should not be missed. The Bodmin & Wenford Railway operates steam trains on the old Wadebridge line. |
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A branch of the Camel Trail runs most of the way to the centre of Bodmin |
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The first Christian foundation in Bodmin was that of St. Guron around 500 AD; his well is under the little granite building by the west end. St. Petroc came from Wales in around 530 AD, founded churches in Cornwall and Brittany, took over St. Guron's cell in Bodmin and is considered father of the Cornish church. Padstow, where he founded his first settlement, is named for him - St. Petroc's holy place. The greatest treasure in Bodmin’s church is Saint Petroc's reliquary casket, made around 1170. His remains have had a chequered history; moved from Padstow in the 10th century, they were stolen by French monks but returned in the elaborate ivory and gold casket, now on display in the church. The casket was lost, rediscovered, put on display in 1957, then lost again only to turn up on a Yorkshire moor. Enter by a handsome porch, above it two priest’s rooms. Within the church are some unusual features; an impressive carved Norman font, a lantern cross, 16th century painted panels, the fine Vivian tomb and an unusual lectern, apparently made from old benchends. To the north east of the church are the ruins of the chantry chapel of St. Thomas a’Becket. Once the county town of Cornwall, now superseded by Truro, Bodmin is the terminus of the Bodmin & Wenford steam railway. |
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No parking outside but ample nearby |
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One thinks of the Camel as a river of Bodmin Moor. Indeed you do encounter it on parts of the northern moor, but not on the heights and it cannot be said, in any way, to drain the moor, except that it is joined near Poley's Bridge by the De Lank River which really does drain a part of the moor. The Camel itself rises on the very northern extremities of the moor near Davidstow. On its way to the town to which it gave ts name, Camelford, it passes through Slaughterbridge. The owners of Worthyvale Manor there like to claim it as an Arthurian site - indeed the place where Modred slew Arthur at the Batle of Camlaan - but the basis of their claim, an inscribed stone by the river, never recorded any claim to commemorate Arthur's death. After Camelford the river runs through farmland and light woodland until it reaches Wenford Bridge. Here a trail joins it, the Camel Trail, as it continues through woodland all the way to Wadebridge, before the countryside opens out alongside the Camel Estuary to Padstow and beyond for the river to enter the Atlantic between Stepper Point and Pentire Point. This is definitely our favourite section of the Camel, the broad estuary beyond Padstow where it is now followed by the Coast Path and offers glorious views across the water to Rock, sand dunes, Brea Hill and Daymer Bay. |
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The Camel is a trout and salmon river, but in no way prolific |
| Visited during a Bodmin Moor walk, there was no guide leaflet so I can tell you little history except that the Cornish claim that it was founded by St. Brueredus, Jersey believes it was their St. Branwallader. Inside, there may be only two carved bench ends - in the choir - but there are three superb painted carved stone panels from the former rood screen, Norman nave columns and a charming carved wood pulpit. There is also a handsome slate memorial (I couldn't read who to) dated 1609, with two kneeling figures. |
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Old Mill Herbary at Helland Bridge
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This is an odd one
which, while we enjoyed it greatly in May 2006, we are a little reluctant
to recommend without more than a few reservations. The location is
an interesting one. Before the present house was built, a water mill
had stood here for centuries, fed by a leat off the River Camel, which
flows along the lower side of the garden. The Whurrs began creating
a garden here in 1984 and have worked on it ever since. We have the
feeling that they may have lost heart a bit as maintenance is somewhat
less than you might hope.
Old Mill Herbary garden comes in five parts. By the house are a small water garden and bog garden. Alongside the river is a long lawn, lightly planted as a young arboretum, all the trees named. Beyond this is the 'island', an area of light semi-wild woodland, where you wander among birches, crossing many small bridges. Alongside the lawn is a stream garden, created from the former mill leat. Above this a steepish bank is terraced with casual beds of shrubs, flowers and herbs - some might be offended by the distinctly erotic sculpture dotted sround it. We may sound a little critical but, in fact, we found it a very enjoyable, tranquil garden. There is a small car park but no teas or toilets. |
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The Whurrs forbid internet photos, hence this one of Helland Bridge |
Bodmin Moor - Cornwall's Wild Open Moorland
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Most visitors to Cornwall drive straight across Bodmin Moor on their way to their beach and surf resorts and give it scarcely a second thought. Even the fitter visitors are probably thinking only of the Coast Path. They don't know what they are missing and we're glad of that as it leaves the delights of the moor to the few who know and love its wildness, scattered settlements, pleasing villages, clapper bridges, rugged beauty and many antiquities. Here are a few of our highlights. Hills: Brown Willy nd Rough Tor are the highest and are musts, even though relatively popular. Stowe's Hill is also a popular must particularly for the renowned Cheesewring rocks. Our favourites include rocky Kilmar Tor and Hawke's Tor and remote feeling Buttern Hill and High Moor. Anywhere above about 1000' you get immense views and that 'top of the world' feeling. Rivers: Between them the Fowey, Camel and De Lank drain much of the moor, all rise in the north. Antiquities: Easily accessible are the Hurlers and Pipers standing stones, Trethevy Quoit and King Doniert's Stones. Less accessible are the Stripple Stones and Nine Stones and King Arthur's Hall. All over the hills are remains of prehistoric settlements, medieval villages and abandoned Victorian farmsteads. Industry: Superb copper mine relics and mineral tramways near Minions village; china clay pits at Stannon, Glynn Valley and Whitebarrow; a working granite quarry at De Lank |
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Ordnance Survey Explorer Sheet 109 covr the whole moor |
| This is an
Arthurian location that you cannot get to in a car. However, paths
lead east to it from St. Breward Church for a little over a mile to Penwood
House, then sharply north-east for another mile or so. You could
shorten the walk by parking near Penwood House.
What you find, when you get to the top of King Arthur’s Downs, is what may be a prehistoric rectangular banked enclosure, around six feet high and some 160 feet by 65 feet. Inside is lined with apparently random stones, upright, angled or lying flat. A ditch once followed inside the rectangle, its course is marked by mare’s tail grass. Romantics would have us believe that the enclosure was once roofed but its sheer size makes that unlikely. However, the same sheer size suggests that it must have been a place of some importance. It still feels like a special place, perhaps because of its location. Despite knowing that farms and villages are not far away, you feel total isolation on the high moorland, your views of the higher land of Garrow Tor and Rough Tor only heightening the feeling of isolation. Yet, look to the east and you will see isolated standing stones that may have marked a prehistoric track over the moor. |
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| Ordnance Survey Explorer sheet 109, grid reference SX 130777 |
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I had explored Garrow Tor briefly when doing my Garrow Tor and Hawk's Tor walk in September 2006. In the course of a walk from De Lank Water Works in August 2008 - intended to find an easy way oover Butterstor - I had the chance to spend some time on Garrow Tor. As so often when you get above 1000 feet on Bodmin Moor, the views are stupendous - Roughtor and Brown Willy to the north, Caradon Hill to the south, clay country to the west and the Atlantic to the north-west. What took my interest this time was the vast amount of early settlement on the hill. There are several bronze age settlements with probably at least 100 hut circles remaining. There is a massive rock hedge snaking up the hill in a sort of crinkle-crankle shape from where the path emerges from King Arthur's Downs after passing through the woods. On previous walks I had passed by Garrow Farm and been fascinated by it. This time I noticed some substantial enclosures around it and later did a web search. It seems that there was a fair medieval settlement here to the north and west of the present farm buildings. If you are interested there is a fascinating 23 page PDF file about a dig there. It appears that the pesent post-medieval buildings are all that now remains of a much larger farm, still in use to judge by the quad bike tracks I spotted. |
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I parked at Del Lank Water Works. All on Open Access land. |
Brown Willy - Cornwall's Highest Hill
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Brown Willy - according to Craig Weatherhill, the name means 'hill of swallows' - is Cornwall's highest point at 1375 feet. In the background of the photo is Roughtor, at 1311 feet the second highest hill. From a distance these two peaks look like mountains rather than hills but, when you come to climb them, they are only easy hills, as long as you don't choose a rocky route up. At the northern summit of Brown Willy are a trig point and a modern cairn, topped by a small stone cross. The southern summit is topped by a massive bronze age burial cairn.. The simplest route up Brown Willy is from the Roughtor car park, first climbing Roughtor itelf. I prefer to approach from the south, from Jamaica Inn at Bolventor. You follow the east-west Land's End Trail route, first climbing Tolborouigh Tor and then following a fence line to the first stile. The climb is gentle. Bolventor is an odd village. Its only purpose seems to be as the location of Jamaica Inn - made famous by Daphne Du Maurier's novel. Once busy with coaching traffic on the way across Bodmin Moor, it is busy now with tour buses - come for the name and Smuggling Museum - and motorists desperate for refreshment before their holiday destinations. Even odder, church and former vicarage are separated from the village by the busy A30 and are now well over half-a-mile away. |
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OS Explorer 109. Tolborough Tor and Brown Willy are Open Access |
East Moor, Fox Tor and the Nine Stones of Altarnun
| In early April 2006, having finished walking Mark Camp's fascinating Copper Trail, I went back to Five Lanes to investigate an area that had attracted me when studying the Ordnance Survey map. This lies just off the Copper Trail, to the south of Five Lanes and the A30 highway. In a fairly complex walk I took a lane through Tregirls and up onto the moor at Eastmoorgate, having checked first that East Moor is an unrestricted open access area. Once on the moor I headed up 1100 foot Fox Tor - great views in all directions - where there are traces of a boundary bank and the outlines of former long houses. Then westwards to find what had been a massive boundary bank and on southeast up another hill for a stone row and a couple of degraded cairns. South then for the Greymare Rock (not really an antiquity) and hut circles on Carey Tor. Finally northeast to find the Nine Stones circle. On that occasion I somehow failed to find the long line of Altarnun parish boundary stones. That has to wait for a later walk when I visited Clitters Cairn and had no trouble finding them. A great walk and fascinating, if mostly rudimentary, remains. Afterwards I enjoyed a great beef and onion baguette at the King's Head at Five Lanes. A pity this great value for money hostelry isn't on the Land's End Trail. |
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| On Ordnance Survey Explorer sheet 109. |
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Three Tors from Minions - Kilmar Tor, Bearah Tor and Sharp Tor
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Considering just how
easily it is accessed from Minions, one of the major centres on the
moor, it seems amazing that you can walk this six or sevem miles and probably
see no one. And for a walk climbing so many peaks, it is surprisingly
easy. Although you are starting in what sems like lowlan,d and going
up hills of 1200 and 1300 feet, because Minions is itself at 1000 feet,
the climbs are quite moderate . Yet once you get up on the moors
proper, the feeling is that you are on top of the world. Views are
quite tremendous and well worth any small effort.
Start from the western car park in Minions, head north to find the Hurlers stone circles, then west to find the Pipers standing stones. From there a track leads north-west towards the boundary rock shown on OS109. Now head north-east to climb Stowe's Hill for its prehistoric pound and the much photographed Cheesewring rocks. Descend and skirt the hill heading north to reach Wardbrook Farm. There is some doubt about access through the farm but, despite the signs, the farmer seems not to mind. Now follow a former tramway to reach Kilmar Tor. Then head south-east to Bearah Tor, south-west to the cairns on Langstone Downs and east to Sharp Tor. Below the tor, a metal gate leads to a path and track back to near Wardbrook Farm. Turn left and then keep the wire fence on your left to pick up a tramway heading all the way back to Minions. |
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Ordnance Survey Explorer 109 and Open Access |
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The most concentrated group of interest on Bodmin Moor is on the south-eastern edge of the moor at Minions. A short walk from the western car park will bring you to The Hurlers and Pipers, ancient standing stones. Legend has it that the three stone circles of the Hurlers are teams of sportsmen, turned to stone for playing hurling on a Sunday; the nearby two Pipers standing stones provided the musical accompaniment. A longer walk to the north leads to a fascinating area at Stowe's Hill. Here, south of the summit, is Daniel Gumb’s Cave where a simple stone-worker, self-taught mathematician, carved a Euclid theorem on a rock. Climb to the top of the hill, around 1300 feet above sea level, one of the moor's highest points, and you will find the amazing Cheesewring, a natural granite outcrop, precariously poised above a quarry. Beyond is a massive stone-wall pound, possibly bronze age, and beyond that a larger walled enclosure. Views over the moor are glorious; to the north you are looking to the high tors of Brown Willy and Rough Tor, to the south you can see the sea as far as Dodman Point, to the east you see Dartmoor. South of the hill, beyond a massive deep ditch, is first a degraded cairn and then the famous Rillaton bronze age barrow. The cist, where the gold Rillaton Cup (original in the British Museum, copy in Royal Cornwall Museum) was discovered, is visible on the barrow's east side. |
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Open Access. On OS109. Ample parking in Minions |
The Hurlers and Pipers Standing Stones
| There is a large complex of standing stones at Minions on Bodmin Moor. The Pipers are two tall stones. The Hurlers are three stone circles, one recumbent. Its two standing circles are of 100 and 140 feet in diameter. Legend has it that the Hurlers were playing a game somewhat similar to baseball. They made the mistake of playing on a Sunday and were turned to stone for their sins. The Pipers, providing the musical accompaniment, suffered the same fate. It is said you can only count the stones by placing a loaf on each then collecting and carefully counting them. Unfortunately, the devil sometimes likes to steal a loaf or two so counting can be more than a little difficult. The same sort of tale is told of the Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds and of others in England. |
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We had been in this area of Bodmin Moor before, parking in Minions to visit Stowe's Hill and the local antiquities - the Pipers and Hurlers and King Doniert's Stones - but we first learned of South Caradon Mine when it became a candidate for millions of pounds in a 2004 TV show called 'Restoration'. We decided to look for ourselves on a walk from Minions village. Total dereliction is the order of the day now but for 50 years from 1835 this was one of the world's most prosperous copper mines. Financed by the miners themselves, led by the Kittow and Clymo families, it paid dividends (in today's terms) of around £50 million from an investment of only £64,000! Other mines, too, were sunk all around Caradon Hill - Gonamena, East Caradon and West Caradon. I cheat a little by describing this as a museum since, to our delight, Caradon district council failed in its quest for TV show money. This is one of those magic places which needs to be enjoyed for itself, not prettified to meet the needs of the tourist industry and the demands of 'Health and Safety' regulations. The land on which the mine ruins stand is private but access seems to be allowed and there are no signs forbidding entry. To see how to find it, take a look at the walk Jane and I did taking in Minions, Crows Nest and South Caradon. |
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Open Access. On OS109. Parking in Mioions and at Tokenbury Corner |
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The River Lynher rises
on the north-eastern fringes of Bodmin Moor and meanders for some 22 miles
(according to the Cornwall Rivers Project - I would have thought it longer)
eventually joining the River Tamar within sight of Brunel's famous Royal
Albert Bridge. Though rising in granite country its course takes
in slate, limestone and grit as well. Much of its catchment area
is dairy farmland with some beef, some sheep and a little arable.
It is very much a fisherman's river with salmon, sea trout and brown trout
- though the salmon fishing has deteriorated in recent years. It's
confluence with the Tamar, known as the Hamoaze, is a designated Site of
Special Scientific Interest and supports otters, kingfishers, dippers,
avocets and black tailed godwits. Information gleaned from
the Cornwall Rivers Project website.
A little disappointingly there is hardly any part of the river that you can walk along for any distance, though I encounter it often enough on walks - for instance from North Hill to Trewortha Tor and on a section of the Land's End Trail. My favourite spots along the river include Starabridge and the wobbly bridge at North Hill. But my favourite view of the Lynher is looking across to Antony Passage (left) from Antony Woodland Garden. |
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| Designated as a Country Park, Kit Hill is only a few miles from Callington and Tavistock. There is a lot of interest up here. Remains vary from a bronze age cairn, through a great Georgian earthwork folly and quarries that exported granite as far as Singapore, to mines that worked into the 20th century. On the crest a handsome mine chimney stands on the folly. Views are ravishing, south to Plymouth Sound, east to Dartmoor, north and west across miles of Cornwall. There is ample parking near the park entrance and near the top of the hill. A seasonal café is across the road just before you reach the entrance. |
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| The Tamar forms a natural boundary with Devon, rising in the far north-east of the county, to the north of Bude, winding its way south to Plymouth Sound, tidal for its last dozen miles. Cornwall may on;y be some 30 miles coast-to-coast at this point but the Tamar meanders so much that its length is around 61 miles. Although Brunel built his great rail bridge in 1859, until 1961 the southern road crossing was the medieval 'New Bridge' at Gunnislake and crossing from Plymouth was only by Torpoint Ferry. Once the lower Tamar Valley was a major daffodil growing area; now they flourish on the National Trust's lovely Cotehele estate. Up-river from there the pretty village of Calstock has a railroad viaduct over the river, an acceptable pub and several cafes. |
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Tavistock - a real market town
| We first spent time
in Tavistock in December 2005, after visiting Endsleigh in Milton Abbot.
We were pleasantly surprised by what we found - a good shopping town with
a lot of history. Tavistock grew up around a wealthy 10th century
Benedictine abbey and prospered first from tin mining then from producing
cloth. When Henry VIII closed the monasteries, the Russells acquired
the abbey's vast estate. Becoming Marquesses of Tavistock and Dukes
of Bedford, where they also owned the Woburn estate, they prospered mightily
when copper was discovered around Tavistock and, in the 19th century rebuilt
much of the town.
Only three fragments of the former abbey remain from the rebuilding. Instead the town centres on handsome Bedford Square into which a long avenue leads from the Sir Francis Drake statue (he was a Tavistock man). Parallel to this is the main shopping street with some fine local shops, including Lawson's great kitchen shop and an old-fashioned grocer. Shopping highlight, however, is the Pannier Market behind the town hall. The handsome 1680 building operates from Tuesday to Saturday (minimum) with varying specialities on each day including produce, crafts, antiques and more. |
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| Little parking in town but large car parks are signed south of the river |
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