Odds and Sods in South-West Cornwall

The far south-west of Cornwall presents the visitor with a plethora of wonderful sights, some natural, some man-made, that spread themselves across a relatively localised area that can easily be visited in the course of a day. Huge expanses of golden sands, such as those at Hayle on the northern coast, stretch for miles and rival anything that Greece or her islands can offer. Tiny, secluded fishing villages like Portreath have had to succumb to the pull of the tourist dollar but still rely heavily on the income from the small fleet of boats that bring home the fish and shellfish that are sold to the local restaurants and hotels.

There is the Great Flat Lode Trail to walk that criss-crosses the landscape around Redruth and Camborne, where in times gone by miners toiled to bring vast quantities of tin and copper to the surface. These days, the shells of the derelict engine houses with their stone chimneys litter this once proud industrialised region and provide a valuable insight into the scale of the mining operations that once flourished here.

On an ecclesiastical note, there is the rather strange spectacle of Gwennap Pit, an open-air church where John Wesley preached to his Methodist converts in the 18th century. The tiny accompanying chapel now forms a bijou museum that traces the history of Gwennap and the rise of Methodism in Cornwall.

For sheer scale, there is the majestic obelisk that crowns the craggy hillside known as Carn Brea. This granite tor overlooks the twin towns of Redruth and Camborne and is visible from thirty miles away. Adjacent to the obelisk is the remains of the old castle, a precariously balanced jumble of enormous rocks that is now rather bizarrely used as a restaurant.

Finally, to the far west, is the graceful islet of St. Michael’s Mount, crowned with the majestic castle that is the major tourist attraction in this part of west Cornwall. The castle affords stunning views across Mount’s Bay towards Penzance as well as the village of Marazion from where you may walk across the causeway that links the mainland to the island.

Quick Tips:

As with anywhere in Cornwall, recommendations depend upon the time of year. Visit in Spring, as I do, and you will virtually have the places to yourself; revisit in August and you will need to fight your way through the throngs of British and foreign holidaymakers. Assuming that most folk will plan their trip during the season (Late May to mid September), here are my suggestions…

Cornish roads are slowly dragging themselves out of the 1960s and various new ones are being built or existing ones being upgraded. However, once off the beaten track, e.g. Gwennap Pit, be prepared for some very narrow lanes with high stones walls on either side.

Generally, the best times to visit any of the attractions here will be early to mid morning or late afternoon, that way you will minimise the chances of having to contend with coach-loads of fellow visitors.

You can drive up to Carn Brea although the walk is far more interesting and will require some stout footwear. The causeway that links St. Michael’s Mount to the shore is slippery, especially if the tide is on the ebb and it can be covered in seaweed so again, appropriate shoes are essential. Similarly, to circumnavigate the Great Flat Lode Trail means crossing some unforgiving terrain, scattered with huge boulders and ancient mine workings.

Portreath features a "pay-and-display" car-park that rapidly fills in peak season with little or no alternative parking anywhere else in the village. Hayle Beach is accessible from several points; be aware that the small car-park that overlooks Godrevy Island charges £4 whether you stay all day or for just 30 minutes. Free parking is available a little further back along the lane.

The almost constant south-westerly winds that blow across this area of Cornwall are very good at giving the visitor a false sense of security; if you should visit in high season on a sunny day (fingers crossed), use a decent protective cream as the sun can be deceptively strong. Every summer, without fail, I see people looking more like burns victims than holidaymakers as they always underestimate the strength of the Cornish sun.

Best Way To Get Around:

Anywhere in Cornwall can be difficult to reach assuming that most visitors (foreign anyway) will arrive at one of the London airports. There are three principal routes into the Duchy, the A38 that enters to the south via Saltash, the A30 that enters centrally via Launceston and the A39 that comes in from North Devon via Bude. Expect to take 5 to 6 hours to reach the far west from London and also expect to get stuck in a jam or two if coming to Cornwall by car in peak season, it goes with the territory.

The single largest traffic bottleneck in Cornwall is on the A30 as it crosses Goss Moor, between Bodmin and Indian Queens. This is now in the process of being duelled, but the massive scale of the operation means that work will take at least another year with the ensuing hold ups.

There is just one railway line into Cornwall, this being the main route from Paddington that enters across the Tamar Bridge into Saltash then proceeds to traverse the county to stations at Redruth and Camborne, the closest ones to the sights detailed here.

Domestic flights can be caught via Ryanair from many provincial airports to the small one at Newquay from where it’ll be an hour’s drive to most of these entries. National Express operate coach services to major towns such as Truro but, with so many stops en route, I would be disinclined to choose this option.

Once in Cornwall, bike hire can be found in most of the holiday resorts but usually only during the holiday season. All-in-all, Cornwall is a county best explored on foot. Nothing can beat the stroll along Hayle Beach in early morning or late afternoon, or scrambling over ancient stiles that cross dry stone walls that border just about every back road and lane you will find.

This is difficult to find due the poor signposting and the myriad of tiny lanes that circle the area. It is about 2 miles south east of Redruth. Take the B3298 that runs south to a village by the name of Carharrack. As you are about to leave the southern end of the village, there is a small turning to your right, signposted for the Pit. Follow this lane for about a mile, the Pit is on the left.

Gwennap Pit sits on the site of an old mine shaft that fell into disuse and then partially collapsed in the early 18th century after the underlying strata gave way. It sank to form an almost perfect circle some 80m in diameter and 15m deep. During the 18th century, a sea of Revivalism overtook the west-country and the Pit was seen as a useful meeting place where preachers could address their congregations. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, addressed some 2,000 people here during his first visit in 1762 and made a further 17 visits to Gwennap until his last in 1789.

Wesley’s mission in Cornwall was to assist the oppressed miners and fishermen who in general led lives of appalling hardship and poverty and as such, he built an almost fanatical following. He fought for better working conditions and pay for the thousands of tin and copper miners who made fortunes for their masters but earned pennies for themselves. As his following increased in popularity, Gwennap regularly saw crowds of up to 20,000 gathering to hear his preachings. Wesley’s social gospels allowed simple people to better themselves and not to merely exist as "beasts of burden." They followed his "method" and became known as "the Methodys."

Wesley died in 1793 but the Pit continued in use by many of his converts, pulling in vast crowds from far and wide. In 1805, the Pit was remodelled by local miners with thirteen concentric grass tiers that were basically cut into the side of the circle then shored up with stone and covered with turf. This made conditions somewhat easier for the congregations.

To this day, every Whitsuntide, a large crowd of Methodists assemble within this unique, natural amphitheatre to listen to sermons and to worship. It is a solemn, lonely place in winter and on the day I visited, I was the only soul around.

Carn Brea is probably one of the most recognisable landmarks in Cornwall. Carn Brea itself is a craggy, granite tor, some 740 feet high that overlooks the towns of Redruth and Camborne and is visible from as far away as St Austell. The entire hilltop site is bathed in history and includes the remains of a 46-acre Neolithic hill fort.

The most noticeable feature is of course the massive obelisk, standing 90 feet tall. This was erected in 1836 and is known as the Dunstanville Monument, in honour of Francis Basset of Tehidy, a prominent local dignitary and tin mine owner. Most of the now derelict mines in the immediate area were owned by him and his family and they accrued a vast personal fortune during the halcyon days of Cornish mining.

To the left of the monument are the scattered remains of the 15th century Carn Brea castle. The south-westerly gales that gust around this exposed tor has seen much of the ancient masonry weather away and huge pieces of it now litter the slopes of the Brea. To the right of the monument stands a building that was originally built as a 14th century chapel. It clings precariously to the massive granite stones that support it’s base, almost looking like it will tumble down into the valley beneath at any time. The Bassets rebuilt this in the 18th century as a hunting lodge. It has in more recent times been resurrected as a restaurant with what much be the shakiest foundations of any in the world!

The views from Carn Brea are simply breathtaking; from Tregajarron Carn, adjacent to the restaurant, looking north opens up a stunning vista of town-, land- and sea-scape, stretching all the way to the Hayle estuary and the Atlantic. The photograph of this view shows the South Crofty mine at Illogan centre right, the last Cornish tin mine which closed in 1997 although plans are afoot to re-commission it as extensive deposits of tin still remain, it was just deemed as simply just too expensive to dig them out.

The foreground shows most of the Great Flat Lode, all of which was owned by the Bassets.

For those interested in the industrial history of our country, the GFLT provides a valuable insight into how important tin and copper were to Cornwall during the 18th and 19th centuries. The trail consists of a signposted walk of some 3 miles that passes by many of the most famous mines from the county’s past, such as Basset, Grenville, Dolcoath, and Condurrow. Needless to say, these days the mines can’t be accessed; during their working lives, they had to be constantly pumped out to lower the ever infringing ground water and as such were permanently plugged. As far as I know, the only two remaining mines that can be accessed to a reasonable level by the public are at Geevor, near Pendeen, and the Poldark mine, about 7 miles south of Redruth near Wendron.

The GFLT meanders through rocky, industrialised landscapes, adorned with prickly gorse and wild flowers, passing not only the derelict engine houses but also old store rooms, pump houses, warehouses, and thousands of old "blow holes" that permitted a somewhat limited amount of fresh air to permeate the workings below. The scale of the workings here was staggering; there were at least thirty mines in an area of a couple of square miles, all of which made a profit and all of which tapped into these resources for at least 150 years. The last one closed in 1997 when it became no longer commercially viable to remove the tin ore due to a falling world demand for the metal and the cost of pulling it from the ground.

The miners led lives of great hardship, working at least 12 hour shifts in cold, dark, and filthy conditions. The constant fear of gas pockets of methane and other highly explosive gases precluded the use of any kind of flame. Often, they had to scramble through narrow tunnels scarcely wide enough to accommodate them to the face where they hacked away with picks and shovels without any mechanical assistance. The ore was placed into carts which were then man-handled back through the shafts to the winches that would haul it (and the miners) back to the surface. Injuries were commonplace, fatalities high and many expected to work for only a few years before the cold, damp conditions contributed to an early, arthritic or pneumonic death.

The GFLT is an open-air memorial to all those brave souls who worked so hard to increase the fortunes of their masters, their country but very rarely their own.

Hayle Beach has to be the foremost example of its kind in Cornwall, if not the U.K.; a graceful arc of shimmering, golden sand that stretches for well over four miles from Carbis Bay in the west to Godrevy Point in the east. The difference between high and low tides here is small, meaning that the beach is rarely less than two hundred yards wide. The backdrop for most of the four mile stretch is provided by immense, tall "towans", or sand dunes, towering some 100 feet above the beach and themselves, reaching back landside for almost a quarter of a mile.

The towans are carpeted with gorse, coarse grass and the delicate pink "thrift" flowers, that find a foothold and nourishment in the sandy soil and brave the often gales force winds. The beach may be accessed from several points along its length, many of which will lead to deserted shorelines even in the height of season.

My favoured point of entry is to take the A30 to Hayle, and at the large roundabout that leads on to the town by-pass, take the old road into the town, turning almost immediately right onto a narrow lane signposted for Upton Towans and Gwithian. Follow this lane for about a mile till you see a free parking area to your right. From here, you can stroll across the towans and clamber down one of the wooden stairways that twists down to the huge beach.

Although I called by on a windy, early May day, the sea was calm and the waves were rolling in gently on the merest swell. The beach is dead flat once down there, and there is simply just so much room. I recall as a child taking holidays at the nearby Hayle Caravan Park and being mesmerised by this vast expanse of sand that stretched as far as I could see. The colour of the water today is so blue, a tribute in part to the years of concentrated effort by the local councils to make the beach and water here as clean as possible. There’s not a piece of litter to be seen as I gaze up and down the panoramic arc, it’s simply a stunning vista of yellow sand, light blue sea and dark blue sky.

A pathway runs the length of the beach atop of the dunes and a couple of tea-rooms cater for the thirsty walkers in high season, one of them being quite close to where I am standing today.

Even in high summer, there’s not a huge amount to do down here other than soak up the sun, take a dip or simply revel in the view. But that’s what makes Hayle so special, it’s just you, and what nature has so bounteously provided.

This charming little seaside village sits between towering cliffs north and south and as such, is a sheltered retreat for a day trip or for a relaxing holiday. It is to be found 3 miles north-west of Redruth at the end of the B3300 although there are many local lanes that lead to Portreath from both Redruth and Camborne. Even in high season, the village stays uncluttered. There are the odd block or two of holiday apartments, a couple of pubs and restaurants, a shop or three, and then it’s lovely harbour and beach.

Due to its position between high cliffs, the wind tends to channel the waves in fairly roughly and as such, surfing is one of the premier pastimes here in summer. The same winds have necessitated the little harbour to be protected by a long breakwater that stretches out into the swell for a hundred yards or so, but performs its allotted task admirably.

The beach here is again, clean yellow sand that at low tide runs for two hundred yards or more towards the sea. There are several stunning rock formations just off-shore, more small islets really, that play host to gulls, terns and cormorants who can occasionally be seen fishing for their tea.

To exit the village by any other way than the B3300 entails a stiff climb up to the top of the cliffs. The left hand hill (as you look at the sea) will take you back via a rather meandering route to Redruth, whilst the right hand side leads to the old lighthouse, a panoramic view of the harbour, a few luxurious homes and then halts abruptly after a quarter of a mile at a government site, surrounded by fences and barbed wire. The views from this side are to die for though, and a walk along the cliff path, which is accessed by the hair-pin bend, will take you right to the lighthouse and some great views of another rocky islet far below in the foaming breakers.

The pathways are bordered by ancient dry-stone walls, on which thrifts and gorse have made their somewhat weather-exposed homes. Their scent on this clear but blustery afternoon assaults the senses and make you long for those extended summer days with nothing more to do than stroll along the cliff tops and hanker for that cool pint that awaits you in the local pub.

The village is compact and all amenities are within 10 minutes walk of wherever you are. I like Portreath a lot; it has got everything the walker, the beach bum, the nature-lover and the holidaymaker can ask for but without the freneticism of many of the other resorts in the county. You know, I could easily put down roots here for a week or two.

St. Michael’s Mount is situated in a fairy-tale position, half a mile off-shore from Marazion, at the eastern end of Mount’s Bay, near Penzance. The huge granite crag that rises from the bay is topped with an imposing castle, originally built as a Benedictine priory in the 12th century. The Mount has been the setting for many military sieges and was a regular place of pilgrimage until 1660, when it passed into the ownership of the St. Aubyn family, who still reside in the castle.

It is the sister house of the equally famous "Mont St Michel" in Normandy, France. Its battery is still armed with a cannon taken from the wreckage of a French frigate that foundered on nearby rocks during the Napoleonic Wars.

To start your trip, you need to go to the village of Marazion, where a number of local small craft will ferry you across for a couple of pounds. Alternatively, at low tide, you can walk across via the causeway that stretches towards the Mount, although it is imperative to take heed of the tide times, as the causeway can become submerged very quickly, leaving the walker stranded.

Until Penzance Harbour was built, the Mount’s harbour was the only safe landing for many miles, and as such, it would have been busy with small ships ferrying in coal and timber and departing with tin from one of the many mines that once surrounded the area. Indeed, it is reported that as many as 300 people were once employed here.

Today, the Mount is, of course, a major tourist venue and is operated by the National Trust on behalf of the St. Aubyn family. There are several tasteful attractions on the Mount, as well as a restaurant, café, and NT gift shop. Most visitors will, of course, want to make the steep climb up the castle, which affords stunning, panoramic views of Mount’s Bay and beyond. The house has various rooms displaying suits of armour, paintings, porcelain, weaponry, and furniture from differing times in history. There is also a church with lovely stained-glass windows and no less than five wells within the grounds.

The Mount is open all year round, admission charges being £4.60 for adults and £2.30 for children. The stunning, terraced gardens can also be seen for an additional fee of £2.50 and feature rare, botanical species not found anywhere else in the U.K.

The village of Marazion is one of the oldest in the U.K., dating back to 308 A.D. Queen Elizabeth I awarded its charter in 1595. Now, it is little more than a place where motorists attempt to park their cars for the trip to the Mount, but it is worth a quick explore to see the quaint hotels, pubs, and tea rooms that line its narrow streets. From Marazion, it is a 5-minute car ride into the centre of Penzance.