Charlestown is a harbour carved out of a beach. In the 1790s, a local landowner called Charles Rashleigh built a port here, cutting a dock into the rock to ship copper ore and, above all, china clay from the pits around St Austell, and the village took his name. Little has changed since: the stone harbour walls, the lock gates, the Georgian cottages and the old warehouses survive almost intact, which is why the harbour is part of the UNESCO Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape and why film and TV crews love it. Tall ships often moor in the dock, and you may have seen it as a backdrop in more than one period drama.
The china clay is the story of this whole area. Just north of St Austell lies a strange landscape of white spoil heaps and flooded pits, nicknamed the Cornish Alps, where kaolin has been extracted since the eighteenth century for porcelain, paper and paint. One of those pits now holds the Eden Project, with its giant biomes full of plants from around the world. Along the coast, the fishing village of Mevagissey has narrow lanes, a lively harbour and fresh fish straight off the boats.
Riding in Cornwall can be wonderful and maddening in equal measure. The main roads are good but busy in summer, while the lanes are narrow, often single-track, enclosed by high hedges that hide oncoming traffic. Mud, gravel and tractors are common, and the weather is unpredictable, with sea mist rolling in without warning. Spring and autumn are the best times, with fewer tourists and milder weather; in summer, expect queues at every pretty village.
St Austell, just a kilometre away, is a market town with fuel, supermarkets and all the essentials, and Par has more services along the bay. Charlestown has a few pubs and cafés around the harbour, perfect for a break with a view. You cannot leave Cornwall without a proper pasty, the half-moon pastry filled with beef, potato, swede and onion, or a cream tea, and here the jam goes on first and the clotted cream on top, a point the Cornish defend with passion.