West Cornwall is the sort of place where a ruined engine house stands every few hundred metres, tall, square and roofless, with a chimney beside it. These are the remains of the tin and copper mines that made Cornwall one of the great industrial regions of the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The beam engines in these houses pumped water out of mines that went down hundreds of metres, in some cases under the sea. Miners from Cornwall, known as Cousin Jacks, took their skills around the globe, to Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the American Midwest, and the pasty went with them.
Around Camborne and Redruth, the heart of the mining district, the landscape is a patchwork of small fields, granite walls, heather and scrub, and the remains of workings that give the hills an odd texture. Richard Trevithick tried out his steam road locomotive in Camborne in 1801, and the great foundry at Hayle built engines that were shipped to mines everywhere. Hayle, six kilometres off, still has the tidal estuary, the dunes of the towans and a long, bright beach on the north coast.
Riding in Cornwall is a different thing from riding in the mountains. The roads are narrow, hedged and often sunken, with blind bends between granite banks, and you spend a lot of time slowing for tractors, caravans and holiday traffic. Out of season, though, the coast road between Portreath and Hayle is a good one, with views of the Atlantic and old mine stacks perched on the cliffs. The A30 is the fast road through the middle of the county, and gets crowded in July and August. Wet weather brings mud and diesel on the lanes.
Hayle has fuel, shops and cafes, and you will find pasties in every bakery. Truro and Penzance are within easy reach. Salt and wind are constant, and you can smell the sea in almost every village. Aim for May or September, when the light is clean and the crowds are thinner.