Devoran is a quiet village at the head of Restronguet Creek, a tidal arm of the Fal estuary south of Truro, and it takes a little imagination to see it as the busy industrial port it once was. In the nineteenth century, the Redruth and Chasewater Railway brought copper ore down from the mines to quays here, where ships loaded it for smelters in South Wales and returned with coal. The remains of the quays, ore hoppers and old warehouses are still visible along the shore, and the village is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, listed by UNESCO in 2006.
Up the valley at Perranarworthal, the Perran Foundry built massive steam engines that pumped water from mines across Cornwall and beyond, and its granite buildings still stand beside the road. The tidal creek, once choked with silt from the mines upstream, is now a peaceful haven for wading birds, with egrets and curlews feeding in the mud at low tide. The Mineral Tramways path follows the old railway line inland, a pleasant walk or ride for cyclists through woods and mining country.
The riding is classic Cornish lanes: narrow, high-hedged, twisting and often only one vehicle wide, with occasional passing places and unexpected tractors. The A39 between Truro and Falmouth runs past nearby and is busy in summer, but the side roads along the creek and towards Mylor and Feock reward a gentle pace with glimpses of water and boats. The King Harry chain ferry across the Fal is a lovely shortcut to the Roseland peninsula. The weather changes quickly, and the lanes are often damp and muddy, especially in autumn and winter.
Penryn, a few kilometres away, has fuel, shops and cafés, as does the busier town of Falmouth beyond. Devoran has a pub and a village shop, and the creekside is a good place to stop for a pasty, the miners' traditional lunch, with crimped edges that they reputedly used as a handle and threw away to avoid arsenic-laced fingers. Look out for the old ore hoppers and imagine the clatter of wagons and the masts of ships crowding the tiny harbour.