Portreath is a harbour made by hand. Before the Bassets, the great landowning family of this part of Cornwall, built its quay in the late eighteenth century, there was only a cove between steep cliffs. Afterwards, there was a port that shipped copper ore to the smelters of Swansea and brought back coal, with a tramroad running up the valley to the mines. The tramroad, built in 1809, was one of the earliest in Cornwall, and horse-drawn wagons rolled down it for decades. The harbour has two basins, a sea wall, and a granite pier, and a rocky island called Gull Rock lies just off it.
The beach has golden sand and a good surf, and the village on summer weekends fills with surfers, families and campers. In winter, big Atlantic swells break against the harbour mouth, and watching them from the pier on a stormy day is an experience. The coast path runs along the cliffs on either side, and in spring the clifftops are covered in thrift and bluebells.
The ride from Redruth or Camborne comes down a steep valley, with a long hill into the village and tight bends. The coast road along the cliffs, the B3301, runs between Portreath and Hayle, with views of the sea and, on a clear day, the lighthouse at Godrevy. It is a popular route, so it is slow in high season, but quiet in early spring. The gravel and sand on the road near the beach can be tricky for a bike, so take care.
Redruth, with over forty thousand people in the urban area, and Camborne, a little smaller, both have fuel and supermarkets. The village has a few pubs and cafes, and the pasties and ice cream are good. Kennall Vale, on this ride, is a different place altogether: a wooded valley in the south of the county where gunpowder was made for the mines in the nineteenth century, and where the ruins of the mills lie among ferns and moss.
Late spring is the best season, with long evenings and wildflowers. Winter storms are dramatic but make the roads wet and slippery.