Out at the very end of Cornwall, where the land runs out in granite cliffs above the Atlantic, the coast between St Just and Pendeen is studded with the ruined engine houses of tin and copper mines. Some of them stand right on the cliff edge, their tall chimneys silhouetted against the sea, and the shafts below ran out under the ocean floor, so deep that miners claimed they could hear boulders rolling on the seabed above them during storms. This is the St Just Mining District, one of the most dramatic parts of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage site.
The names are evocative: Botallack, with its Crowns engine houses perched on a rock ledge just above the waves; Levant, where a restored beam engine still puffs into life under steam; and Geevor, the last mine in the area to close, in 1990, now a museum where you can go underground. The Levant mine was also the scene of a terrible disaster in 1919, when the man engine that carried miners up and down the shaft collapsed, killing thirty-one men. The landscape was the backdrop for the television series Poldark, and fans come to see the locations.
The riding here is some of the best in Cornwall. The B3306 coast road from St Ives to St Just is a classic, winding through moorland, granite boulders and tiny villages, with the Atlantic on one side and the high ground of Penwith on the other. It is narrow, with tight bends, stone walls and blind crests, and in summer it can be busy with tourists, so ride early or late. Watch for livestock, walkers and cyclists, and be ready for fog rolling in from the sea at any time.
Penwith is ancient country. Beyond the mines, the moors are scattered with standing stones, stone circles, burial chambers and Iron Age villages like Chysauster and Carn Euny. The cliffs are home to choughs, the red-billed crows that are a symbol of Cornwall, and seals and dolphins are often seen offshore. Cape Cornwall, just west of St Just, is a headland with a single chimney on top and wonderful views.
St Just, about two and a half kilometres away, is a small granite town with shops, pubs and cafés, and a petrol station on its outskirts. Penzance, about ten kilometres away, is the main town with all services. A pint in a granite pub and a crab sandwich in a harbour café are the way to finish the day here.