The first thing to know about Wendron is that the ground beneath it was once worked as hard as any in Europe. West Cornwall's tin and copper made the county rich, and the district around Wendron, a few kilometres north of Helston, was one of the places where it happened. The old mines, the stream works in the valleys and the engine houses on the hillsides are part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, listed in 2006. Many of the ruins are hidden in woods or fields, so you will have to look for them.
The upland that stretches across the area is a mass of granite, the Carnmenellis, the source of both the tin and the stone that went into the farm buildings. The soil is thin, the hedges are stone banks topped with gorse, and the lanes between them are narrow, steep and winding, with a way of dropping suddenly into a stream valley and rising again with a hairpin. Many of these lanes have grass growing down the middle, and you need to approach blind corners at walking pace. In summer the verges are full of foxgloves, and in autumn the bracken turns the colour of rust.
Helston, with twelve thousand people, is the place for fuel and lunch. Each May it hosts the Flora Day, when the town fills with dancers in their best clothes and the Furry Dance winds through the streets and into the shops, a custom that goes back centuries. Stithians, a village to the north, has a reservoir with a popular sailing club, and Four Lanes, to the north-west, is a former mining village that now sits on the main road.
The weather in this part of Cornwall is mild but wet. Mist rolls in from the Atlantic, and the road can become slick with mud where tractors have been. Spring and early autumn offer the best chance of clear light, and the light on the old granite after rain is lovely. In July and August, the lanes are crowded with holiday traffic, and the coast is busy.
A cream tea or a pasty is the obvious meal, and a pint in a local pub, where the talk is of mining and weather, seems entirely natural.