Why this ride
A 309 km round trip from Pensilva - roughly 5 h 47 in the saddle. The stops in between: The Luxulyan Valley, Devoran and Perran, Charlestown and Gwennap Mining District. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Caradon Mining District and Gwennap Mining District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 309 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 47
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Caradon Mining District
Engine houses stand like chess pieces on the southern flank of Bodmin Moor, tall granite boxes with their chimneys still pointing at the sky, and around them the ground is scarred by spoil heaps, shafts and old tramway beds. This is the Caradon Mining District, around the village of Pensilva and the hill of Caradon, where copper was found in the 1830s and set off a boom that made it, for a few decades, one of the richest copper districts in Britain. It is one of the ten areas of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, listed in 2006.
Read the complete Caradon Mining District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Caradon Mining District is where the day begins. Next is The Luxulyan Valley.
2. The Luxulyan Valley
Granite boulders furred with moss, beech and oak closing overhead, and somewhere below you the sound of water running in a stone channel built by people who wanted it to work, not to look pretty. The Luxulyan Valley, tucked between Par, Lostwithiel and St Austell in mid Cornwall, is one of those places where industrial history and woodland have grown into each other so completely that it is hard to tell where one ends.
Read the complete The Luxulyan Valley write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Luxulyan Valley comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Devoran and Perran.
3. Devoran and Perran
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.
Read the complete Devoran and Perran write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Devoran and Perran. Next is Charlestown.
4. Charlestown
Charlestown is a harbour carved out of a beach. In the 1790s, a local landowner called Charles Rashleigh built a port here, cutting a dock into the rock to ship copper ore and, above all, china clay from the pits around St Austell, and the village took his name. Little has changed since: the stone harbour walls, the lock gates, the Georgian cottages and the old warehouses survive almost intact, which is why the harbour is part of the UNESCO Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape and why film and TV crews love it. Tall ships often moor in the dock, and you may have seen it as a backdrop in more than one period drama.
Read the complete Charlestown write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Charlestown, about halfway. Next is Gwennap Mining District.
5. Gwennap Mining District
The hills between Redruth and Truro are some of the most worked ground in Europe. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Gwennap was said to be the richest square mile of mining country in the world, with copper and tin coming out of shafts so close together that the engine houses seem to stand shoulder to shoulder. Today the chimneys and roofless buildings stand in gorse and bracken, and the red-brown streams and spoil heaps tell you what lay underneath. The area is part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, and the village of St Day, with about seven hundred people, sits at its centre, with a fine ruined church in the middle of a green.
Read the complete Gwennap Mining District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gwennap Mining District sits at 158 km, about halfway. Next is back through Charlestown.
6. back through Charlestown
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Charlestown write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Charlestown comes up about 194 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Devoran and Perran.
7. back through Devoran and Perran
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Devoran and Perran write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 232 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Devoran and Perran. Next is back through The Luxulyan Valley.
8. back through The Luxulyan Valley
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Luxulyan Valley write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Luxulyan Valley, late in the day. Next is Caradon Mining District.
9. Caradon Mining District
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Caradon Mining District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 309 km.
Leg by leg
Caradon Mining District to The Luxulyan Valley
Caradon Mining District → The Luxulyan Valley is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Luxulyan Valley to Devoran and Perran
The Luxulyan Valley → Devoran and Perran is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Devoran and Perran to Charlestown
Devoran and Perran → Charlestown is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Charlestown to Gwennap Mining District
Charlestown → Gwennap Mining District is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gwennap Mining District to back through Charlestown
Gwennap Mining District → back through Charlestown is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Charlestown to back through Devoran and Perran
back through Charlestown → back through Devoran and Perran is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Devoran and Perran to back through The Luxulyan Valley
back through Devoran and Perran → back through The Luxulyan Valley is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Luxulyan Valley to Caradon Mining District
back through The Luxulyan Valley → Caradon Mining District is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.