Skip to content
CurveScout

CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Caradon Mining District and St Just Mining District

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
261 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 45
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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

A 261 km round trip from Pensilva - roughly 4 h 45 in the saddle. The stops in between: The Luxulyan Valley, Devoran and Perran, St Just Mining District and back through Devoran and Perran. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 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. 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. 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 St Just Mining District.

  4. 4. St Just Mining District

    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.

    Read the complete St Just Mining District write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    St Just Mining District, about halfway. Next is back through Devoran and Perran.

  5. 5. 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

    back through Devoran and Perran sits at 180 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Luxulyan Valley.

  6. 6. 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 comes up about 226 km into the recorded legs. Next is Caradon Mining District.

  7. 7. 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

    Caradon Mining District closes the day.

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 St Just Mining District

Devoran and Perran → St Just Mining District is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

St Just Mining District to back through Devoran and Perran

St Just Mining District → back through Devoran and Perran is 54 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 43 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.

More motorcycle rides nearby