Why this ride
A 133 km round trip from Pensilva - roughly 2 h 29 in the saddle. On the way it passes Tamar Valley Mining District, The Luxulyan Valley and back through Tamar Valley Mining District.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Caradon Mining District and The Luxulyan Valley
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 133 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 29
- 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 Tamar Valley Mining District.
2. Tamar Valley Mining District
For a few decades in the nineteenth century the Tamar valley was among the richest copper fields in Europe, and then, almost overnight, it became a major source of arsenic. The river divides Devon from Cornwall, and the hills on both sides are pocked with old mine workings, engine houses, spoil heaps and the cuttings of former railways. Devon Great Consols, near Gunnislake, was in the nineteenth century one of the richest copper mines in the world, and when copper prices fell the owners turned to arsenic, which was used in pesticides and paint, and for a time it made the valley a strategic industry. The whole area is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, listed by UNESCO in 2006.
Read the complete Tamar Valley Mining District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tamar Valley Mining District comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Luxulyan Valley.
3. 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
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach The Luxulyan Valley. Next is back through Tamar Valley Mining District.
4. back through Tamar Valley Mining District
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tamar Valley Mining District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Tamar Valley Mining District, late in the day. Next is Caradon Mining District.
5. 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
Back at Caradon Mining District. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Caradon Mining District to Tamar Valley Mining District
Caradon Mining District → Tamar Valley Mining District is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tamar Valley Mining District to The Luxulyan Valley
Tamar Valley Mining District → The Luxulyan Valley is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Luxulyan Valley to back through Tamar Valley Mining District
The Luxulyan Valley → back through Tamar Valley Mining District is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tamar Valley Mining District to Caradon Mining District
back through Tamar Valley Mining District → Caradon Mining District is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.