Why this ride
A 192 km round trip from St Austell - roughly 3 h 38 in the saddle. On the way it passes Devoran and Perran, Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts, Gwennap Mining District and back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Charlestown and Gwennap Mining District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 192 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 38
- 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. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Devoran and Perran.
2. 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
Devoran and Perran comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts.
3. Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts
Tregonning Hill is a low, rounded granite dome above Germoe, and on its slopes in the middle of the eighteenth century a Plymouth chemist named William Cookworthy found white clay of a quality that Europe had never produced. He recognised it as kaolin, the secret of Chinese porcelain, and the find began an industry that eventually shifted to the larger deposits around St Austell. The ground around Tregonning and Gwinear is a landscape of old tin and copper workings, engine houses, abandoned stacks and small fields enclosed by stone hedges. The whole Cornish mining landscape was listed by UNESCO in 2006 and these districts are part of it.
Read the complete Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts. Next is Gwennap Mining District.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts.
5. back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts sits at 122 km, about halfway. Next is back through Devoran and Perran.
6. 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 comes up about 155 km into the recorded legs. Next is Charlestown.
7. 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
Charlestown closes the day.
Leg by leg
Charlestown to Devoran and Perran
Charlestown → Devoran and Perran is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Devoran and Perran to Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts
Devoran and Perran → Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts to Gwennap Mining District
Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts → Gwennap Mining District is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gwennap Mining District to back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts
Gwennap Mining District → back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts to back through Devoran and Perran
back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts → back through Devoran and Perran is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Devoran and Perran to Charlestown
back through Devoran and Perran → Charlestown is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.