Why this ride
From Hayle it runs 149 km to Hayle; allow about 3 h 12 of riding. The stops in between: Wendron Mining District, Portreath Harbour, Kennall Vale and St Agnes Mining District.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape and St Agnes Mining District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 149 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 12
- 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. Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
West Cornwall is the sort of place where a ruined engine house stands every few hundred metres, tall, square and roofless, with a chimney beside it. These are the remains of the tin and copper mines that made Cornwall one of the great industrial regions of the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The beam engines in these houses pumped water out of mines that went down hundreds of metres, in some cases under the sea. Miners from Cornwall, known as Cousin Jacks, took their skills around the globe, to Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the American Midwest, and the pasty went with them.
Read the complete Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Wendron Mining District.
2. Wendron Mining District
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.
Read the complete Wendron Mining District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Wendron Mining District comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Portreath Harbour.
3. Portreath Harbour
Portreath is a harbour made by hand. Before the Bassets, the great landowning family of this part of Cornwall, built its quay in the late eighteenth century, there was only a cove between steep cliffs. Afterwards, there was a port that shipped copper ore to the smelters of Swansea and brought back coal, with a tramroad running up the valley to the mines. The tramroad, built in 1809, was one of the earliest in Cornwall, and horse-drawn wagons rolled down it for decades. The harbour has two basins, a sea wall, and a granite pier, and a rocky island called Gull Rock lies just off it.
Read the complete Portreath Harbour write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Portreath Harbour. Next is Kennall Vale.
4. Kennall Vale
Kennall Vale is a steep, wooded ravine in the middle of Cornwall's mining country, and for a hundred years its stream was used to make gunpowder. The mills, built in the early nineteenth century, produced the powder that miners used to blast tunnels and shafts in the tin and copper mines, and the valley was chosen because it had water, privacy and trees to absorb explosions. The gunpowder works closed in the early twentieth century, and the buildings fell into ruin. Now the old mill walls stand in a thick green wood of oak, beech and ash, with moss on every stone and a leat, the stone-lined channel that brought the water, still threading through. It is one of the most atmospheric places in west Cornwall, and a nature reserve.
Read the complete Kennall Vale write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kennall Vale, about halfway. Next is St Agnes Mining District.
5. St Agnes Mining District
St Agnes is a village of fewer than three thousand people on the north coast of Cornwall, and its coastline is one of the most photographed in the county. The reason is Wheal Coates, a pair of engine houses perched on a cliff above the sea at Chapel Porth, the sort of view that appears on tea towels. The engine houses once pumped water from tin and copper mines that ran under the cliff, and miners worked in tunnels that went out beneath the waves. Today they stand roofless, with ferns in the windows, against a sky that seems to change every few minutes.
Read the complete St Agnes Mining District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
St Agnes Mining District sits at 68 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kennall Vale.
6. back through Kennall Vale
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kennall Vale write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Kennall Vale comes up about 92 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Portreath Harbour.
7. back through Portreath Harbour
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Portreath Harbour write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Portreath Harbour. Next is back through Wendron Mining District.
8. back through Wendron Mining District
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wendron 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 Wendron Mining District, late in the day. Next is Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
9. Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape 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 149 km.
Leg by leg
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape to Wendron Mining District
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape → Wendron Mining District is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wendron Mining District to Portreath Harbour
Wendron Mining District → Portreath Harbour is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Portreath Harbour to Kennall Vale
Portreath Harbour → Kennall Vale is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kennall Vale to St Agnes Mining District
Kennall Vale → St Agnes Mining District is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Agnes Mining District to back through Kennall Vale
St Agnes Mining District → back through Kennall Vale is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kennall Vale to back through Portreath Harbour
back through Kennall Vale → back through Portreath Harbour is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Portreath Harbour to back through Wendron Mining District
back through Portreath Harbour → back through Wendron Mining District is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wendron Mining District to Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
back through Wendron Mining District → Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.