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.
A 110 km round trip from Penryn - roughly 2 h 05 in the saddle. On the way it passes Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts, St Just Mining District and back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Devoran and Perran is where the day begins. Next is Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is St Just Mining District.
3. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Devoran and Perran. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
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 St Just Mining District
Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts → St Just Mining District is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Just Mining District to back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts
St Just Mining District → back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts to Devoran and Perran
back through Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts → Devoran and Perran is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.