The Port of Hayle and Caradon Mining District

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The Port of Hayle

   Hayle does not look like much at first: a long, low town strung along an estuary, a scatter of industrial buildings, quays slowly silting up and a lot of sand. But in the nineteenth century this was one of the engine rooms of the world. Two great foundries here, Harvey's and the Copperhouse company, built the steam engines that pumped water out of Cornish mines and later out of mines and waterworks on several continents. The harbour shipped copper ore out and coal in, and the whole place is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage site.

   Read the complete The Port of Hayle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   The Port of Hayle is where the day begins. Next is Charlestown.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Caradon Mining District.

3. 3. 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

   about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Caradon Mining District. Next is back through Charlestown.

4. 4. back through 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

   back through Charlestown, late in the day. Next is The Port of Hayle.

5. 5. The Port of Hayle

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Port of Hayle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at The Port of Hayle. That is the ride.