Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts and Caradon Mining District

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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

   Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts 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 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Devoran and Perran.

3. 3. 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

   about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Devoran and Perran. Next is The Luxulyan Valley.

4. 4. 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

   The Luxulyan Valley, about halfway. Next is Caradon Mining District.

5. 5. 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 sits at 182 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Luxulyan Valley.

6. 6. back through The Luxulyan Valley

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   back through The Luxulyan Valley comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Devoran and Perran.

7. 7. 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

   about 256 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Devoran and Perran. Next is back through Charlestown.

8. 8. 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 Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts.

9. 9. 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

   The route ends here after 360 km.