Why this ride
From Redruth it runs 169 km to Redruth; allow about 3 h of riding. The stops in between: Charlestown, Caradon Mining District and back through Charlestown. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Wheal Peevor and Caradon Mining District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 169 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 50
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Atlantic Highway, A39
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 45 km this is Atlantic Highway, A39, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 45 km
- Named road
- Atlantic Highway, A39
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Wheal Peevor
Cornwall's mining country does not look like postcards. Around Redruth the land is brown and scrubby, with chimneys and roofless engine houses standing on every hill, and the soil still carries scars where shafts and spoil heaps once covered the countryside. Wheal Peevor is one of those engine houses, near the village of St Day, and a small piece of what UNESCO recognised as the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. At its peak in the nineteenth century, Cornwall produced a huge share of the world's copper and tin, and Cornish miners and engineers carried their skills to Australia, South Africa, Mexico and the United States, which is why you find Cornish pasties in places far from Cornwall.
Read the complete Wheal Peevor write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Wheal Peevor is where the day begins. Next is Charlestown.
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 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Caradon Mining District.
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 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Caradon Mining District. Next is back through Charlestown.
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 Wheal Peevor.
5. Wheal Peevor
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wheal Peevor write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Wheal Peevor. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Wheal Peevor to Charlestown
Wheal Peevor → Charlestown is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Charlestown to Caradon Mining District
Charlestown → Caradon Mining District is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Caradon Mining District to back through Charlestown
Caradon Mining District → back through Charlestown is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Charlestown to Wheal Peevor
back through Charlestown → Wheal Peevor is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.