Wheal Peevor and St Just Mining District

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 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 The Port of Hayle.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is St Just Mining District.

3. 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.

   Read the complete St Just Mining District write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 41 km into the recorded legs you reach St Just Mining District. Next is back through The Port of Hayle.

4. 4. back through 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 through The Port of Hayle, late in the day. Next is Wheal Peevor.

5. 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.