Copyright

Published by Collins

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First edition 2011

Second edition 2015

Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

Original text © John H N Mason,

David Perrott and Laurence Main

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HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Mapping on the inner front cover and all walking planning maps generated from Collins Bartholomew digital databases

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Ebook Edition © March 2015 ISBN: 9780008102050

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Short Walk locations

Introduction

How to use this book

Short walks

walk 1: | Crackington Haven 4 miles (6.5km)
walk 2: | Boscastle 4 miles (6.5km)
walk 3: | Rough Tor 2½ miles (4km)
walk 4: | Cotehele & Calstock 4 miles (6.5km)
walk 5: | Polperro to Looe 5 miles (8km)
walk 6: | Golant 3½ miles (5.5km)
walk 7: | Luxulyan 3½ miles (5.5km)
walk 8: | Caerhays & Dodman Point 5 miles (8km)
walk 9: | Falmouth 2 miles (3km)
walk 10: | Lizard Point 5 miles (8km)
walk 11: | Gweek 5 miles (8km)
walk 12: | Penzance & St Michael’s Mount 4 miles (6.5km)
walk 13: | Merry Maidens 4 miles (6.5km)
walk 14: | Sennen Cove & Land’s End 4½ miles (7.25km)
walk 15: | Cape Cornwall & Levant 5 miles (8km)
walk 16: | Men-an-Tol 4½ miles (7.25km)
walk 17: | St Ives 3 miles (4.75km)
walk 18: | St Agnes to Porthtowan 5 miles (8km)
walk 19: | Porthcothan to Mawgan Porth 4½ miles (7.25km)
walk 20: | The Rumps & Pentire Point 5 miles (8km)

Photo credits

About the Publisher

walk 1, walk 2, walk 3, walk 4, walk 5, walk 6, walk 7, walk 8, walk 9, walk 10, walk 11, walk 12, walk 13, walk 14, walk 15, walk 16, walk 17, walk 18, walk 19, walk 20

Introduction

Walking in Cornwall

Cornwall is one of Britain’s principal holiday destinations. The county occupies the most southwesterly part of England, a peninsula bounded to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and warmed by the waters of the Gulf Stream to an extent that mild winters allow exotic plants to flourish in sheltered places. The sea is never more than 20 miles away and the coast is the main attraction of the county for most visitors. Inland, both the rugged landscape of moorland and the gentler scenery of woodland, valleys and farmland – as well as the remains of over 5000 years of history – are all worthy of exploration. There could be no better way to experience these landscapes than to follow one or more of the routes in this guide. The walks have been carefully chosen to introduce a cross section of countryside, with a selection of places of interest along the way.

Many of the walks include coastal sections and are well signposted for the South West Coast Path. In its entirety this National Trail runs for 630 miles (1014km) around the peninsula from Minehead in Somerset to Poole Harbour in Dorset. To enable the walker to experience selected sections of this path a few of the walks in this guide are planned using public transport to avoid a return journey on foot. In these cases the suggestion is to park your car at the destination and take the bus to the start point of your walk. Always check bus timetables carefully before setting out. Timetables are available locally and online.

Bus: www.westerngreyhound.com covers the Porthcothan to Mawgan Porth walk, the Penzance and St Michael’s Mount walk and the Polperro to Looe walk.

www.cornwallpublictransport.info and www.hopleyscoaches.com covers the Hopleys Coaches service between St Agnes and Porthtowan.

Train: as part of the St Ives walk www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk has the timetable for the St Ives Bay Line.

Ferry: it is essential to check ahead for the seasonally operated Tamar Passenger Ferry for the Cotehele and Calstock route. The timetable is available at www.calstock-ferry.com

A tide timetable gives details of high and low water at various points so you can plan your walks, beach visits and ferry trips accordingly. A visit to Kynance Cove, for example, will be best at low tide when the rock formations are visible, and if you want to walk the causeway to St Michael’s Mount then it is essential to visit at low tide. Buy a timetable locally in newsagents or garages, or check out times on the Internet.

Walking is a pastime which can fulfil the needs of everyone. You can adapt it to suit your own preferences and it is one of the healthiest of activities. This guide is for those who just want to walk a few miles. It really doesn’t take long to find yourself in some lovely countryside. All the walks are five miles or less so should easily be completed in under three hours. Walking can be anything from an individual pastime to a family stroll, or maybe a group of friends enjoying the fresh air and open spaces of our countryside. There is no need for walking to be competitive and, to get the most from a walk, it shouldn’t be regarded simply as a means of covering a given distance in the shortest possible time.

What is Cornwall ?

Cornwall is now classified as a county, but it was once a Celtic nation, like Brittany or Wales. This old Celtic Kingdom was where King Arthur and his knights were thought to have roamed, but history and legend have become so entwined that even historians cannot agree. What is certain is that Cornwall has been known for over a thousand years as a place of almost magical attraction.

Cornwall has retained a distinct cultural identity, a legacy from an historic isolation from the rest of the country. The county flag of St Piran, with its white cross on a black background, can be seen flying proudly in many places. The Cornish language was spoken until the 1700s and is still reflected in place names and surnames starting with Tre-, Polor Pen-, testifying to an ancient origin. Cornish is now a recognised minority language, which since the early 20th century has benefited from a conscious effort for revival.

Parts of Cornwall are often windswept and treeless, presenting an image of a land of austere grandeur. The wildest place is Bodmin Moor, with its rocky summit tors and boulder-strewn flanks. Cattle, sheep and ponies graze the coarse grasses, bracken and heather. Brown Willy is the county’s highest point at 1377ft (420m). Along the coast of north Cornwall the sea has shaped dramatic coastal cliffs and steep-sided valleys. Here the land is gradually eroding under the relentless attack of the Atlantic Ocean. But despite this there are peaceful sheltered coves that are perfect for the holidaymaker, and the scenic beauty is without comparison. In contrast the southern coast provides gentler slopes, green fields and quiet bays of fine sand. The fishing villages are a photographer’s delight and everywhere the changeable maritime climate brings the clear light much loved by artists.

Geology

The dramatic and beautiful landscapes of Cornwall are largely a product of the geology beneath. The Lizard peninsula reveals the oldest rocks in the county, with a rare section of serpentine, formed deep in the Earth’s crust before being thrust up some 350 million years ago. However, as with the rest of the southwest peninsula, the greater part of the rock structure in Cornwall is of sedimentary origin, formed from beds of mudstone, sandstone and limestone laid down over 300 million years ago on the sea bed or on the beds of lakes. In some places river valleys cut deeply into these sedimentary rocks. In other places immense geological pressures have bent the strata into strange shapes, such as seen in the cliffs along the coast at Crackington Haven.

Rising out of this sedimentary plateau is the granite backbone of Cornwall. Granite is an igneous rock - one that has been thrust up in a molten state into the generally older sedimentary beds, cooling and hardening slowly, sometimes close to the surface. Forces such as the weather and sea have subsequently eroded it, leaving huge exposed bosses, or domes, of which Land’s End and Bodmin Moor are examples. The granite of Bodmin Moor was formed 287 million years ago and weathering along lines of weakness in the rock has created the distinctive ‘cheesewring’ formations often seen on the summits of tors such as Rough Tor. Neolithic Man also made his chamber tombs and entrance graves from the hard granite he found around him and this is one reason why there are more Neolithic remains in the Land’s End peninsula than in the whole of the rest of the south-west.

As well as creating the familiar bold and rugged scenery, the formation of granite rocks also made possible the Cornish mining industry. Cooling molten granite had the effect, through immense pressures and heat, of radically changing the sedimentary rock with which it came into contact, forming liquids and gases that eventually solidified as mineral ores. The coastal strip near Land’s End, as well as other areas such as St Agnes, are situated on these areas of contact - known as metamorphic aureoles - and this is where the ores of copper, tin and other metals such as silver and gold were found and exploited.

After the mining industry declined another Cornish industry developed that originated from the granite areas of the county. China clay, or kaolin was first discovered in Cornwall in 1746 and is still vitally important to the Cornish economy. Kaolin is granite that has decomposed over millions of years by the action of water originating deep in the earth’s crust. The clay is extracted from the quartz by powerful jets of water and the resultant fine-textured, pure white product is used for many purposes, from paper-making to face powder.

Wildlife in Cornwall

A diverse landscape produces a diverse flora and fauna, and the walks in this guide cover a range of habitats from the moorland of Bodmin and high exposed heath of Land’s End to the wooded valleys and warm sheltered coves of the south coast.

The cliff tops of Cornwall are carpeted in wild flowers. The colours range from pink thrift to the blue of spring squill and the yellow of golden samphire. Heather and gorse are plentiful. From the coast paths there are also some good vantage points to see birds and animals. Grey seals can sometimes be seen bobbing in the water or sunning themselves on the shore. The playful bottle-nosed dolphin and the common dolphin may be spotted from the cliff path, and you may even be lucky enough to glimpse a pilot whale. Bird life is particularly abundant all along the coast. On cliff faces you may see herring gulls, great black-backed and occasionally lesser black-backed gulls, fulmars, kittiwakes and jackdaws. On other shores you may find shag, cormorant, oyster catcher, rock pipit, pied wagtail and heron. The rare Cornish chough was absent for many years but a project is underway to promote the return of this emblematic bird to the county. Sightings of a wild chough should always be reported. Cornwall’s location on the south-west tip of Britain means that it also receives many migrant birds. The Island at St Ives, Land’s End and the Lizard are all particularly good for observing the arrival and departure of migrants, and Marazion Marsh near Penzance is an important migration stop, particularly for waterfowl and wading birds.

Inland, woodland walks such as Luxulyan will take you through oak, beech, sycamore and ash. Typical woodland flowers include bluebell and wood anemone, and there is a wide range of ferns, mosses, lichens and fungi.

Human history

In the warmer conditions after the Ice Age, all Cornwall except the highest ground became covered by forest. Mesolithic (Mid Stone Age) Man, who inhabited the land, was probably a nomadic hunter and fisherman. In about 3500BC Neolithic (New Stone Age) settlers arrived from the Atlantic seaboard of Europe. They used a variety of stone tools and weapons and founded settlements in forest clearings. Monuments of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people are the stone chamber tombs used for communal burials, known as quoits. Surmounted by huge stone slabs and covered originally by earthen mounds, there are a number to be found in Cornwall, including Lanyon Quoit seen on the Men-an-Tol walk. In about 2000BC the Beaker Folk arrived, bringing with them the knowledge of the working of metals. It was they who erected the imposing stone circles and standing stones all over Cornwall. Examples are the Merry Maidens and the Pipers.

The next migrants to reach southern Britain in about 700BC were the Iron Age Celts from northwest Europe. Organised in clans, they were constantly warring among themselves. Characteristic signs of this occupation are hill forts and cliff castles, several of which are passed on walks in this guide. They all feature a steep headland fortified by one or more ramparts, usually built across the narrowest part of the promontory, and The Rumps near Pentire is a good example.

Roman legions landed in Britain in AD43 but do not appear to have bothered much about the small isolated communities in Cornwall, so Roman remains are sparse. After the departure of the Romans in AD410 the Anglo Saxons pushed the Celts into the Welsh mountains and to Cornwall. Many of those reaching Cornwall then crossed to their fellow Celts in France, but others remained, forming a community in Cornwall. The 5th and 6th centuries were remarkable for the number of Welsh, Irish and Breton Christian missionaries who came over to Cornwall, giving many unusual saints’ names to churches, towns and villages.

Cornwall had only been a part of Anglo Saxon England for just over 100 years when William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey Bay. By 1072 Cornwall was in Norman hands. The first towns in Cornwall began to spring up and other outward signs of Norman rule began to appear, notably Norman churches.

As with the rest of England, the structure of Cornish life was feudal and the landed gentry built substantial farmhouses. Growing prosperity and settled conditions, coupled with the religious fervour of the Cornish, resulted in a burst of church rebuilding. We owe many of the beautiful 15th century Cornish churches which remain today to this period. The Cornish gentry were wholeheartedly Royalist in the Civil War, and their men followed them into battle. In 1645, however, Cromwell’s well-trained forces moved westward and, when Pendennis Castle and St Michael’s Mount surrendered after long sieges, the Royalist cause in Cornwall was lost.

With King William III on the throne, Britain seemed to be set for quieter times. Cornwall had a flourishing fishing industry but from 1700 onwards it was mining that developed fastest. Shaft after shaft was sunk to extract ores, and, by the mid 18th century, Cornwall was the largest supplier of copper in the world. The copper boom lasted to about 1870. With new and cheaper sources being discovered abroad, the Cornish mines began to close. The dozens of derelict engine and boiler houses left behind are a familiar feature of the Cornish landscape today and they give an insight into the enormous scale of this industry in what are now relatively remote places. Several of the walks in this guide – St Agnes to Porthtowan, Cotehele and Calstock, Cape Cornwall and Levant, and Luxulyan – fall within areas designated under the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.

Cornwall’s other traditional industry suffered a severe blow at about the same time as mining. The pilchard shoals, which provided a livelihood for so many fishing villages, disappeared from the coastal waters. There were still mackerel and other fish but there were no longer salted pilchards to send abroad in quantities. Cornish fishing has never fully recovered. In the latter half of the 19th century, the bleak outlook for Cornwall was transformed by the arrival of the railway. Fish, early vegetables and flowers were taken speedily to London and other centres. In the summer, Victorian holidaymakers began to discover the attractions of Cornwall’s magnificent coastline and laid the foundations of the present thriving tourist trade.

Walking tips & guidance
Safety

As with all other outdoor activities, walking is safe provided a few simple commonsense rules are followed:

• Make sure you are fit enough to complete the walk;

• Always try to let others know where you intend going, especially if you are walking alone;

• Be clothed adequately for the weather and always wear suitable footwear;

• Always allow plenty of time for the walk, especially if it is longer or harder than you have done before;

• Whatever the distance you plan to walk, always allow plenty of daylight hours unless you are absolutely certain of the route;

• If mist or bad weather come on unexpectedly, do not panic but instead try to remember the last certain feature which you have passed (road, farm, wood, etc.). Then work out your route from that point on the map but be sure of your route before continuing;

• Do not dislodge stones on the high edges: there may be climbers or other walkers on the lower crags and slopes;

• Unfortunately, accidents can happen even on the easiest of walks. If this should be the case and you need the help of others, make sure that the injured person is safe in a place where no further injury is likely to occur. For example, the injured person should not be left on a steep hillside or in danger from falling rocks. If you have a mobile phone and there is a signal, call for assistance. If, however, you are unable to contact help by mobile and you cannot leave anyone with the injured person, and even if they are conscious, try to leave a written note explaining their injuries and whatever you have done in the way of first aid treatment. Make sure you know exactly where you left them and then go to find assistance. Make your way to a telephone, dial 999 and ask for the police or mountain rescue. Unless the accident has happened within easy access of a road, it is the responsibility of the police to arrange evacuation. Always give accurate directions on how to find the casualty and, if possible, give an indication of the injuries involved;

• When walking in open country, learn to keep an eye on the immediate foreground while you admire the scenery or plan the route ahead. This may sound difficult but will enhance your walking experience;

• It’s best to walk at a steady pace, always on the flat of the feet as this is less tiring. Try not to walk directly up or downhill. A zigzag route is a more comfortable way of negotiating a slope. Running directly downhill is a major cause of erosion on popular hillsides;

• When walking along a country road, walk on the right, facing the traffic. The exception to this rule is, when approaching a blind bend, the walker should cross over to the left and so have a clear view and also be seen in both directions;

• Finally, always park your car where it will not cause inconvenience to other road users or prevent a farmer from gaining access to his fields. Take any valuables with you or lock them out of sight in the car.

Equipment

Equipment, including clothing, footwear and rucksacks, is essentially a personal thing and depends on several factors, such as the type of activity planned, the time of year, and weather likely to be encountered.

All too often, a novice walker will spend money on a fashionable jacket but will skimp when it comes to buying footwear or a comfortable rucksack. Blistered and tired feet quickly remove all enjoyment from even the most exciting walk and a poorly balanced rucksack will soon feel as though you are carrying a ton of bricks. Well designed equipment is not only more comfortable but, being better made, it is longer lasting.

Clothing should be adequate for the day. In summer, remember to protect your head and neck, which are particularly vulnerable in a strong sun and use sun screen. Wear light woollen socks and lightweight boots or strong shoes. A spare pullover and waterproofs carried in the rucksack should, however, always be there in case you need them.

Winter wear is a much more serious affair. Remember that once the body starts to lose heat, it becomes much less efficient. Jeans are particularly unsuitable for winter wear and can sometimes even be downright dangerous.

Waterproof clothing is an area where it pays to buy the best you can afford. Make sure that the jacket is loose-fitting, windproof and has a generous hood. Waterproof overtrousers will not only offer complete protection in the rain but they are also windproof. Do not be misled by flimsy nylon ‘showerproof’ items. Remember, too, that garments made from rubberised or plastic material are heavy to carry and wear and they trap body condensation. Your rucksack should have wide, padded carrying straps for comfort.

It is important to wear boots that fit well or shoes with a good moulded sole – blisters can ruin any walk! Woollen socks are much more comfortable than any other fibre. Your clothes should be comfortable and not likely to catch on twigs and bushes.

It is important to carry a compass, preferably one of the ‘Silva’ type as well as this guide. A smaller scale map covering a wider area can add to the enjoyment of a walk. Binoculars are not essential but are very useful for spotting distant stiles and give added interest to viewpoints and wildlife. Although none of the walks in this guide venture too far from civilisation, on a hot day even the shortest of walks can lead to dehydration so a bottle of water is advisable.

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