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This was meant to be a sea and summit hike, but something went wrong with the hilly bit. We couldn't find the required path and, as the location of this walk was so far from home, had to make do with a detour without fully exploring the situation thoroughly.
Never mind, it is still a cracking saunter around one of the most dramatic coastal areas in the kingdom.
Note that all maps on this site are only indicative. You should
never set out without the correct OS map.
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Basic hike: from Carn Galver Mine on the St Ives-St Just road, north to the coast path, then along the clifftops to Gurnard's Head to return inland via Treen and Porthmeor,
Recommended map: Ordnance Survey Explorer 102 - Land's End.
Distance and going: three-and-a-half miles, can be tricky underfoot in places. |
| Almost the entire route of this hike is on National Trust-owned land and it all takes place in the vicinity of the craggy hill of Carn Galver, which hangs above the St Ives-St Just road "with all the assurance of a Rhine castle" - to quote J.R.A. Hockin's book Walking In Cornwall.
For various reasons we didn't climb this westerly mount but stuck to the coast for this splendid walk. The first thing to do is to find the small roadside car park or - put another way - recognise the place where you must leap off the local bus. No problem here - just look out for the massive old mine stacks a mile-and-a-half west of Gurnard's Head. These ruined buildings and chimneys sit just under the great crag of Carn Galver. Not surprisingly, the place is called Carn Galver Mine.
A path sets off toward the sea just to the right of the most easterly of the ruins, and down this we plod the quarter of a mile or so to the cliff edge. We soon find ourselves peering into the depths of Porthmoina Cove. If you get the feeling that there's something odd about the lay of the land around here, don't worry, there is. That's because mankind mucked about here for centuries extracting tin. |
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| Before they took to going deep underground to dig the stuff out, the tinners first used a process called 'streaming' which basically meant washing out the metal using water from the tiny runlets that pour off the hills. After that they learned to dig 'costeen' pits in search of lodes or deposits of lumps of ore which had been separated out from the mother-lode by weathering. They wouldn't have been given planning permission to do it today - it was all very ruinous in landscape terms. But things soften with age and now the area seems to have been donated an added sense of interest.
From the cove we find the small path that climbs up over Bosigran Cliff and introduces you to the headland upon which once stood Bosigran Castle. This place may or may not link King Arthur to the area. His mother was called Y'gran - and the identical suffix has been enough to convince many that she hailed from here. The Trust pamphlet is less fanciful: "A court record of 1331 mentions 'Bosseghan' and since the Cornish for dry valley is seghnans, and the farm settlement lies at the mouth of a dry valley, this prosaic but honest source seems likely." |
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| Now we follow the coast path north east as it weaves its way along the heathy cliff-tops. We pass Haldrine Cove and Great Zawn before eventually reaching the delightful horseshoe indentation of Porthmeor Cove. There's a small stretch of golden sand here when the tide's not up, and the brave can scramble down the low cliff to the beach and have a swim.
Our original intention was to climb the footpath inland at this point, to reach the hamlet of Porthmeor where we would cross the road to find the footpath south into the hills. But it didn't work out that way - instead we continued along the coast path around Porthmeor Point, past the old gold mine, to Treen Cliff and eventually to Gurnard's Head.
Every lover of Cornwall should visit this wonderful headland at least once. It jabs itself into the Atlantic like a giant thumb and is as brave a northerly cape as any in these isles. Go there on a stormy day if you like watching the ocean at its most spectacular and watch the giant waves explode along its vertiginous skirts... |
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| Gurnard's Head is the English name and it simply refers to the fact that the headland looks like the bulbous head of the fish known as the gurnard. In Cornish the place is called Trereen Dinas, which means the castle on the high place. And there was indeed a fortified cliff castle perched here, dating from the second century BC.
Now the walk took us inland through the hamlet of Treen (don't confuse this with the village of that name a few miles south), back to the road by the inn - and then it was a matter of walking a quarter of a mile along the highway, west to Porthmeor. From there an ancient right of way allowed me to leave the road, but ran parallel with it, back to Carn Galver Mine.
Not the walk we'd originally intended, but I look forward to returning some time soon when I shall explore those highlands unimpeded by a waist-high sea of bracken and enjoy the bonus of looking at the mountainous seas off Gurnard Head. |
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