118km Minions to Hayle
Phoenix United Mine
Route Overview
The whole day is spent riding in a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The West Devon and Cornwall Mining area, was for a short period around the late 18th - early 19th century, not only the most profitable land anywhere in the world, but also one of the most fundamental to the Industrial Revolution. Today, the scars of industry are healing and in a curious way, the countryside is even more appealing as the roofless engine houses stand stark against the grey Cornish sky. Scattered along this wonderful stage are not only the old mines ,but stately homes, pre-historic stone circles, and saints. It’s often a rugged ride, always hilly, but never dull, whatever the weather!
Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Minions; Cheesewringer Camping/Gwinear, The Royal Standard Pub and Campsite DISTANCE: 118km TOTAL ASCENT: 1764m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: Quiet narrow lanes which are often covered in mud and gravel RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS; St Newlyn East; Village stores at, Truro;Cafes Bissoe; St. Piran’s Cafe End VISIT: Truro Cathedral NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Truro, Cambourne, Redruth LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: NCN3, West Kernow Way, NCN 32
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To go to stage 8, click here
Ride Notes
Surrounding Minions, the highest village in Cornwall at 300m, are a heap of mines. Stark chimneys and engine houses, stand amidst spoil tips and ruined houses. For a while in the 1850s the Phoenix United Mine was one of the country’s most profitable copper mines. Nearly 700 men were employed. People talk about scars and the ruination of countryside caused by industry, but here in Cornwall the reverse seems to be true; rare mosses, lichens and liverworts are all found here, thriving on the edge of mine shafts and spoil heaps. Not only is the area a UNESCO Wolrd Heritage site, but it’s also an SSSI. To really appreciate this landscape, it is worth walking rather than cycling. The initial loop as shown on the map includes the Phoenix mines, the extraordinary Cheesewring Tor, (a heap of stones precariously balanced upon each other), two Bronze Age stone circles, thought to be the best in the South-West. To access all of these, you can ride on good ex-mine tracks, but to really get a feel for this amazing corner of England, it is better to walk for an hour or so.
The Cheesewring
From Minions, the route takes you across Common Moor and across the Fowey river. If you have time, a short walk at Golitha Falls to visit to one of the rarest environments on the planet, the temperate rainforest, is highly recommended. Onwards, the way bobbles up and down, skirting Bodmin Moor, and travelling through sheep pastures and small villages. The way is never still, it’s either up or down. After 26km, there’s the opportunity to stop at Lanhydrock House and its gardens, one of the most popular of all National Trust Houses, or continue on fabulous cycle tracks through the estate and into Bodmin.
Landhydrock House
Bodmin, once the old county town of Cornwall and probably best known for its fearsome 18th century gaol, which has now been converted into a Boutique Hotel. The route heads towards the Camel Trail, one of the most popular traffic-free cycle trails in the country. The Camel Trail Tea Garden is a good stop if you have not eaten at Lanhydrock, and a kilometre or so further on, is the multi-award winning, Camel Valley vineyard.
Bluebells beside the Camel trail
The route continues over the Cornish hills to St. Colomb Major. It’s pleasant rural riding, with many ups and downs and even in high season, vehicles are rare. The very narrow lanes are often mud and gravel strewn, and over the tops of the high-walled banks lining the lanes, you see the sea. In spring and summer, the high banks of the lanes as well as the river valleys, are strewn with flowers.
Wild garlic in a Cornish valley
After St. Newly’s East its to Truro that you go, where there is the three towered cathedral and a sniff of the sea. The Victorian Cathedral is worth time as is a wander around the town, but if you’re after a feed, perhaps you could hold on for another eight kilometres, for at at Bissoe is the St. Piran’s Cafe, voted as one of the best cycling cafes in the UK.
A field of daffodils outside Truro
The Wheal Maid Valley is one of the strangest and haunting valleys you’ll ever ride through. Between the mid 18th-19th centuries, this valley was known as, ‘the richest square mile on earth’. Here, were the world’s largest copper and arsenic mines, whose shafts went down over 350m below the surface. During the time of peak productions, the mines here produced over a million tonnes of copper. It was here too, where James Watt installed the world’s first steam pump engine.
The Wheal Maid Valley
Working conditions in the mines stretch credulity today. In 1836, over 1,730 men, 896 women and 587 children worked in the valley. In the lower levels of the mine, the air temperature could reach over forty degrees, and was often thick with blasting fumes. At the end of a shift, miners would have to climb 200 metres of ladders to regain the surface. Boys went underground from the age of eight. Women and girls were not allowed underground and instead were employed with the hard physical work of breaking and sorting the copper ore. The ride along the old ghost ridden mine tracks continues above the towns of Redruth and Cambourne and then back into farming country.
Hayle
Around 112km, you pass the Royal Standard Inn at Gwinear, where there’s good camping to be had. Otherwise the day finishes with a delicious downhill to the sea and finishes at the town of Hayle, where there’s ample choice of accommodation.
Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.
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