The Tinners' Way - part 5

The Boslow stone

A brilliant early May bank holiday and the company of two wonderful old friends encouraged us to finish the last section of our walk: and what a finish it was.

Parking where the track crosses the Pendeen road, we made our way once more up towards Carn Kenidjack, passing the inscribed Boslow stone with its cross and vague inscriptions.

From the top of the carn, the azure blue sea tempted us onwards but not before we had visited the Tregeseal stone circle, carefully counting its nineteen stones and performing suitable rites.

Approaching the end of our journey, we were faced with a series of tracks and minor roads with wonderful names like No Go Hill and Truthwall Lane, heading ever onwards towards the sea. Ancient Celtic field shapes lay all around us, their boundaries marked by massive stones no doubt put their by the various giants who inhabited this land in years gone by.

The Crowns mine engine house

Skirting Botallack, it was impossible to deny the lure of the Crowns Mine, perched on the cliff edge and looking much more secure than it did in the great storms. Half-remembered images from Hammond Innes' Killer Mine and memories of Folk at the Count House - Brenda Wooton and John the Fish - came to mind.

A picnic on Carn Kenidjack, overlooking Porth Ledden seemed a fitting end to our trek. Cape Cornwall lay in front of us with the Brisons offshore. In the distance, the Longships were dark spots in the blue and Wolf Rock could just be made out in the haze.

Above Porth Ledden

Below us was what has been described as 'the best-defended early harbour in Cornwall' with a cliff castle on both sides. If so, then this asks questions about the nature of the Tinners' Way itself. Was it all west-east traffic with tin being carried from the St Just area to the safer beaches of St Ives and Lelant, or was there a counter-flow to this little haven?

The four central Kenidjack holed stones

We made our way back up the Kenidjack valley, through Nancherrow and Tregeseal, briefly stopping to greet some charming local residents, before standing once more at Tregeseal stone circle.

We had missed the holed stones on the way down the hill and set off in what looked like the right direction. Ignoring the protective gorse, we eventually found the five holed stones: miniature versions of the Men-an-Tol, their purpose quite unclear. A modern hand was too large to pass through any of the holes. The only thing that can be said for them is that they broadly face south and are near a stone circle and several barrows. Could the holes have indicated something at mid-summer when the sun shone through the holes?

It was a short walk back to the car and the journey home, glowing with satisfaction at having completed the Tinners' Way, surely one of the most important trackways in Penwith, if only for the number and variety of monuments, ancient and industrial. It does not take much imagination to conjure up images of belching chimneys and the noise and bustle of mining in this area 150 years ago. And yet those miners seem to have respected the ancient stones that marked the routes they followed.

Nowhere is this more marked than around the Ding Dong mine where quoits, a stone circle, several standing stones and the Men-an-Tol have all survived apparently unscathed. The valley in Peru which contains the Urubamba river, the fortress of Ollyantaytambo and Machu Picchu was called the Sacred Valley by the Incas. If Cornwall has a similar valley then we had just walked through it: from Chun Castle to Kenidjack castle on the coast.

The Tinners' Way is highly recommended for anyone who wants to see Cornwall's wildness at its best and to contemplate thousands of years of history in the process.

A mere 6.9 miles in wonderful sunshine. There are more photos here and a map here.