The Tinners' Way - part 4

Carn Kenidjack

The surprise of a wonderful sunny Sunday encouraged us to make an early start to fill in a bit more of the Tinners' Way.

We started where we left off last time, at the foot of Carn Downs and headed towards Bosullow Trehyllys Iron Age settlement which is well worth a detour and a future visit. Excavated between 1925 - 1930 it is a wild version of Chysauster or Carn Euny with several very obvious houses and rooms. According to the Great Author, there may even be an above-ground fogou here but we searched in vain.

Chun Castle

The morning mist was clearing as we walked up the side of Chun hill to admire the castle: an Iron Age staging post or place or safe keeping for the tin en route from the Cape Cornwall area to St Ives or Marazion.

Having admired the fortifications and noted how the later barbican favoured the left-handed attacker, we crossed the short distance to Chun Quoit, the best-preserved in Penwith. From here, it was a short walk across Woon Gumpus common to the road. This bowl, like that around the Men-an-tol is filled with ancient remains.

Local residents

Crossing the road we greeted some unlikely Penwith residents who would be more at home in the High Andes, and admired a small barrow just off the main path which still had its cist intact.

From here we headed past the Boslow stone and out onto the moor. Although we should have been turning round, the lure of Carn Kenidjack was just too strong and we climbed this for our cup of coffee and snack. Where better could there be: a beautiful blue sky with a crisp sky, a blue sea dotted with white patches, St Just village nestling around its church, a stone circle in plain view and in the far distance, a white skirt around the Longships. But those joys are for a future walk.

Chun Quoit

We turned and headed back along the southern arm of the Tinners' Way, past the Boswens standing stone with it modern aircraft aerial, skirting the foot of Chun Castle and back to the meet the Madron at Bosullow. Seen from this direction, the main route to St Ives is obvious: straight on past the Men-an-tol towards the Men Scryfa.

We returned along the northern coast road - whoever painted the Gunnard's Head bright yellow should be made to re-paint it - once again marvelling at the Celtic field boundaries.

A mere 4.8 miles. The map is here and there are more pictures here.

Droppings

The Lego's gone, the Playmobil
Is cluttered safe away
And all the toys, those playful joys,
Must wait another day.

Our guests have gone, they're far away
They've left us on our own
With quiet rooms, dull afternoons,
We're empty, all alone.

But 'neath the sofa, on the rug
We find they've left some gear.
A sock or two, a Lego piece
And other items dear.

To pack these up and send them back
Is slamming the front door
On memories - that ghostly fizz -
Of guests that we adore.

Much better then to set aside
These relics of the week
Against that time, that happy time
They're back on Mylor creek.

The Tinner's Way - part 3

Men Scryfa with the Ding Dong mine
in the background

Another six months has passed and, on a bright sunny winter's day, we grabbed a welcome lull between storms, thunderstorms and high winds and set out to discover a few more miles of the Tinner's Way. This time we were 'walking backwards', unwinding ourselves as we had not quite made the road on our last visit.

We started just further on from the Men-an-tol studio and walked off across sodden ground along a path-turned-stream with the great 'sacred valley' on our right, following what was obviously once a drove road between two massive Cornish hedges. Below us, in the sunlight we could see the Men-an-tol itself - with some noisy visitors - the Ding Dong mine and the Men Scryfa. To our left and right there were bright blue lines of sea.

We followed the path to the Men Scryfa itself and paid homage to Ryalvran with a reading from the Great Work, describing his death. There is something wonderful about the commemoration of fight which took place in such a far-off corner of the kingdom nearly 1,500 years ago. It is fitting that the loser is remembered and we do not even know the name of the victor. Who would not fight to protect this wonderful landscape?

Watch Croft

Onwards up the hill northwards leaving the rocky outcrop of Carn Galver on the right, we turned left and climbed to the top of Watch Croft, Penwith's highest point at a lung-bursting, altitude-sickness-inspiring 252m (852ft); another of our High Spots of Cornwall. Here we sat down for a well-earned late sandwich before exploring the excitement that is the Watch Croft menhir.

The Pendeen lighthouse and coast twinkled in the sunlight, its mine chimneys peppering the cliff top like so many warning bollards. Within easy reach were three fogous and Chun Castle beckoned for our next outing.

There must be a path somewhere here

An easy downhill route took us back to a lane and so back to our car as the temperature began to drop and the sun looked as if it wanted to settle down on Scilly, just over the horizon.

A mere 2.7 miles. The map is here and there are more pictures here.

We could not resist the drive along one of the great roads of the country: the coast road to St Ives, twisting and turning past ancient farmsteads and fields, imagining D H Lawrence walking these roads.

The Tinner's Way - interlude

A number of people - well, I am sure one of you did - have asked us what the Tinner's Way is. We found it in Belerion, the wonderful book by Craig Weatherill. Here he talks about the ancient trackways of West Penwith and, in particular, the Old Land's End Road (Vounder Gogglas) which goes from Penzance to Land's End; and the Old St Ives Road which joins St Just to St Ives and the coast near Marazion. The latter is the Tinner's Way.

We cannot better his description: No one can be sure just when Penwith's ancient trackways came into being. They were certainly in use during the Bronze Age, with the advent of tin production, and could well have been trading routes as far back as the neolithic period, to carry locally-made stone axes from their 'factories' to points of distribution. 

Both ... have important archaeological sites close by, and much of their routes were used later on when the parish boundaries were marked out. Talking of the Tinner's Way, he goes on: to travel this route ... is without doubt the finest way of seeing the spectacular and lonely Land's End moors.

The route passes by sites like Carn Kenidjack with its neighbouring stone circle and holed stones; Chun castle with its associated quoit; the Men-an-Tol, the Men Scryfa, Lanyon quoit and the Nine Ladies (Boskednan) stone circle; Mulfra quoit and Castle an Dinas. Could you ask for more?

We have also walked St Michael's Way which links St Ives and Lelant to Marazion, and which shares some of the Tinner's Way. The Old Land's End Road is on our list.

St Michael's Way map
Tinner's Way map    

The Tinner's Way - part 2

The Men-an-Tol

We must have been busy for it has taken us over a year to do the second part of the Tinner's Way (see previous posting). On a blustery but sunny day, we parked at the top of the Try valley, beneath Mulfra Quoit and headed off across Bosporthennis Common, supposedly following some boundary stones. All we could see were some posts planted by Cornwall Council warning us of some proposed designation. We  did not know whether to pity the man who had to walk out here and plant these notices, or envy him that he had a day out walking the moors and could call it work.

The path gave out as we approached Brook Cottage, surely one of the more remote dwellings in Cornwall, but we managed to re-join the correct route with a bit of help from a native and his charming dog, heading over the ridge into a familiar landscape under the shadow of Carn Galva with the Nine Maidens on our left, Men Scryfa on our right and the Ding Dong in the distance.

The Ding Dong mine

There could be only one place for lunch where one of us climbed through the hole to cure her back (before lunch): the Men-an-Tol.

From here, it is an easy walk up to the Ding Dong: surely one of the great positions for any engine house, rivalling the Crowns at Botallack and Wheal Coates at St Agnes. Experience reminds us that the path is non-existent going downhill but that is the well-known 'Penwithian disappearing track effect' which says that anything the OS says about Penwith should be taken with a pinch of Cornish salt.

A track leads past another wonderful engine house, through Tredinneck, towards Bodrifty where we discover that someone is trying to develop a Land Rover graveyard with several left out in the open at the mercy of the brambles: reminiscent of the character Landy from the children's book.

Memories of Landy

From here we dived into the undergrowth, emerging at the back of Mulfra Hill from where we could  rejoin our original trail.  

A great day out: three hours and 4.8 miles (without detours). Eventually we will reach Cape Cornwall.

There is a map here and pictures here.