Adventureline Walking Holidays @ Chycor Cornwall

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The North Coast, The Old Mines			[LANDS END] . [LIZARD] . [CREEKS/ESTUARIES] . [MOORS] . [WILDLIFE]
Other Coastal & Interior Regions

The North Coast

North Cornwall stretches from Lands End to the Devon border, a distance of about ninety miles. This coastline is all things - wild, spectacular, gentle, (in a few places) and possessing many different moods. Mostly high cliffs facing the full fury of The Atlantic winter storms, leaving stunningly eroded cliff forms and quite remarkably sculptured headlands, often made into Iron Age Cliff castles by our ancestors 2500 years ago, to defend themselves from possible attack by marauding Celts.

Here and there, several areas of high dunes and wide sandy beaches interrupt the cliffs, which range in height from 150 to 700 feet. As mentioned in the next description, remnants of old copper and tin mines have left some cliffs stained in the most spectacular mineral rich colours you are ever likely to see!

Ravens, Kestrels, Peregrine Falcons and many sea birds haunt these domains, taking advantage of the thermals and uplift off the cliff faces. Beautiful and most prolific wild flower carpet the cliff tops and hedgerows, particularly in Spring and early Summer.

Legends abound hereabouts, such as King Arthur and Merlin the Wizard!
There are a few sheltered harbours and coves - places like Boscastle and Tintagel, Port Isaac, Trebarwith Strand, St Agnes and St Ives.

As in other parts of Cornwall, we find that Wreckers and Smugglers, Miners and Quarrymen, Fishermen and Farmers - have all left many mysteries we can decipher as we walk this Heritage Coastline, where once men toiled trying to export metal ores to Wales, Slate world-wide and import coal to power the great steam engines of the long defunct tin and copper mines. Naturally, a continuum is perceived and understood - which clearly connects age with age and our ancestors with our relatives, people with landscape - and so it goes . . .

The Old Mines

In some parts of Cornwall, there are numerous old relics of days gone by, when Cornish miners literally led the world in hard rock mining, wresting mostly copper, tin, iron, zinc, tungsten, lead, arsenic - and even a little silver and gold - from deep within the bowels of the earth beneath Cornwall.
Mineral exploitation here dates back to the times of The Phoenicians and the Bronze Age cultures! (about 3500 years)

Coastal mines

Spectacularly sited ruins of old engine houses form dramatic backcloths to the cliffs and moors, often ivy clad and quite romantic in their own way. The great days of steam began in the late 1700's - which was when Cornish engineers really were the finest in the world.
Many great inventions of engineering skill were made here, such as the first high pressure steam engine, the first steam locomotive and the first gas lighting in the world - mostly during the 18th and 19th century's.
Exploring this heritage is quite remarkable in itself and together with the "containing landscape", it all makes a fine voyage of discovery about the early beginnings of the industrial revolution and present day society.
Obviously, the mineralogy which prompted this once great exploitation is itself very remarkable and in fact two of Britain's finest geological museums are situated here. Many beautiful minerals and crystals are still to be found in various places where we walk. Also, the remarkable formations in which these minerals occur are awesome - and will amaze you, as you discover natural wonders never seen before. Naturally, we explain the whole phenomena to make it come alive.
(Many miners departed for Australia, South and North America and Africa in the 1870's, when mining faltered here, due to the discovery of cheap alluvial tin in Malaysia and Mexico and Bolivia.)

Other Coastal Sections and Interior Regions

The South Coast is much more gentle than the North Coast generally, though there are still several sections of it which are just as dramatic, with high cliffs and headlands. In between are more gentle cliffs - lushly vegetated - with sandy bays, fine beaches and pretty little villages with granite and serpentine harbours and thatched cottages. Most of the creeks and estuaries run into the south coast, but there are a few on the north coast too.

Fine walking is to be had in these regions, where coastal stretches can be linked together with rural inland sections to make circular walks of great variety and interest.
In the interior of Cornwall, there are hills rising to about 1000 ft. (apart from Bodmin Moors, which are higher), and these hills give dramatic panoramic views when climbed, from which both coasts can usually be seen. Quite a few of these hills have prehistoric settlements (or the remains of them,) on the summits - and when in/on them, it is very interesting to speculate on ancient cultures and their lifestyles in relationship to the existing landscape, as contrasted with their society and land-use back then!

For full details of all the great Tourist Attractions Cornwall has to offer, click here

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