06 Gwennap, Kennall Vale and Perran Foundry Practicalities


Getting there This large Area lies between Redruth and Truro, and is laced with classic Cornish lanes. Road access is via the A393 between Redruth and Falmouth, which passes through Ponsanooth (for Kennall Vale); turn off this road by the Fox & Hounds pub for Carharrack, St Day, Scorrier and Chacewater. First bus services 14B and 18B pass through Carharrack, St Day and Chacewater. Devoran is just off the A39 between Falmouth and Truro, and First bus routes 89/90 (Falmouth to Newquay via Truro) stop here. See www. cornwallpublictransport.info for the latest information.


Suggested map Ordnance Survey map 104: Redruth & St Agnes (Explorer Maps).


Dog friendliness This is a rural area with lots of footpaths, and is generally great for dogs. Keep dogs on leads on farmland with grazing animals though, and refer to the signs at each site.


Parking The villages of St Day, Carharrack and Chacewater have small car parks and on-street parking. The cycle hire shop and café at Bissoe also has free parking.


Public toilets There are public toilets in Carharrack, Chacewater, St Day, and the cycle hire shop and café at Bissoe offers public toilets.


Eating & drinking The Norway Inn at Perran Wharf and the Quay Inn at Devoran both have great menus featuring lots of local produce. The café at the Bissoe Cycle Hire centre has a warm welcome and a good selection of meals, cakes and snacks on offer. Carharrack, St Day and Chacewater all have good village pubs.


Adventure & Sport Activities


Explore the historic landscape by bike around the mining districts of Camborne, Redruth and Gwennap via a 60km network of trails. These sign-posted, largely off-road routes have been specially created for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.


This area has one of the world’s greatest and best conserved concentrations of historic mine buildings and contains unusual wildlife, some that only thrives in mining landscape habitats.


A number of important mine buildings have been conserved in the area and linked by trails that follow as closely as possible the original tramway and railway routes used to transport ore from mines to ports.


Leisure Activities


Gwennap Pit is an open air amphitheatre, near Redruth in Cornwall, made famous by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Possibly a hollow created by mining activities, it has remarkable acoustic properties. It became the favourite open air preaching place of John Wesley, who was taken to it in 1762, describing it as “a round green hollow” and as “an amphitheatre”. He was to preach there on 18 occasions between 1762 and 1789.


Take in the sheer scale of past industrial activity at Poldice and Wheal Maid, which reveal the enormous impact that mining has had in transforming the landscape of this part of Cornwall


Look around the well-preserved port, quays and tramway trackbeds at Devoran, once a key mining port and now a beautiful and tranquil creekside haven.


Educational Activities


Explore the Kennall Vale Gunpowder Works – one of the largest and most complete gunpowder works to be found anywhere in Britain and now a nature reserve.


Park in the village of Ponsanooth; walk past the shop and up the steep hill. The reserve entrance is on your right. The site, which produced explosives used to drive tunnels and remove ore, is now a tranquil woodland managed by Cornwall Wildlife Trust.


Take some time to experience the disused mills lining the course of the Kennall River, once the source of power for grinding the gunpowder mixture. Perran Foundry, by the creek at Perran Wharf, was one of the world’s most important Cornish engine manufacturers and ironfounders.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76