 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ramblings
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
MISSED A PROGRAMME?
Go to the Listen Again page |
![]() |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Fridays 15:00-15:30 |
|
|
Clare Balding explores favourite British walks |
|
|
|
Clare Balding |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
North Cornwall coast |
10ÌýAugust 2007 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
The stretch of coastline from Bosigran to Gurnard’s Head offers fantastic scenery – probably the best on the north coast of the Penwith Peninsula. Along with an abundance of natural history, there is evidence of human habitation up to 3,000 years old.
Sarah Chapman can trace her family back to the early seventeenth century and most of her ancestors lived and died in Penwith, with her grandfather being the first not to work in the local tin mines. She met her husband DavidChapman when he moved to Cornwall as a keen birder and now he has a full time career as a photographer and writer of natural history books.
The walk they share with Clare starts and ends at Carn Galver engine house taking in Porthmoina Valley, rich in mining heritage, Porthmeor Cove, an important geological site, Gurnard’s Head where there is an Iron Age cliff castle and settlement and Bosigran farm with evidence of Bronze Age field systems and hay meadows.
Map: OS Explorer 102 Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly
Start: Carn Calver engine house.
Start Grid Ref: SW 422365
End: Carn Calver engine house
Distance: 6 miles
Terrain: good footpaths all the way. A few short climbs.
Suitable for: all walkers
The route:ÌýStart at the Ìýcar park by the Carn Galver Engine House. Follow the footpathÌýthrough Porthmoina Valley whcih holds remnants of buildings used in tin mining, arriving at the coast at Bosigran Iron Age cliff castle which was built 2,000-3,000 yrs ago with evidence of Bronze (2300 to 700bc) and Iron Age (700bc 43 ad) field systems all about. Follow the cliff path down to Porthmeor Cove which is Regionally Important Geological Site, to see the joints between the granite and local bedrock and look at evidence of periglacial flow. Continue on the cliff path towards Gurnard’s Head and then take the footpath inland to Gurnard’s Head Inn. From there take the road and then cut acrossÌý to Porthmeor with engine house, gryst mill, leats, buddle and through Bosigran Farm, and back to Carn Galver Engine house.
|
|
|
|
|
|
In this series of Ramblings, Clare Balding visits the far flung corners of the UK and walks with those for whom these little visited places are just ‘home’.
