Carn Brea Trail 1 - Carn Brea Cycle Trail
The Carn Brea Cycle Trail takes in the Great Flat Lode and starts at Cowlins Mill. Nearest pub is the Countryman at Piece.
Address: St Uny Crescent, Carn Brea
Lat: N 50° 22′ 63.13″
Long: W -5° 24′ 21.20″
OS Grid Ref: SW 68851 41288
Distance: 5 miles
Terrain: Challenging
Facilities available for this trail:
Parking – Parking just below the trail entering Carn Brea.
Picnic areas – there are numerous appropriate places along the route to stop
Eating and shopping – there is no shop on the route.
Public houses – family friendly pub at The Contryman – marked on map
Accessibility
Family and children friendly – the route is very family friendly.
Cycle Trail – good long trail to cycle.
Horse Riding Trail – parts of the trail are suitable.
Walking Trail – a challenging trail due to it’s distance.
Disability access – only if you have a good strong scooter with the battery length.
Carn Brea Trail 1
- Created: 8th March 2017 12:11 pm
- Updated: 1st May 2017 12:59 pm
- Distance 5 miles
- Time 2 h 0 min
- Speed 2 mph
- Min altitude 374 ft
- Peak 604 ft
- Climb 377 ft
- Descent 371 ft
- Distance Instructions
Points of Interest
Whitecross hill Celtic cross
12th Century. Whitcross is probably a corruption of ‘White Cross’. The field directly behind the cross was named ‘Cross Field’ on the 1840 Tithe Apportionment Map. There are five villages in Cornwall called Whitecross but only two still have their white cross, also there are about 30 crosses which are painted white and known as White crosses. It is not known why they were painted white. Wayside crosses in Cornwall are mainly 12th Century and would have been set up when the parochial system was being established. There is also a Celtic cross at Forest.
Location: Just along the trail down from The Countryman. SW 6746 3973
Carn Brea Castle and monument
Private property. Allegedly dates from Norman times and was used as a hunting lodge by the Bassets for the deer park.
The monument is 90ft/27.5m high and 738ft/225m above sea level, it is inscribed ‘The County of Cornwall to the memory of Francis Lord de Dunstanville and Basset A.D. 1836’.
Location: SW 686 4085
Neolithic settlement site
Situated on the eastern summit. This is the earliest known village in Britain and was inhabited around 3,000 BC possibly even 6,000 BC. There was a settlement of 150 to 200 people in rectangular wooden huts, surrounded by massive stone ramparts forming part of the same system as the other ramparts and enclosure on the western summit. The huts have been carbon dated to between 3109 and 2687 BC, which would make this settlement the oldest known in Britain. 700 or more arrowheads were recovered during the 1970-73 excavations, indicating an attack in the Neolithic period and providing some of the earliest evidence of armed conflict.
Location: On top of the hill eastern end. SW 687 408
Tregajorran chapel
Private property. Site of the former chapel. The first chapel was built in the 1830’s. It was one of the Redruth plan with a Sunday afternoon service and seated 210. By 1849 the estimated congregation was 175 but after the division of the Methodist Church in 1849 the numbers had dwindled to 29 and 40 in the afternoon and evening respectively. In 1851 a new chapel was built on the site of the present chapel on a lease from the Basset family. Various alterations and extensions were carried out, including in 1887 an extra vestry was built. This had a date stone of 1887 which could be confused as the date of the chapel’s construction. In 1908 the vestry was replaced by the schoolroom. It closed in 1992 and was demolished in 1996.
Location: SW 6741 4071
