I’M MOVING IN THE ECHOES OF THE HEAVING, HEWING AND HOOFBEATS OF INDUSTRY.

Walking through old industrial landscapes might sound dull, but it’s far from it. My route today, the Coast-to-Coast, is part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of mining landscapes and links the north and south Cornish coasts. The 11-mile route is a great way to ease inland if you’re not quite ready to let go of the ocean, traversing across the back of Cornwall along a mix of wide moorland paths, quiet winding lanes and ancient bridleways. It can be walked or biked in either direction, but I start in the north, heading across to my home coast from the fishing village of Portreath. It’s a few Range Rovers and renovations removed from the Chelsea-on-Sea influx that has beset much of its sister harbours ‘up the way’ locals still abound here, fishing boats pull headstrong at their lines behind the harbour wall at high tide, and surfers dodge sea swimmers through all shades of weather.

The Portreath of the 1800s was a different beast: bustling, loud and wildly important for mining. Horses, carts and trams arrived along the footpaths I’m walking today, delivering their payloads of tin and copper to ships in a cacophony of whistles, shouts and steam. Cornish ores were shipped from here to south Wales, passing vessels bringing in Welsh coal and timber in return. eaving the harbour behind me, the trail (known by us locals as the ‘Bissoe Trail’) leads through some of the world’s best-conserved concentration of mine workings, with plaques and wall signs to spot amid the verdant greens of nature that’s busily reclaiming the landscape. You’ll need to keep a lookout for the granite route markers that lead you through the maze of local back lanes and roads, as it’s easy to wander onto the side trails that crisscross the way. Not that you shouldn’t choose to divert, as there are several short detours well worth your while. One is about four miles along from where

I start and just over half a mile off trail: Wheal Peevor, home to three of the best-preserved mining houses in Cornwall.

The main route, the Mineral Tramways Route, follows two vital historic trails. The first is the Portreath tramroad I started on, originally a horse-worked route used by miners to move their metal ore from the nearby villages of Scorrier and St Day to the sea. It’s one of the earliest tramroads in Cornwall, and while today I walk it to birdsong and the whirr of occasional bicycle tires, I’m also moving in the echoes of the heaving, hewing and hoofbeats of industry. Just over halfway through my hike, I walk past the grounds of fine Scorrier House, a magnificent testament to the wealth that Cornish mining generated. Built in 1778 by mining tycoon and entrepreneur John Williams, it boasts of a time of plenty. Williams managed scores of mines and was himself an ‘adventurer’, a man of uniquely adaptable spirit. Indeed, during a national shortage of currency in the early 1800s, he created his own Cornish currency using metals from his own mines to pay workers. The first monkey puzzle tree in Britain was planted here – it was also the country’s tallest, before a gale felled it in 2015. Many of Cornwall’s famous gardens, such as the ones at Scorrier House, brim with exotic flora, a legacy of the ships of old that travelled far and wide for trade and exploration, returning with seeds and well-tended plants that were used as gifts for and to trade with the wellheeled captains of Cornish industry.

Further along I hike near Gwennap and along to Poldice Valley, once known as the ‘richest square mile on earth’. It’s here that an estimated 550 million worth of ore was pulled from the ground during the mines’ lifetimes. You can see clear evidence of this work as you walk, and the area is known locally as ‘Mars’. Red-hued hollows and scarred peaks made from centuries of mining waste sculpt the views on either side, dotted between with lagoons of wastewater that dip and fill with the sun and seasons, staining red-ore rings as they fluctuate. I spot the bobbing and dipping of mountain bikers, using the landscape for their own industrial efforts: jumps, tricks and the occasional stack.

As I close in on the last few miles of the trail, the long-defunct Redruth and Chasewater Railway is underfoot. Built in 1825 and all but invisible now – bar its dusty, straight traverses through gorseland – it linked some of the most intensively mined areas of the world to the tiny village of Devoran, today’s bookend. Here, mining heritage is lost to the eye, with the exception of the final ruin of the Point Mills arsenic refinery. Tin and copper weren’t the only metals mined in this region tungsten, arsenic, silver and zinc were also hauled from the Cornish depths.

To close this particular heritage route, I walk under the giant arches of the Carnon Viaduct, which lifts the Truro to Falmouth train line safely above me, and past the remains of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s original 18 viaduct. My 11-mile, thousand-year journey across the county arrives at a pretty and picturesque south coast creek. uiet and bucolic, but once one of the busiest mining ports in Cornwall, Devoran greets me with a fine pub, the call of herons and splashing oars. I sit and enjoy a well-earned drink, happy to know that this is just one of the myriad trail and trackways that keep Cornish history alive, inside the rugged, seaward edges of my beloved county.

Need To Know Getting There

Trains run from London to Redruth, and from there it’s a short bus ride to Portreath. Public transport can be lighter out of peak season, so it’s often easiest to explore with a car.

BEST TIME TO GO

Springtime, as the gorse pushes forth its bright yellow flowers with their coconut scent and the birds are bright and chatty, is arguably the loveliest time to do this walk.

CURRENCY Pound sterling

TIME ZONE GMT

FOOD

Don’t miss a Cornish pasty –a delicious, hot pastry parcel traditionally filled with steak, potato and swede (though veggie options are also available). The best pasties are from Ann’s Pasties, with shops dotted around the county (annspasties.co.uk).

WHERE TO STAY

There are plenty of boutique B&Bs near Portreath and Devoran, or drive west to The Gurnard’s Head, on the wild Atlantic coast.

How To Do It

The Mining World Heritage site and trails are Unesco protected. ou can find more information at cornishmining.org.uk and heartlandscornwall.com.

MUST-PACK ITEM

A notepad for the many things you’ll spot that you might want to learn more about later, and a raincoat and layers, no matter the season.

Why Go

To experience the joy of walking from one coast of the UK to another in a single day, and to learn more about the history and landscape of this region.

For more anecdotal information about hiking and walks in Cornwall, visit gailmuller.com