A church buried in the dunes tops Cornwall’s most popular walks

Somewhere under the tallest sand dunes in Britain sits a tiny chapel that spent almost a thousand years lost beneath the sand. It has been dug out again, and the route that leads to it is one of the five most-walked in Cornwall this week.

iWalk Cornwall has shared its most-walked routes for the week, and the list runs the width of the county, from the quiet river paths around St Erth near Hayle, up through the old gunpowder mills of Kennall Vale, out to the red-stained streams of the Lappa Valley near Newquay, and finally to the dunes above Perranporth.

Every route here comes from the iWalk Cornwall app, which we rate highly. This is not a paid partnership. We just think it is a genuinely good way to walk Cornwall. Each route comes with hand-written directions, GPS guidance and a running commentary on the local history you are walking through. Treat the distances and grades as a guide rather than a promise, and note that the practical details below are drawn from iWalk Cornwall’s own route pages.

1. Hayle Valley from St Erth

• Location: St Erth, near Hayle, West Cornwall
• Parking: St Erth village (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes. Only one stile, which most dogs should manage. Livestock is unlikely as the fields tend to grow crops rather than graze animals, though you may meet free-range chickens.
• Café: The Star Inn in St Erth village
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Hayle Valley from St Erth
• Distance: 3.5 miles / 5.6 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: River Hayle, dragonflies and damselflies, herons, valley views from Porthcollum, St Erth Church and village, woodland near Tremellin

This one follows the River Hayle through a valley that was once open water. The high ground at Porthcollum looks over what used to be a lagoon separating the island of West Penwith from the rest of Cornwall. The riverside path is narrow in places where the water has eaten into the bank, and in high summer it runs thick with wildflowers, dragonflies and the odd heron working the shallows. St Erth village and its church sit at the top of the route. It is an easy few miles that rewards a slow pace, which is probably why it keeps drawing walkers through the holidays.

2. Stithians to Kennall Vale

• Location: Stithians, near Redruth, West Cornwall
• Parking: Stithians (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, with help. Dogs are likely to need lifting over some of the stiles, though some can be bypassed using gates alongside.
• Café: The Seven Stars Inn and The Stag Hunt Inn
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Stithians to Kennall Vale
• Distance: 6 miles / 9.6 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: Kennall Vale gunpowder mills, broadleaf woodland, river and woodland wildlife, Stithians Church, Tremenhere Longstone

The longest walk on this week’s list, and the one with the most dramatic backstory. Kennall Vale is a wooded gorge in the River Kennall valley that once held a Victorian gunpowder works. Five of the mills there exploded in a single chain reaction so violent that the roof of one was found a mile away. Nature has taken the ruins back now, wrapping the old stone in moss and broadleaf trees. After a spell of wet weather the paths can turn boggy enough for wellies, so pick your day. Six miles makes it the walk to set aside a proper morning for.

3. St Erth, River and Pits

• Location: St Erth, near Hayle, West Cornwall
• Parking: St Erth village (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, with help at the stiles. Three wooden stiles, most dogs can squeeze through the first, the second usually has a gate to bypass it, and most will need a hand over the third. There is also a stone stile in a 4ft wall with footholds that may test less athletic dogs.
• Café: The Star Inn, on the route
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Erth, River and Pits
• Distance: 3.2 miles / 5.2 km
• Difficulty: Easy
• Highlights: St Erth Pits nature reserve, River Hayle, valley views from Porthcollum, St Erth village and church

The second St Erth walk on the list, and the only one graded Easy, which explains its pull for families and slower walkers. It takes in the St Erth Pits nature reserve, a Cornwall Wildlife Trust site, and the same wildflower-lined stretch of the Hayle before climbing to the views at Porthcollum. The Star Inn sits right on the route if you want a pause halfway. At 3.2 miles it is the shortest walk here and the gentlest underfoot.

4. St Newlyn East and Lappa Valley

• Location: St Newlyn East, near Newquay, Mid Cornwall
• Parking: St Newlyn East village (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, with mixed reports on the stiles (one walker with a Great Dane had no trouble, another struggled with a couple). Two streams to cross, and a drainage ditch near the end that needs a bit of a jump, or a wade if you are in wellies. Watch for trains at the Steam Railway crossing.
• Café: The Pheasant Inn
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Newlyn East and Lappa Valley
• Distance: 3.6 miles / 5.8 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: Lappa Valley broadleaf woodland, St Newlyn East Church, Metha Woods, remains of a Victorian mine, red-stained riverbeds

The Lappa Valley near Newquay hides an industrial past under its woodland. The Steam Railway that runs through it now sits on the ground of what was once one of Cornwall’s most famous mines, and the riverbeds are still stained red from it. In spring the woods fill with bluebells, and by late summer the leaf cover is dense and green. It is a route where nature has quietly reclaimed the works, with the church at St Newlyn East and Metha Woods along the way. Watch the railway crossing on the way round.

5. Lost Church and Perranporth dunes

• Location: Penhale Sands, Perranporth, near Newquay, North Cornwall coast
• Parking: Perranporth beach (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes. No stiles and usually no livestock. Dogs are allowed on Perranporth beach year-round, but must be on leads between Cotty’s Point and Perranporth and across the golf course.
• Café: The Watering Hole, on the beach
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Lost Church and Perranporth dunes
• Distance: 3.6 miles / 5.8 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: St Piran’s Oratory, St Piran’s Cross, remains of St Piran’s Church, Penhale Sands, Perranporth beach, spring and summer wildflowers

This is the walk built around the buried chapel. St Piran’s Oratory is thought to date from the early mediaeval period, a tiny Celtic-era chapel that was lost under the sand for nearly a thousand years before it was uncovered again. Near it stand St Piran’s Cross, believed to be over 1,000 years old, and the remains of the later St Piran’s Church. All of it sits in Penhale Sands, the tallest dunes in Britain and the largest in Cornwall. The route takes in the wide sweep of Perranporth beach too, and in spring and early summer the dunes are full of wildflowers. A saint, a lost church and the biggest dunes in the county in under four miles is a fair claim on the top spot.

Plan your walk

All five routes come from the iWalk Cornwall app. The directions are hand-written and paired with GPS guidance that warns you when you have wandered off course, and it all works offline with no phone signal, which matters out in the dunes at Perranporth and in the deeper woodland at Kennall Vale.

To say it again plainly, this is not a paid partnership. The app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play, and you buy the individual walks you want rather than paying a subscription. The full set now runs to more than 300 routes across the county, so this week’s five are barely the start of it.