Cornwall’s highest ground leads this week’s top walks

There is one patch of Cornwall where you can stand higher than anywhere else in the county, and this week it is the walk everyone wants. Two granite tors rise out of Bodmin Moor, weathered into stacks by wind and rain since before anyone was counting, and the highest of the pair tops out at 420 metres. It leads iWalk Cornwall’s five most-walked routes for the week.

iWalk Cornwall has shared its most popular walks for the week, and this list takes in a Bodmin Moor high point, a Neolithic stone circle at Minions, a river valley church near Hayle, a quiet Wetherham manor walk from St Tudy, and ancient woodland beside the Giant’s Hedge at Looe.

Every route comes from the iWalk Cornwall app, which we rate highly. This is not a paid partnership. We just think it is a genuinely useful way to explore the county, with hand-written directions, GPS guidance that warns you if you wander off-route, and local history built into every walk. Distances and grades below are a guide rather than a promise, and the practical notes come from iWalk Cornwall’s own route pages.

1. St Hilary and Hayle Valley

• Location: St Hilary parish, near Relubbus and Tregembo, West Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: yes, the only stiles are cattle-grid-style coffin stiles, and there are just three fields on the whole route, two on the way to the church and a small one after the butterfly house
• Café: none directly on the route, though Guy’s Butterfly House (pre-booking recommended) can be visited along the way
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Hilary and Hayle Valley
• Distance: 5.4 miles / 8.7 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: St Hilary Church, wildlife along the Hayle river and its ponds, the lake near Tregembo, Guy’s Butterfly House

Walk Description: A circular walk out to St Hilary church along the Hayle river valley, tracing ground that was once barren from mining and has since grown back into woodland, heath, lakes and streams. Waterproof boots are worth packing even in summer, since the bridleway partway round can turn waterlogged through the winter months.

2. Rough Tor and Brown Willy

• Location: Bodmin Moor, near Camelford, North Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: yes, but with two stiles on the climb to Brown Willy. The first is easier and sits beside a gate. The higher one is wired-over and dogs will need lifting over. Sheep, cattle and ponies graze the open moor, so dogs go on a lead no more than 2m long between 1 March and 31 July
• Café: none on the moor itself; walking boots are recommended as the ground stays marshy even in summer
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Rough Tor and Brown Willy
• Distance: 5.2 miles / 8.4 km
• Difficulty: Moderate-strenuous
• Highlights: Rough Tor, weather-sculpted granite on Showery Tor, Brown Willy summit (the highest point in Cornwall), a holy well, summit cairns, Bronze Age hut circles and field systems

Walk Description: A mostly circular walk to Cornwall’s two highest tors, taking in prehistoric remains along the way including a holy well, summit cairns and old settlements. Granite boulders need negotiating, particularly near Rough Tor’s summit and when descending into the valley between the two tors.

3. Minions and the Cheesewring

• Location: Minions, Bodmin Moor, near Liskeard
• Dog-Friendly: yes, there are no stiles on this route. Sheep and ponies graze the open moor, so dogs go on a lead no more than 2m long between 1 March and 31 July
• Café: yes, on or near the route
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Minions and the Cheesewring
• Distance: 3.8 miles / 6.8 km
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Highlights: The Hurlers stone circles, the Cheesewring and other tors on Stowe’s Hill, panoramic views across Bodmin Moor, engine houses of the Phoenix United and South Phoenix mines, pretty woods and countryside around Henwood

Walk Description: A circular walk around the landmarks at Minions, climbing Stowe’s Hill to the balanced granite of the Cheesewring and crossing a Neolithic walled enclosure before dropping to the engine houses of two old copper mines. The route crosses an embankment of loose rock on top of Stowe’s Hill, and the open moorland can be tricky to navigate from written directions alone, so the app’s map screen is worth leaning on.

4. St Tudy to Wetherham

• Location: St Tudy, near Wadebridge, North Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: mostly, though dogs will need lifting over one stile. Most of the others should be manageable, and dogs need to be on leads through the playground
• Café: the 17th century St Tudy Inn sits on the route
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Tudy to Wetherham
• Distance: 2.4 miles / 3.9 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: stained glass in the 15th century Church of St Tudy, woodland around Wetherham with bluebells in spring, historic Wetherham Manor, winding country lanes, the St Tudy Inn

Walk Description: A circular countryside walk from the 15th century church at St Tudy through the grounds of the 18th century Manor of Wetherham, returning to the church’s old alehouse, which once sold ale brewed to raise funds and later became the village lock-up known as The Clink. The path near the end can get overgrown with nettles in summer, so a stick or pole is worth carrying.

5. Kilminorth Woods and the Giant’s Hedge

• Location: Looe, Southeast Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: yes, there is one stile, next to a gate that is normally open with a gap beside it, and no fields with livestock on the route
• Café: none directly on the route
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Kilminorth Woods and the Giant’s Hedge
• Distance: 3.1 miles / 4.9 km
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Highlights: river wildlife including herons, egrets and kingfishers, mature broadleaf woodland with squirrels and chestnuts, views over the West Looe River, the 6th century Giant’s Hedge

Walk Description: A woodland walk alongside the West Looe River, following part of the route of the Giant’s Hedge, a wall from the Dark Ages that once ran ten miles from Looe to Lerryn and is thought to have marked the border of a Cornish kingdom. Some sections were stone-faced and stood as high as sixteen feet in Victorian times. The woodland paths can turn slippery after wet weather.

Plan your walk

Every one of these comes with hand-written directions, GPS guidance that warns you the moment you stray off-route, and local history that adjusts to whatever season you’re walking in. Once a walk is downloaded, the app keeps working with no phone or wifi signal, which matters on the open moor around Rough Tor and Minions as much as it does in the woods at Kilminorth.

It is not a paid partnership, we just rate the app. It’s free to download from the App Store and Google Play, and you only pay for the individual walks you want to do. The full set runs to more than 300 routes across the county, so this week’s five are only the start.