From Rough Tor to a lost garden: Cornwall’s most popular walks

Two granite moors, a valley of Victorian tramways, a fishing harbour and a creek that may have inspired a children’s classic. That’s the spread of places people chose to walk this week, and there isn’t a dud among them.

iWalk Cornwall has shared its most-walked routes for the week, which takes in half-term. The list runs from Bodmin Moor’s highest tors to the woods of the Luxulyan Valley, the coast at Mevagissey and the riverside at Lerryn, a good mix of Cornish walks for a late autumn weekend.

Every route here comes from the iWalk Cornwall app, which we rate highly. This isn’t a paid partnership. We like it because each walk comes with hand-written directions, GPS guidance and a bit of local history along the way. Distances and grades are a guide rather than a promise, and the practical notes below come from iWalk Cornwall’s own route pages.

1. Luxulyan Valley circular

• Location: Luxulyan Valley, near St Austell, Mid Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: Yes. No stiles and no fields with livestock on the route
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Luxulyan Valley circular
• Distance: 3.4 miles / 5.5 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: Treffry Viaduct, leats and horse-drawn tramways, broadleaf woodland, dragonflies and damselflies by the river

Walk Description: This circuit follows the old water channels and tramways through the Luxulyan Valley, part of Cornwall’s World Heritage site, to the Treffry Viaduct, which once carried the tramways towards Newquay. A huge waterwheel supplied the water used to winch trams up the valley. Guidebooks have been sending people here since the 1920s, and with no stiles and no livestock it’s an easy one to bring the dog on.

2. Rough Tor and Brown Willy

• Location: Bodmin Moor, North Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, with care. Two stiles on the way up Brown Willy, and the higher one is wired over, so dogs will need lifting. Sheep, cattle and ponies graze the open moor. Dogs on leads no longer than 2m from 1 March to 31 July for ground-nesting birds
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Rough Tor and Brown Willy
• Distance: 5.2 miles / 8.4 km
• Difficulty: Moderate-strenuous
• Highlights: Roughtor, Brown Willy, Showery Tor, Fernacre Stone Circle, Stannon Lake, Bronze Age hut circles

Walk Description: The toughest walk on this week’s list, and the highest. It climbs Roughtor, the moor’s most rugged and recognisable tor, then crosses to Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall. Expect granite boulders near the summits and on the way down into the valley between the tors, and boggy ground even in summer, so boots are a must. The reward is panoramic views and a landscape scattered with Neolithic cairns and Bronze Age hut circles.

3. Minions and the Cheesewring

• Location: Minions, Bodmin Moor, near Liskeard, South East Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: Yes. No stiles. Sheep and ponies graze the moor, and dogs should be on leads no longer than 2m from 1 March to 31 July
• Café: A café is marked on the route page
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Minions and the Cheesewring
• Distance: 4.1 miles / 6.6 km
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Highlights: The Hurlers stone circles, the Cheesewring, Stowe’s Pound, Daniel Gumb’s House, Rillaton Barrow, Phoenix United mine engine houses, Henwood

Walk Description: Minions packs a lot into four miles. The route passes the Hurlers stone circles before a rocky climb to the Cheesewring, the weather-sculpted stack of granite on Stowe’s Hill. Nearby is Daniel Gumb’s House, with its geometry carvings in the rock. Engine houses from the Phoenix United and South Phoenix mines add an industrial chapter. The open moor can be hard to follow in places, and iWalk suggests keeping the app’s map screen handy.

4. Mevagissey to Portmellon

• Location: Mevagissey, Mid Cornwall
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, with care. Dogs are likely to need lifting over a couple of stiles, and Portmellon beach has seasonal dog restrictions
• Café: Cafés in Mevagissey, plus The Fountain Inn, The Kings Arms, The Rising Sun Inn, The Sharksfin and The Ship Inn on or near the route
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Mevagissey to Portmellon
• Distance: 3.4 miles / 5.4 km
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Highlights: Mevagissey harbour and quays, views from Polkirt Hill, West Bodrugan Wood Nature Reserve, Portmellon, Mevagissey Church

Walk Description: The one coastal walk on this week’s list starts in the fishing port of Mevagissey and heads into the Portmellon Valley, through the West Bodrugan Woods nature reserve, to the beachside village of Portmellon, where boats have been built for hundreds of years and still are. The views back over Mevagissey harbour from Polkirt Hill are worth the climb. As with most coastal walks in Cornwall, some paths run close to unfenced cliffs.

5. Lerryn River and Tivoli lost gardens

• Location: Lerryn, near Lostwithiel, South East Cornwall
• Parking: Creek-side car park, which can be affected by high tides, so check tide times first
• Dog-Friendly: Yes. Only one stile, a very low stone one that dogs are unlikely to struggle with
• Café: A café is marked on the route page, and The Ship Inn is on or near the route
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Lerryn River and Tivoli lost gardens
• Distance: 3.7 miles / 5.9 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: Creek views, ancient oaks in Ethy Wood, the lost gardens of Tivoli Park, Lerryn Bridge, the stepping stones, the lime kilns

Walk Description: A woodland and riverside walk that’s thought to have inspired The Wind in the Willows. It follows the creeks through mature broadleaf woods and ancient oaks to Tivoli Park, where the remains of lost pleasure gardens, including arches, a fountain and a bandstand, are still there to find. Stepping stones cross the river along the way, and a longer version carries on through Ethy Wood to St Winnow.

Plan your walk

All five routes are in the iWalk Cornwall app, with hand-written directions and GPS guidance that warns you if you stray off route. It works offline with no signal, which matters on the open moor. Again, this isn’t a paid partnership, just an app we use and recommend. It’s free to download from the App Store and Google Play, and you buy the individual walks you want.

The full set runs to more than 300 routes across the county, so next week’s list could look completely different.