A lost church in the dunes leads Cornwall’s most popular walks

Hidden in the tallest sand dunes in Britain is a church that lay buried for the best part of a thousand years. The walk that reaches it is one of the five most popular in Cornwall this week.

iWalk Cornwall has shared its most-walked routes for the week. Alongside the lost church at Perranporth, the list takes in the highest ground in the county on Bodmin Moor, two riverside loops at St Erth and a quiet valley walk near Newquay.

Every route below comes from the iWalk Cornwall app, which we rate highly. It is not a paid partnership. We just think it is the best way to follow a Cornish route, with hand-written directions, GPS guidance and a wealth of local history packed into each walk. Distances and grades are a guide rather than a promise, and the practical notes come from iWalk Cornwall’s own route pages.

1. Hayle Valley from St Erth

• Location: St Erth, near Hayle, West Cornwall
• Parking: Car park opposite St Erth parish church (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, and a good one in summer, being shady with river access for a cooling dip. There are stiles on the route, including steps over walls, so smaller or less athletic dogs may need a hand
• Café: Options in St Erth and nearby Hayle
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Hayle Valley from St Erth
• Distance: 3.5 miles / 5.6 km
• Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
• Highlights: River Hayle riverbank, spring and summer wildflowers, Trennack Mill, views over the Hayle valley

Walk Description: A circular walk from St Erth along the River Hayle, lined with wildflowers in spring and summer, returning with views over the Hayle valley. That valley was once a lagoon, separating an island of West Penwith from the Cornish mainland. The riverbank path here was closed for a long spell after the bank collapsed, with no straightforward diversion, and reopened not long ago, which is likely why it keeps appearing near the top of the list.

2. Rough Tor and Brown Willy

• Location: Bodmin Moor, near Camelford, North Cornwall
• Parking: Rough Tor car park, at the end of Roughtor Road near Camelford, free (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, but with two stiles on the climb to Brown Willy. The first is easier and 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, nearest in Camelford. Wear waterproof boots, as the ground is 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, Showery Tor, Brown Willy summit, holy well, summit cairns, prehistoric settlements

Walk Description: A mostly circular walk to Cornwall’s two highest tors, passing prehistoric remains along the way including a holy well, summit cairns and old settlements. Brown Willy is the highest point in the county at 420 metres, just 20 metres taller than Rough Tor, and its name is a distortion of the Cornish Bronn Wennili, meaning “hill of swallows”. There are granite boulders to clamber over near the summit of Rough Tor and in the dip between the tors, and the moor is exposed and often boggy underfoot, so waterproof boots and the app’s map are both worth having.

3. Lost Church and Perranporth dunes

• Location: Perranporth, near Newquay, North Cornwall
• Parking: Perran Sands, off the road towards Goonhavern above the golf club (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, no stiles, and dogs are allowed all year at Perranporth beach. Keep them on a lead on the stretch of beach between Cotty’s Point and Perranporth, and across the golf course. Usually no livestock on the route, though there are paths close to unfenced cliff edges
• Café: Cafés and pubs in Perranporth
• 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, the remains of St Piran’s Church, Penhale Sands, Perranporth beach and coast path

Walk Description: A circular walk across the highest dune system in Britain to a chapel dating from Celtic times that lay lost in the sand for nearly a thousand years. The route starts across flat grass to St Piran’s Cross, thought to be over 1,000 years old, and the remains of St Piran’s Church, before crossing the undulating dunes to St Piran’s Oratory, believed to date from the early medieval period. It then joins the coast path along Penhale Sands, drops onto the beach and turns inland across the golf course to finish. The dunes are hard to read from directions alone, so this is one where the app’s map screen earns its keep.

4. St Erth, River and Pits

• Location: St Erth, near Hayle, West Cornwall
• Parking: Car park opposite St Erth parish church (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, but with a good number of stiles. Most dogs can squeeze through the first wooden stile, the second can often be bypassed via a gate, and most will need help with the third. One stone stile is a 4ft wall with a foothold, which athletic dogs may manage but others will need a lift over
• Café: Options in St Erth and nearby Hayle
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Erth, River and Pits
• Distance: 3.2 miles / 5.2 km
• Difficulty: Easy
• Highlights: River Hayle, St Erth Pits nature reserve, Porthcollum, woods and fields, views over the Hayle valley

Walk Description: A circular walk from St Erth along the River Hayle, through woods and fields to Porthcollum, then returning past the St Erth Pits nature reserve. The Pits are geologically important, and the walk gives views over the Hayle valley that was once a lagoon, back when West Penwith was an island. It is the easiest walk on this week’s list, though there are a fair few stiles to negotiate.

5. Mawgan Porth to St Mawgan

• Location: Mawgan Porth, near Newquay, North Cornwall
• Parking: Mawgan Porth beach car park (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, and dogs are allowed all year at Mawgan Porth beach. Only one stile, which most large dogs can get over and small ones under, with accessible streams for a drink at roughly one-mile intervals. Some stretches ask for dogs on leads, and three fields sometimes contain cows
• Café: The Falcon Inn and café options in St Mawgan
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Mawgan Porth to St Mawgan
• Distance: 4.3 miles / 6.9 km
• Difficulty: Easy
• Highlights: Vale of Lanherne, River Menalhyl, St Mawgan village, the 800-year-old cloistered convent at Lanherne

Walk Description: A mostly circular walk from Mawgan Porth along the Vale of Lanherne, following the River Menalhyl inland to the village of St Mawgan and returning past the 800-year-old cloistered convent at Lanherne, where the sanctuary light has been burning for hundreds of years. It is a gentle, varied route of woods, fields, rivers and country lanes, well away from the crowds on the coast just down the road.

Plan your walk

By following the routes on the iWalk Cornwall app you get hand-written directions, GPS guidance that warns you if you wander off-route, and a wealth of local history along the way. Once a walk is downloaded it keeps working with no phone or wifi signal, which matters in the dunes and out on the moor where the bars on your phone vanish.

As we said, this is not a paid partnership. We just rate it. The app is 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 wherever you are, there is almost certainly one within reach.