Cornwall’s highest ground makes this week’s top five walks

Some of Cornwall’s oldest ground doesn’t sit on the coast at all. It rises out of the middle of the county, granite piled on granite, weather-sculpted into shapes that look deliberate even though nothing built them. Walkers have been climbing it for thousands of years, long enough to leave cairns, hut circles and a holy well scattered across the slopes. It’s also, this week, one of the five most popular routes on iWalk Cornwall.

iWalk Cornwall has shared its most-walked routes for the week, and this one takes in a Hayle valley steeped in wildlife, a Saxon village with an award-winning pub, and Cornwall’s two highest points, alongside two very different routes through the same stretch of river.

Every route below comes from the iWalk Cornwall app, which we rate highly here at CornishStuff (this isn’t a paid partnership, we just think it’s a genuinely useful way to explore the county). Each walk comes with hand-written, regularly updated directions, GPS guidance that keeps you on track, and local history woven into the route itself. 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, near Hayle, West Cornwall
• Parking: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes. No stiles on this route, just cattle-grid-style coffin stiles, and only three fields to cross in total
• Café: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page; Guy’s Butterfly House sits on the route but pre-booking is recommended if you want to visit)
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Hilary and Hayle Valley
• Distance: 5.4 miles/8.7 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: Wildlife along the Hayle river and ponds, St Hilary Church, the option to visit Guy’s Butterfly House

This circular route follows the Hayle river valley out to St Hilary church, through a stretch of countryside that used to be barren industrial land and has since grown back into woodland, heath, lakes and streams. Recommended footwear is waterproof boots even in summer, since the ground here holds water. It’s currently the single most popular route on iWalk Cornwall this week.

2. Blisland to Lavethan Wood

• Location: Blisland, near Bodmin, on the edge of Bodmin Moor
• Parking: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page)
• Dog-Friendly: Mostly. Dogs are likely to need help over the stile at Cock’s Penrose, and large dogs may struggle through the last stile leaving Lavethan Wood
• Café: The Blisland Inn (pub, on the route) – CAMRA National Pub of the Year winner
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Blisland to Lavethan Wood
• Distance: 2.7 miles/4.4 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: Ancient woodland with spring bluebells, wildflowers along the lanes, an ornate 15th century church, a medieval holy well, the Saxon village of Blisland

A short loop from Blisland’s village green through the churchyard and two stretches of the Woodland Trust’s Lavethan Wood, over land that was once part of the Lavethan and Barlandew manor estates. One field currently holds a dense maize crop, so expect a bit of an Indiana Jones moment pushing through it until mid-October.

3. Hayle Valley from St Erth

• Location: St Erth, near Hayle, West Cornwall
• Parking: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, mostly. Only one stile on the whole route, which most dogs manage easily. Livestock is unlikely since the fields crossed are normally used for crops, though there are some free-range chickens
• Café: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page)
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Hayle Valley from St Erth
• Distance: 3.5 miles/5.6 km
• Difficulty: Easy-moderate
• Highlights: Dragonflies, damselflies and herons along the river, views over the valley from Porthcollum, the church and historic village of St Erth

A circular walk from St Erth along the River Hayle, thick with wildflowers through spring and summer, climbing to views over a valley that was once a lagoon separating an island of West Penwith from the rest of Cornwall. The riverside path narrows in places due to erosion, so mind your footing close to the water.

4. St Erth, River and Pits

• Location: St Erth, near Hayle, West Cornwall
• Parking: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page)
• Dog-Friendly: Mostly. Three wooden stiles of varying difficulty, plus a stone stile on a 4ft wall with footholds that some dogs will need lifting over
• Café: The Star Inn (pub, on or near the route)
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Erth, River and Pits
• Distance: 3.2 miles/5.2 km
• Difficulty: Easy
• Highlights: Wildflowers and wildlife along the Hayle river, views from Porthcollum, St Erth Pits nature reserve, the church and historic village of St Erth

A close cousin of the Hayle Valley route above, taking in the same river and woods but swinging back past St Erth Pits nature reserve, a former clay pit now looked after by Cornwall Wildlife Trust. The easiest-graded walk on this week’s list, and the shortest.

5. Rough Tor and Brown Willy

• Location: Bodmin Moor, near Camelford and St Breward, North Cornwall
• Parking: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page)
• Dog-Friendly: Mostly. Two stiles on the ascent to Brown Willy, the higher one wired-over so dogs need lifting. Sheep, cattle and ponies graze the open moor, and dogs must be on leads no longer than 2m between 1 March and 31 July
• Café: (confirm before publishing – not specified on the route page)
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Rough Tor and Brown Willy
• Distance: 5.2 miles/8.4 km
• Difficulty: Moderate-strenuous
• Highlights: Roughtor, Bodmin Moor’s most rugged and iconic tor, weather-sculpted granite on Showery Tor, panoramic summit views, Neolithic cairns and stone circles, Brown Willy (the highest point in Cornwall), Bronze Age hut circles and field systems

A mostly circular walk taking in Cornwall’s two highest tors, past prehistoric remains including a holy well, summit cairns and ancient settlements. There are granite boulders to negotiate near Roughtor’s summit and in the valley between the two tors, and the ground stays marshy even in summer, so proper walking boots are the recommendation here regardless of the season. This week it’s the most demanding walk on the list, and the one with the biggest view at the top.

Plan your walk

None of this needs a paper map folded the wrong way in the wind. The iWalk Cornwall app gives you hand-written directions for each route, GPS guidance that beeps when there’s a turn coming and warns you if you stray off-route, and it works offline once downloaded, no signal needed, which matters both in the dunes and out on the open moor. This is not a paid partnership, we just rate the app.

It’s free to download from the App Store and Google Play, and you buy the individual walks you fancy rather than a subscription. The full library runs to more than 300 routes across the county, with new ones added and old ones kept updated as paths and landmarks change.