The five Cornwall walks everyone is doing this week

A walk that spent months closed by a collapsed riverbank has gone straight to the top of Cornwall’s most-walked list.

iWalk Cornwall has shared its most popular routes for the week, and the Hayle Valley circular from St Erth leads them. The path along the river had been shut after the bank gave way, with no sensible diversion available, and the walk was pulled from the app until the repairs were finished. It has only recently reopened. Clearly plenty of people had been waiting.

The rest of the list runs the length of the county, from the World Heritage valley at Luxulyan to the two highest points in Cornwall on Bodmin Moor, the creeks of the Helford and the mining coast out at Cape Cornwall.

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 section is the reason the walk was out of action for so long: the bank collapsed and there was no straightforward diversion, so the route was suspended until the repairs were done. It is open again now, which is the likeliest reason it has shot to the top of the list.

2. Luxulyan Valley circular

• Location: Luxulyan, near St Austell, Mid Cornwall
• Parking: Black Hill (Luxulyan Valley) car park, free (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes. No stiles and no fields with livestock on the route, which makes it one of the easier walks for dogs
• Café: None in the valley itself, so take a flask. Options in Luxulyan village
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Luxulyan Valley circular
• Distance: 3.4 miles / 5.5 km
• Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
• Highlights: Treffry Viaduct, Carmears wheelpit and inclined plane, the leats and horse-drawn tramways, Carmears Wood, World Heritage site

Walk Description: A loop through the World Heritage site of the Luxulyan Valley following the old leats and horse-drawn tramways. From the Black Hill car park it climbs to the Treffry Viaduct, which once carried the tramway towards Newquay, then traces the trackbed to the wheelpit where a 30ft waterwheel hauled wagons up the inclined plane. The route follows the leat that powered the Fowey Consols mine, cuts through Carmears Wood and the Velvet Path, then drops back along the river beneath the viaduct. There are two short climbs, one near the start and one approaching Trethevy Wood. Guidebooks were recommending it back in the 1920s as “one of the most glorious walks in all Cornwall”.

3. 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.

4. Helford and Frenchman’s Creek

• Location: Helford, near Helston, West Cornwall
• Parking: Helford village car park, above the village (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, with one stile, a flight of wooden steps, reported as tricky for larger dogs. Keep dogs on a lead just after Penarvon Beach, where there may be free-range chickens
• Café: A pub and café options in Helford village
• iWalk Cornwall Route: Helford and Frenchman’s Creek
• Distance: 3.8 miles / 6.1 km
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Highlights: Frenchman’s Creek, Helford River creekside woods, Penarvon Cove, Pengwedhen, Kestle Barton

Walk Description: A walk through the wooded valleys of the Helford River, taking in its most famous of all, Frenchman’s Creek. The creek is still as pristine as it was when it inspired the Daphne du Maurier novel of the same name. The short woodland loop at Pengwedhen includes a narrow path cut into a fairly steep bank, and the route passes Penarvon Cove and the old farmstead at Kestle Barton along the way.

5. St Just to Cape Cornwall

• Location: St Just, West Cornwall, England’s most westerly town
• Parking: Free car park at Lafrowda Close, St Just (confirm postcode)
• Dog-Friendly: Yes, and dogs are allowed all year at both Priest’s Cove and Porth Nanven. Some stiles are steps over walls, so dogs are likely to need help. Unfenced cliffs and old mine shafts, so keep them close
• Café: Cafés and pubs in St Just
• iWalk Cornwall Route: St Just to Cape Cornwall
• Distance: 3.7 miles / 6 km
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Highlights: Cape Cornwall and its chimney-stack monument, Priest’s Cove, the Brisons, medieval and prehistoric remains

Walk Description: A circular walk from St Just out to the rugged coast of England’s only Cape, topped by a monument fashioned from a mine chimney, passing medieval and prehistoric remains on the way. Cape Cornwall is where the Atlantic meets the Channel, and it is a wilder, quieter alternative to Land’s End a few miles down the coast. Below it sits Priest’s Cove, still a working fishery with huts built into the rock, and the jagged Brisons rocks a mile offshore. On a clear day the Isles of Scilly are visible from the headland.

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 on the parts of the moor and coast 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.