02 CORNWALL TINTAGEL & TREBARWITH STRAND

■Distance: 9 miles/14.4km ■Time: 6 hours ■Grade: Challenging

■OS Explorer map 111 ■Buy maps at: ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop

SEE FEATURE ON PAGE 52

CHOSEN BY… ROBERT HESKETH

This stimulating route has some of North Cornwall’s most spectacular scenery, plus Tintagel Castle and Rocky Valley with its waterfalls and gorges. A natural defensive site, Tintagel may have been an Iron Age cliff castle. Certainly, it was intensively occupied during the fifth to seventh centuries, when it was a major trading centre. It declined for 500 years until Richard Earl of Cornwall (Henry III’s brother) developed the defences, but found they had little strategic value. Thus Tintagel Castle decayed until the Victorian fascination with Arthurian legend brought visitors in large numbers. Be sure not to miss the labyrinth pattern rock carvings beside Trewethett Mill (Point 7). Whether they are Bronze Age or less than 300 years old is disputed. Either way, they attract votive offerings.

1 Start

Turn L out of car park. After 65m, turn R signed ‘Coastpath’. Bear L over bridge to explore castle.

2 1 mile/1.5km

Exit by Coast Path south. Divert to ancient church St Materiana. Follow Coast Path along slate cliffs, intensively quarried for 600 years. Impressive workings remain.

3 3½ miles/5.4km

Follow lane inland from Trebarwith Strand. Take footpath at far end of second (council owned) car park. Cross stream and head up hillside, following footpath towards Treknow. At path junction, continue ahead over stile through field. Go through gate. Walk past row of cottages on L.

4 4 miles/6.5km

At T-junction, turn R past Briar Cottage, then L uphill at another T-junction. Turn R opposite Atlantic Close into public footpath. Cross three stiles. Continue 100m into next field and turn L over stile. Bear R across field to another stile near top R corner. Cross road and