It was a busy Autumn for Access in the Penwith Landscape Partnership. We were able to resume practical access tasks, with the end of the bird nesting season, the easing of lockdown restrictions (if only temporary), working in a covid-safe fashion.
Our team members and trained volunteers have carried out path clearance at Boscawen-ûn, Bartinney and Caer Bran, with the strimmers and the tractor.
At Caer Bran, we were working with the new landowners and the British Horse Society, to agree and open up an old path line around the hill fort, to enable horse riders to continue to cross the site whilst ensuring protection of the ancient monument. It was a particularly satisfying historic path line to clear (marked on the 1st edition OS), and we found that a ‘two phase approach’, clearing with the tractor first and then tidying up with the strimmers, left a particularly good finish!
At Bartinney we have started working with Cornwall Wildlife Trust Reserves and neighbouring landowners to restore some blocked Right of Way lines. We’ve also made a start cutting paths with the tractor up there. More to come on that in the new year hopefully. Alongside that, our Volunteer Co-Ordinator Nick has been hosting a group of students from the Duchy College. The group has carried out work on paths at Bartinney, Carn Glaze and the lane between Bartinney and Caer Bran.
(All these areas on our trail guide, here)
The main Wednesday/Thursday Volunteer Group worked on the track linking Geevor and Levant, clearing back accumulated scrub and vegetation from the path edges, which we then followed up with the strimmers. This substantial trackway was likely the main route between the two mining sites when they were active, and forms one of the key elements of delivery against the Tin Coast Partnership’s priorities for access. We are working with this partnership – particularly the National Trust and Geevor Tin Mine – to help deliver practical improvements to Rights of Way in the St Just Parish in the coming months.
Lined up for the new year we also have a contractor booked in to install a bridge over the stream on Footpath Madron 22, along with a few strategic stepping stones – below Lanyon Farm, leading towards Bosiliack Settlement (on this route). I’m very excited about getting this bit of work delivered; this footpath has been impassable for as long as I can remember! Just the other week we spent a morning with the strimmers here too - clearing the line of the path and the area around where the bridge will go.
Expect to see some more trail guides appearing on the website over the winter. During the summer a couple of volunteers surveyed all the planned trail routes, including the Tinners Way – I’ve got a lot of material with which to put together more guides – a bit of work to do during the inevitable south-westerly gales…
The map on this page shows all the routes we’ve done guides for so far, features of interest on those routes, as well as links to the various items of digital media we are gathering (virtual walks, 3D models of sites, 360 degree images etc). Expect much more to develop on this during the coming year!
