Saturday afternoon stroll down and around Caradon Hill

This post has been lurking unfinished for a few weeks but still worth putting it up.

As we were still in Covid incommunicado, mixing with too many other people was not on the agenda. But a Saturday Afternoon Stroll with Mrs P certainly was. So, it was off to Bodmin Moor. Just a few photographs for the record.

A circular route based on Minions and Caradon Hill, taking in the mines in the Gonamena and Marke Valleys. It worked out at 5.3 miles and was punctuated by tea and a snack at Trevallick's Tea Shop at Tokenbury Corner. We've done this walk many times but there's always something different to see.

On Xmas Eve last year, an electrical fault caused a fire that largely destroyed the Cheesewring Hotel  at Minions. It's sad to see the building in this state but there are plans to rebuild and reopen. Another sad building is the one below called Pointer’s Piece, pretty much at the start of the walk. We’ve passed it many times and it is deteriorating more and more.

The start of the River Seaton that runs into the sea at Seaton, the Cornish version. It's all of 11 miles long and because it runs through a mining district, the water is polluted with traces of aluminium and copper, leading to smaller populations of aquatic wildlife, from insects to fish.

Granite blocks forming the sleepers for inclined plane of the Liskeard and Caradon Mineral Railway. This was operated on a counterweight basis. Note the vibrant green of the moss covered walls of the cutting.

A footpath doubling up as a stream. Not as bad as we have seen it and easy enough to avoid by balancing along the top of the wall on the left.

The tunnel next to the engine house at Holman's Shaft at the South Caradon Mine. It probably carried a track for trucks dumping spoil on the nearby tip.

Around Caradon Hill and now on the north west side - the engine house associated with the Salisbury Shaft of the Marke Valley mine. Abandoned in the 1880s and unsuccessfully reworked a few times since then. This site is in private ownership and who knows what the plans are for its conservation. It deserves to be as it is a fascinating area and one that is usually deserted when we go there.

Overlooking the Marke Valley site, with the Salisbury stack on the right and the Bellingham stack on the left. This time of year is a good time to potter around these sites because the ferns have yet to grow and obscure the more subtle features.

At the top of the Marke Valley and the stack and engine house associated with Jenkin's Shaft. Iconic features of the landscape in these parts.