Portreath Break: April 2015: Part 3

A shorter walk today but one that filled in a gap on the length from Newquay to St Ives. Just over four miles, starting in Porthtowan and ending in Portreath. Guess what? Another sunny day, no rain, no mud, no heavy raingear to wear - we could get used to this. In fact, the weather forecast is good for the rest of our week down here.

After our customary refreshments (we like to help the local economy by supporting coffee shops whenever we can), it was a bit of a scramble up the footpath from the beach.

Did I say beach? Here's the first of the day - Porthtowan Beach, looking due east.

Same spot, looking west. Those with keen eyes will be able to make out the white point of the lighthouse at Godrevy (far right in the far distance).

 

A large part of the walk is close to the perimeter fence of the Nancekuke MOD property. Some say that the fence is a distraction but we didn't find it so. We were looking seawards rather than inland. 

This was an area of intense mining activity in days of yore. In the foreground is the capped shaft of Wheal Kitty. It is, as are many of the old mine shafts, home to many varieties of bat. On the cliffs in the distance you can just make out the engine houses and stacks of the mines on the cliffs close to St Agnes. It won't be too long before this part of the world is marketed as 'Poldark Country'. Bits and pieces turn up in the new series which is a jigsaw of locations all done up to look like West Cornwall.

There were a few steep ups and downs on this walk. Here we are going down and then up Sally's Bottom. Yes, really. Bottom in this context is an old mining term and why pass up on a double entendre?

I mentioned the MOD at Nancekuke. One time an airstrip for RAF Coastal Command in WWII and then an outpost of the Microbiological and Chemical Warfare Research Laboratory based at Porton Down in Wiltshire. Strongly rumoured to be the site of the manufacture and stockpiling of such sweetmeats as Sarin and other mustard gases. I'm wondering whether this structure has anything to do with this.

Is this the most isolated bus stop in Cornwall? We waited three hours for a 547 bus but nothing turned up.

Another up and down. Not as bad as it looks. The MOD fence can be seen to the left of the path.

A not-very-good photograph of a male (on the left) and female (on the right) stone chat. Not very good, perhaps, but I was pleased to get them both in one shot. Not planned, of course, it just turned out that way.

 

Another not-so-good photograph but this is significant as it is the first butterfly shot I've taken this year. It's a Red Admiral, probably one that overwintered, and it lead me a merry dance before it stopped for long enough for me to take just one shot.

It's not often that we come across reptiles and here's a slow worm wriggling across our path.

Our destination: the beach at Portreath.

It's hard to believe that for several years either side of 1800, Portreath was the largest copper exporting port in the world. There was a series of inner harbours providing shelter for the ore carrying ships (most of the copper was smelted in South Wales - copper out and coal back). The new houses in the middle were built on what used to the ore wharves and, if you look carefully for the diagonal line in the background, you can just make out the inclined plane that brought ore down in trucks from the surrounding mines.

A short drive and we had a beach-side coffee at Trevaunance Cove near St Agnes (more support for the local economy!). A nice beach but spoilt by the number of off-lead dogs there were running around. I counted 15 roaming at one time and I think 7 of these are captured in this photograph. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy but it shouldn't be like this.