- Distance:5.5 miles
- Walk grade:Moderate
- Start from:Boscastle
Highlights
- Boscastle Harbour
- Cliff scenery around Trevalga
- Scenery at Rocky valley
- St Piran's well and chapel at Trethevy
- Trevalga village and church
- Forrabury common and church
Directions
- From the car park in Boscastle, head down to the harbour and cross the bridge onto the left side of the river
- Take the track opposite the bridge and the path from this to join the coast path
- Follow the path out onto the headland where there are excellent views of Boscastle
- Follow the coast path west over Forrabury Common passing the inlet of Eastern Blackapit, the coastguard lookout on Willapark headland and the Western Blackapit inlet on the other side of Willapark.
- Continue on the path along the rocky coast and down into the valley at Grower Gut
- The coast path then climbs onto the cliff overlooking Grower Rock and proceeds to Trevalga
- Carry on along the coast path over Firebeacon Hill passing The Lady's Window, Short Island, Long Island and Saddle Rocks.
- Follow the path around the edge of Trewethet Gut past the campsite and down into Rocky Valley
- Cross the bridge and take the path heading up the valley to your left
- The path comes out at Trevillet Mill and the public footpath runs up their drive to the main road
- Turn left on the main road and being careful of traffic walk a short distance round the bend and up the hill to Trethevy. Where you see the waterfall sign you can cut in off the main road onto the next right which is a residential road which runs parallel with the main road.
- A few metres back towards Tintagel along the main road from where the residential road rejoins it is an entrance to a caravan park. On the left of this is King Arthur's Quoit.
- A little further along the main road towards Boscastle (past where the residential road rejoins the main road) is a public footpath. Take this.
- The path comes out on a track. Follow this towards the church at Trevalga.
- Have a wander round Trevalga and have a look at the many old buildings then make your way back to the church.
- From the church gate, follow the track that the church is on East under a tree and onto the road.
- Take the footpath on the opposite side of the road into the fields
- Follow the footpath across the fields to Welltown Manor and follow their drive out onto the main road
- Turn left along the road. After a short distance a lane runs left to Forrabury. Take this.
- The lane ends in a T junction. Head left towards the church and follow the lane past the church and downhill to join the main boscastle road
- Walk down the hill back into Boscastle
- The Cobweb Inn, opposite the car park - previously a wine cellar and flour store dating from the late 1600s, it has traditionally always had cobwebs hung from the roof beams. Apparently this was thought to keep flies off stored wines and spirits.
- The Wellington Hotel (aka "the welly") is the old village coaching inn, across the road from the Harbour. Some parts of the building are 4 centuries old, but most dates from 1853 when travellers to the area increased. It was once called the Bos Castle Hotel, but was renamed on the death of Duke Wellington in 1852. It has Folk music on wednesday nights
- The Napoleon Inn is Boscastle's oldest pub (built in the 16th Century) and is set up on the hill at the back of Boscastle. It was a recruiting office during the Napoleonic wars. The landlord joined up with Wellington to go to Waterloo and so was called 'Napoleon man' on his return - hence the name of his pub.
From Tudor times until the early 20th Century, Cornwall's pilchard fisheries were of national importance, with the bulk of the catch being exported to Italy (Cornish pilchards were a staple ingredient of spaghetti alla puttanesca). The pilchards were salted and then pressed to extract the oil (which was a valuable by-product) then packed with more salt into hogshead barrels. Huers (cliff top lookouts) helped locate shoals of fish. The huer would shout 'Hewa!, Hewa!' to alert the boats to the location of the pilchard shoals. Cornish tradition states that Hewa cake was baked by the huers on their return to their homes, the cake being ready by the time the crews returned to land.
The steep Valency valley acted as a funnel for the dramatic flash flood in 2004 that put Boscastle on (and nearly wiped it off) the map which is thought to have been caused by the Brown Willy effect. Over 1.4 billion litres of rain fell in the course of 2 hours. Around 50 cars were swept into the harbour, the bridge was washed away and roads were submerged under 9ft of water. A total of 91 people were rescued in the largest peacetime rescue operation ever launched in the UK.
The entire village of Trevalga is owned by Marlborough College - a public school in Wiltshire. It was left in trust so that the village and parish would remain unspoiled for future generations. Consequently there are a number of original old slate buildings that have remained unchanged for many decades. In 2010, the college was told that it was breaking charity law by owning a hamlet, and thereafter placed the entire estate on the market causing uproar amongst the tenants, and became know as "The Battle of Trevalga" featuring in the national news and a radio 4 documentary. The legality of the sale is being disputed by the Trustees and Tenants of the estate and the sale has been suspended until this is resolved.
The coastline around Trevalga is particularly spectacular with a number of rock stacks which provide homes for seabird colonies, including Long Island which is one of the last remaining atlantic puffin nesting places in Cornwall. On a headland next to coast path there is a rock arch known as The Lady's Window which you can walk through.
Rocky Valley has been formed by the Trevillet river carving its way through the slate bedrock and was mentioned in travel books as a place of exceptional beauty as early as 1897. The river cascades through woodland before opening out into a canyon which meets the coast.
About half way down Rocky Valley there is the ruin of Trewethet Mill and monastery. Next to this are some labyrinthine stone carvings, the age of which is unknown (some historians think they could be as early as bronze age, others think they are much more recent).
There are 2 geocaches in Rocky Valley courtesy of Vodor and Scorsby:
About 10 mins walk along the main road towards Boscastle from Rocky Valley, just at the top of the hill is Trethevy with the mediaeval St Piran's Chapel and old well (follow the signs to the waterfall). The path signposted to the waterfall leads on to St Nectan's Glen.
The entire village of Trevalga is owned by Marlborough College - a public school in Wiltshire. It was left in trust so that the village and parish would remain unspoiled for future generations. Consequently there are a number of original old slate buildings that have remained unchanged for many decades. In 2010, the college was told that it was breaking charity law by owning a hamlet, and thereafter placed the entire estate on the market causing uproar amongst the tenants, and became know as "The Battle of Trevalga" featuring in the national news and a radio 4 documentary. The legality of the sale is being disputed by the Trustees and Tenants of the estate and the sale has been suspended until this is resolved.
You'll notice that there is lichen growing on many of the headstones in the churchyard. Of the 2000 British species, over a third have been found in churchyards and more than 600 have been found growing on churchyard stone in lowland England. Almost half the species are rare and some seldom if ever occur in other habitats. Many churchyards are found to have well over 100 species.
Lichens are a partnership of two different organisms: a fungus providing the "accomodation" and an alga or cyanobacterium providing the "food" through photosynthesis. The fungal partner provides a cosy, sheltered environment for the alga and tends its with mineral nutrients. However the alga partner is more than simply an imprisoned food-slave: it is such a closely evolved alliance that the fungus is dependant on it for shape and structure. If the fungal partner is isolated and grown on an agar plate it forms a shapeless, infertile blob.
Boscastle has 3 pubs, each with a lot of character:
