west cornwall

Morvah is another minute place, with paths linking some of the most extraordinary prehistoric sites in Cornwall, as well as a rewarding stretch of coast path heading towards the abandoned mine workings near Pendeen.

The ancient sites can also be explored by starting at the phone box on the minor road that runs south-east to Madron. From here a track heads east uphill, passing Men an Tol, a ringed stone and two uprights (its purpose is obscure but it is said the act of crawling through the hole in the stone is a cure for rickets...).

Further up the hill, near the prominent hilltop ruin of Ding Dong Mine, is the Bronze Age Nine Maidens stone circle. This is gloriously open moorland, with views sweeping down to the sea, and most of the time you can pretty much count on having it all to yourself.

In the other direction from the phone box, walk through a farm and follow the path up to the summit of the hill which is ringed by the stone ramparts of Chun Castle, a remarkably well-preserved Iron Age hillfort that retains its entrance and stone outer wall; just to the west is a mushroom-shaped burial chamber known as Chun Quoit which predates it by several thousand years.

A mile or so further along the B3306 brings you to the Geevor Tin Mine at Pendeen, giving a good idea of the mining process. Tin was extracted here up until 1990 and you can look around the surface buildings as well as taking a guided tour underground. The coast path continues west through the ghostly wasteland of abandoned mine shafts and buildings of Levant Mine and past a steam pumping engine that the NT has restored to working order.