Circular Day Hiking St Ives to Carbis Bay in Cornwall

May 26, 2010

Circular Day Hiking St Ives To Carbis Bay Cornwall

Circular Day Hiking St Ives To Carbis Bay Cornwall was hike 1 of a Holiday Fellowship (HF) Holidays St Ives Cornwall hiking holiday I did with my partner Anne. We chose this day hiking as it was the harder hiking option with a distance of 10 miles and short ascents totalling 1300 feet.

If you cannot see video, click link to watch on YouTube –> St Ives & Carbis Bay Day Walk

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Route Description

The route was circular from St. Ives to Carbis Bay via Trencrom Hill and Lelant. Starting off from our accommodation, “Chy Morvah” meaning “house by the sea”, we travelled through open fields and beautiful woods to Knill’s Monument. We continued on up to the top of Trencrom Hill and then alongside the Hayle River to Lelant church. Whilst I was standing in the grounds of the church, a golf ball whizzed past my head. Shame I didn’t see the warning signs first. We returned to Chy Morvah by the coastal path over Carrack Gladden, a headland just north of Hayle Estuary, and down to Carbis Bay and then back to St Ives.

Circular Day Hiking St Ives To Carbis Bay Cornwall was a varied walk presenting farmlands, coastal paths over dunes (or towans) and headlands east of St Ives. The paths were good throughout but muddy patches are likely after wet weather. We also made use of short lengths of minor roads.

St. Ives To Carbis Bay Day Hiking Description

Knill’s Monument

Born in Callington, Cornwall on 1st January 1733, John Knill became a St Ives Collector of Customs from 1762-1782. At the age of 34 he became Mayor of the town in 1767. In 1782, John Knill decided to build his own mausoleum. He built a triangular pyramid made of granite that towers 50 feet high on Worvas Hill with fabulous views of Carbis Bay on a clear sunny day.

Each of the three sides has a different inscription: one side says “Resurgam” with John Knill’s Coat of Arms, and his Motto, “Nil desperandum”; the second says “I know that my Redeemer liveth” and the third says “Johannes Knill 1782″. There is a hollow and stone sarcophagus on one side the structure. Although he intended to be buried there, on 29th March 1811 he died in London and was subsequently buried at Holborn cemetery, which was severely bombed during the second world war.

Trencrom Hill

Trencrom Hill is an ancient Iron Age fort. Being located on a natural fortification on the peninsula of Land’s End, it overlooks a broad expanse of the Cornwall countryside. On the peak there is a granite outcrop from which we had stunning views over St. Ives and also in the direction St. Michaels’s Mount in Mounts Bay.

Lelant Church

Lelant church is medieval, built completely of granite and its graveyard contains some fine examples of granite Cornish crosses. It’s partly Norman, being restored in the 13th and 15th centuries. In the 6th century the Irish Saint Uny would also have been here. Lelant church is also associated with St Anta, from where it probably obtained its name. It is located between the village and the beach and next to the golf course

River Hayle

The River Hayle or “Hey” in Cornish, is a small river in west Cornwall which leads to Hayle on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall in St. Ives Bay. It’s about 12 miles long and travels south-west from the village of Crowan.

I did this hike with my partner Anne whilst on a St Ives Cornwall hiking holiday with HF Holidays (HF) in England during May 2010. The route was circular and we set off on foot from our HF Holidays accommodation named “Chy Morvah” in St. Ives.