Visit - A9 Caradon Mining District

A9 Caradon Mining District - Ranndir Balweyth Bre Garn 

Big skies, boom and bust 

This rugged, windswept and mostly treeless Area sits high up in a remote but beautiful corner of Bodmin Moor. Surrounded by gorse, wildlife and mining settlements the engine houses stand stark against the open moorland. Rising dramatically from the surrounding plain, the granite dome of Caradon Hill dominates the Area and is encircled by engine houses, chimney stacks, thousands of tonnes of waste rock from the various mines and quarries, and the trackbed of the Liskeard & Caradon Railway. 

‘The remoteness of the Area means it is a wonderful place to escape the crowds’.

The Caradon Mining District is Area A9 of the World Heritage Site and take the train to Liskeard to start your exploration of a landscape shaped by the copper boom between the 1840s to 1890s. 

Explore Liskeard – the Gateway town to the Caradon Mining District. Many of the buildings in the town were financed by the wealth of the copper boom. Liskeard Museum is a great place to start, and you will also find the town’s Tourist Information Centre in the same building where you will find lots of resources to help you explore the town and further afield - https://liskeardmuseum.com/

Take the train to Liskeard, walk to the town centre and then hop on the 74 bus from Liskeard town centre and head to the heart of Area A9 to explore the dramatic mining landscape around Caradon Hill. You can alight at Tokenbury Corner and head straight onto the hill or if you are looking for a walking route, download the i-Walk Cornwall walk for Minions and Caradon Hill and adapt the starting point to Crows Nest to pick up the walk there - https://www.iwalkcornwall.co.uk/walk/minions_and_caradon_hill

For the more adventurous, download the Caradon Trail leaflet and discover the rich heritage of the area and its connection with Liskeard and beyond. This takes a little more pre-planning but you can base your walk around the route of the 74 bus - https://www.visitliskeard.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Caradon-Trail-Leaflet-2.pdf

For train times - https://www.gwr.com/ 

For bus times - https://www.transportforcornwall.co.uk/