The more we walk through the landscape of Penwith, the more important the Tinners’ Way appears to be. It stretches from Cape Cornwall to either Carbis Bay/St Ives or Ludgvan/Marazion – or vice versa if you prefer. It appears to have been used of centuries and to walk along it is literally to walk through history: from Neolithic times to the Iron Age. To us, the Tinners’ Way is Penwith’s answer to the Sacred Valley in Peru which follows the Urabamba river past the staggering Ollyantaytambo giving access to Machu Picchu. Every step brings something new, some new story.

We first walked it back in 2013 when we relied on the description given in Belerion, the wonderful book by Craig Weatherill. Here he talks about the ancient trackways of West Penwith and, in particular, the Old Land’s End Road (Vounder Gogglas) which goes from Penzance to Land’s End; and the Old St Ives Road which joins St Just to St Ives and the coast near Marazion. The latter is the Tinners’ Way.

We cannot better his description: No one can be sure just when Penwith’s ancient trackways came into being. They were certainly in use during the Bronze Age, with the advent of tin production, and could well have been trading routes as far back as the neolithic period, to carry locally-made stone axes from their ‘factories’ to points of distribution. 

Both … have important archaeological sites close by, and much of their routes were used later on when the parish boundaries were marked out. Talking of the Tinners’ Way, he goes on: to travel this route … is without doubt the finest way of seeing the spectacular and lonely Land’s End moors.

Within easy reach of the path are Neolithic quoits and barrows, Bronze Age standing stones and stone circles, Iron Age villages and Early Christian stones. And, who can refuse Cape Cornwall which is beautiful in any weather?

Craig suggests that the original route divided near the charmingly named Bishops Head and Foot, with one branch going to St Ives, the other heading for Ludgvan and almost linking up with the St Michael’s Way.

Finding your way

When we first did the walk, we had no other source and relied on Craig’s book – now sadly out of print. We originally picked up the trail at Castle an Dinas using the southern branch and did the route in five parts as as a series of circular walks: Part 1, Part 2, Interlude, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. There is a map of our West Penwith walks below.

More recently, that other expert on wild Penwith, Ian Cooke, has produced a definitive guide which divides the route into five walks. This is available here.

Now, the Penwith Landscape Partnership has produced an excellent online guide and has waymarked the trail.

The Tinners’ Way is highly recommended, especially if you like ancient monuments as we do. The path is relatively easy to follow, except near Bosporthennis Common where a row of BS are marked on the map but are hidden in a very boggy area (head south and swing round in an arc).

Pedants corner: the general view is to spell the path as the Tinners Way (no possessive), thus avoiding the question of how many Tinners were involved. We prefer to think that there were many, thus the Tinners’ Way.