NCN 3 St. Austell - Bude
Ride overview
Amidst the peaks of The Cornish Alps, 007 has saved the nation from baddies, and Sir Tim Smit’s Eden Project encouraged the leaders of the G7 to seek ways of protecting the planet from the rigours of Climate Change. Traffic-free trails and roads barely wide enough for a cart let along a car take you from the Alps to the grand estate of Lanhydrock one of the National Trust’s most popular houses. The ride continues into Bodmin before joining Britain’s most popular cycleway, the Camel Trail, which takes you up to Bodmin Moor to meet up with its ghosts and mists. The final section of the day is through a pastoral idyll of rolling green fields before arriving in the old port of Bude, one of the UK’s most understated seaside towns.
Ride practicalities
START/FINISH: St. Austell/Bude DISTANCE: 83km TOTAL ASCENT: 1032m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: The Cornish hills continue, but there are long flattish sections too along the old railways and mineral tramways. Surfaces are generally good RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS; Bodmin: Martin Barnecupp Bakery, (pasties) The Camel Trail; Snail’s Pace Café CAMPING: Warbstow (near Bude) Fox Camping ACCOMMODATION: Bodmin; The Bodmin Gaol Hotel, Bude; Edgecombe Hotel FERRIES; None NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: St. Austell, Bodmin Parkway LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: The Cornish Way,
*WMWG only list places for food, drink and beds which have met our strict quality standards. They will promote local growers, are independent who set high standards, but who are not necessarily the cheapest place in town.
Ride notes
Many cyclo-tourists regret, once they have returned home, of not spending time enough time enjoying some of the many cultural and geographical highlights along the route. On this leg, it would be remiss not to visit either, The Eden Project, with its two huge bioms, filled with tropical plants(as well as being a backdrop for the James Bond’s film, ‘Die another day’, and for the G7 Summit in 2021). Lanhydrock House, the other highlight comes mid-way through the ride and is a time capsule of what a grand house was like in the Victorian era.
Any feature that uses the term ‘Alps’ suggests that there has to be some climbing involved and like any number of alpine namesakes, the Cornish version provides some striking vistas. It is a surreal landscape of enormously wide and deep pits along with perfectly conical cones which resemble volcanos. Gorse is gently colonising the old industrial remains and the colours of vivid yellow set against a grey Cornish sky and the glistening chalk coloured ‘mountains’ is quite the sight to behold.
The Cornish Clay pits
For 200 years the mining of clay has been central to the Cornish economy. As the name suggests, Kaolin, was first used in China 10,000 years ago to make fine white porcelain. Wishing to find sources closer to home, the Plymouth apothecary, William Cookworthy, found a rare type of decomposed granite, which was finer than talcum powder. Cookworthy spent twenty years refining the material before opening his Plymouth Porcelain Factory in 1768. Much of the refined clay was transported up to the Potteries in Staffordshire where Josiah Wedgewood was creating new lines of his own porcelain. By the early twentieth century, Cornwall was producing nearly 50% of the world's china clay. However for every ton of kaolin, five tons of waste material was created, hence this extraordinary landscape today of pits and peaks. There are thought to be over 120 million tons of kaolin still in the ground around Devon and Cornwall and with the product used in anything from paper manufacture to toothpaste, the scarred landscape will only increase.
Rogue daffodils spreading along the Cornish Lanes
Once past the Eden Project and the other clay pits, the route heads back across the peninsula to the North Cornish coast using a series of single-track and high-banked lanes. which in spring are covered in primroses, sweet-smelling violets and rogue daffodils, and in summer cow parsley and ox-eye daisies crowd the banks.
Beyond the large villae of Luxulyan, the route rides up onto the windswept heights of gorse, bracken, heather and granite. The route takes you through the grounds of Lanhydrock House and through woods to Bodmin, where there’s an option to finish the day early and stay in the famous gaol. Lunch could be had at the Malcolm Barnecutt Bakery in the Old Guild Hall whose pasties have been voted as the best in Cornwall.
The Snail’s Pace Cafe
From Bodmin the National Cycle Route 3 uses the Camel Trail, one of the country’s most popular off-road cycleways. During the main school holidays, there are numerous families enjoying the pleasures of riding a bicycle. In spring the banks are bluebell lined, there’s wild garlic in abundance and the trees seem to sing. The track is relatively well-maintained and there is an excellent cafe, The Snail’s Pace at Wenford Bridge. Fortify yourself here, for the route takes you steeply up to the broken granite landscape of Bodmin Moor.'
The moor is part of the Cornubian batholith, a wonderful name for the 280 million year old granite beds of the South West, which were created when the African plate crashed into the Iberian plate, causing magma to spill out of the earth’s crust. There are five of these intrusions (known as ‘plutons’) one of which is Bodmin Moor.
RAF Davidstow Moor
The windswept moor, the route rolls along to the old RAF Davidstow Moor Airfield. At 294 metres, it is the highest airfield in Britain and it is very susceptible to hill fog, sea mists, and low cloud, all of which are not good if you happen to be flying aircraft. It is estimated that in 1943 the airfield was unable to be used for 80% of the time. The airfield was a base for several squadrons involved in the Battle of the North Atlantic, including 304 (Silesia) Squadron manned with mostly Polish aircrews. By way of absolute contrast, at the end of the runway is a Cheddar Cheese factory, where Davidstowe and Cathedral City are made.
Once off the moor, the route traverses a softer and less rugged Cornwall, but make no mistake, the roads still tumbles up and down past intimate fields of grass, bordered by weathered stone walls and trees bent by the wind. Ponies and sheep will keep you company as you ride.
Pony, Bodmin Moor
Bradshaw’s Guide of 1866 (so beloved by Michael Portillo), describes Bude as: "a small port and picturesque village in the north-eastern extremity of Cornwall which has the dignity of a fashionable marine resort with excellent facilities for bathers. The sea view is of a striking, bold and sublime description – the rocks rising on every side to lofty broken elevations". Little has changed; it is in short, a classless and stylish resort dressed in weather-beaten and scruffy English coastal clothes.
All the details given on this route are given in good faith. However, situations on the ground can change, so if you know of any access issues, closures, or have any thoughts and feedback on the route, please include them in the comments section below.
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