Walk - Upton Towans & Gwithian

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Upton Towans car park - TR27 5BS Upton Towans car park

Easy - Sandy paths through the dunes; a quiet road (but beware of traffic); a footpath through fields.

A short walk through The Towans (the Cornish word for dunes), a landscape shaped by drifting sand. As well as overwhelming ancient cities and the very earliest Christian chapels, the constant movement of the sand has made the area a place of particular importance for geologists studying erosion. It is also a special place for wildlife, and a fifth of all plant species found in Cornwall can be seen here, in addition to the wide range of moths and butterflies they attract.

There are a range of wonderful places to lay your head near the Coast Path for a well-earned sleep. From large and luxurious hotels, to small and personable B&B's, as well as self-catering options and campsites. The businesses that support the Path, where you've chosen to visit, are listed here.

Loggans Lodge

Loggans Lodge has 3 en-suite bedrooms equipped with Tea/Coffee facilities, fridge, TV, safe, hairdryer. Close to bars, restaurants, take-aways and a supermarket

3 Rew An Borthva

Whole luxury townhouse appartment, sea views. Discount available to Coast Path Members

Beachpads

Three Individual Properties directly on the SW Coastal Route. Sleeps 1 -22. Out of school holiday and summer season single night single bedroom stays available.

Polmanter Touring Park

We offer the perfect base to explore West Cornwall offering award-winning camping facilities and 4 luxury holiday properties

Tolroy Manor Holiday Park

With an Old Cornish Manor at its heart, the Park is a haven for wildlife & nature and a charming base for your walking holiday. Stay in a cottage or house and eat out in our conservatory style restaurant. Just 1 mile from Hayle Towans beach

Boskerris Hotel

Located in Carbis Bay, Boskerris hotel is a family run oasis. We have 15 individually decorated bedrooms, most of which with an outstanding panoramic ocean views.

Cohort St Ives

Educational Residential Trip Centre. Open to the public over Easter School Holidays and Summer School Holidays. Family rooms. Dorm rooms. Private rooms. Great facilities.

Ayr Holiday Park

We offer luxury holiday caravans, s/c apartments, touring & camping pitches with amazing views and facilities. Less than half a mile from beaches, town centre & harbour. Town centre 10 minute walk from the park or a short bus/taxi ride.

St Ives Holiday Village

Set over 100 acres of woodland, the park is a haven for nature. Accommodation ranges from woodland chalets to luxurious lodges. Ideal for nature lovers and families who want to explore the great outdoors,the Path and nearby beaches of St Ives

You'll be spoilt for choice for where to eat and drink along the Path. With lots of local seasonal food on offer, fresh from the farm, field and waters. Try our local ales, ciders, wines and spirits, increasing in variety by the year, as you sit in a cosy pub, fine dining restaurant or chilled café on the beach. The businesses that support the Path, where you've chosen to visit, are listed here.

Flapjackery St Ives

Stop off and treat yourself or stock up for your trip along the Path with these delicious, award winning, gluten free flapjacks in a variety of flavours. 10% off when you show your SWCP Passport.
What is on your list of things to do when you visit the Path? From walking companies, to help you tailor your visit, with itineraries and experts to enhance your visit, to baggage transfer companies and visitor attractions there are lots to people and places to help you decide what you'd like to do. The businesses that support the Path, where you've chosen to visit, are listed here.

St Ives Information Centre

Find places to stay, eat and visit on your trip to the St Ives area

Bys Vyken Events

Bys Vyken Events are a Cornish trail race company that bring Cornwall to life through their races

Royal Buses

Local Bus Operator offering Day Trips throughout Cornwall including from 29th October 2024 a South West Coast Path walk every Sunday.

Interactive Elevation

Route Description

  1. Start from first the car park on the right-hand side of St Ives Lane (the left fork after Loggans). Take the footpath opposite the entrance to the car park, and follow it through the dunes to where it joins the South West Coast Path, still some distance from the beach.

This is the second largest dune system in Cornwall, and it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geology and wildlife. The dunes are exposed to fierce Atlantic storms, which blow the sand inland, continually reshaping the dunes and providing a habitat rich in shell sand which gives rise to an abundance of plants, including some rare ones.

Over thousands of years, as the sand is blown inland, the dunes retreat too, leaving a coastal landscape of cliffs, caves, stacks and arches. On the sea, the rock stacks are topped with remnants of the dunes that sat on them when they were still part of the mainland. This makes the towans a particularly valuable area for the study of erosion and deposition.

The quality of the sand has encouraged the growth of a tremendous range of plants, and more than a fifth of the total species to be found in Cornwall can be seen here. some of them are very rare, such as some wonderfully-named species like Balm-leaved Figwort and Hairy-fruited Cornsalad. The extensive plant life supports many species of butterflies and other insects. Look out for the silver-studded blue, the grayling and the white-letter hairstreak, as well as several species of fritillaries and a number of moths, including the six-spot burnet moth. The wealth of insects encourages a wide variety of birds too. Listen out for the trilling of skylarks as they hover overhead.

Upton Towans are also known as Dynamite Towans. They were formerly the site of the National Explosives Company, established in 1888 to produce dynamite for use in the mines and quarries. Remnants of the buildings can be seen throughout the dunes (see the Dynamite Towans & Copperhouse Pool Walk).

  1. On the Coast Path turn right towards Gwithian and Godrevy, following the path past the Gwithian Towans car park on the right and Strap Rocks, on the beach to your left.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tin was extracted from the sand in this area and taken to the sandsifting site on the far side of Gwithian, in the Red River Valley. Horses and carts were used to carry the ore. It was also transported by means of huge buckets suspended on cables. These were strung between pylons bedded in concrete blocks, some of which can still be seen in the dunes.

  1. Stay on the main path above the rocks as it bears right, but take the footpath to the left a moment later, continuing above the beach to go into the dunes). After the last buildings, take one of the paths to your right, heading directly away from the beach, and follow it past the campsite and on to Churchtown Road in Gwithian.
  2. On the road turn right again, watching out for traffic, and walk through the village, past the church. At the pub bear right with the road and walk to the footpath signed on your right after the last houses.

Like Perran Sands (see the Crantock & Penpol Creek Walk), there is said to have once been an ancient city between Gwithian and the sea, known as 'Connor'. It was the seat of a Celtic prince, and an Anglo-Saxon settlement, Conerton, was later built on the same site. The medieval village that evolved from it became the central town of the Penwith Hundred, but its role as the district administrative centre was taken over by Penzance by 1771, after Conerton had been buried in drifting sand.

St Gothian's Church was built in the thirteenth century to replace the chapel of the same name which served Conerton until this, too, was buried by the sand. The early chapel was itself built in the tenth century to replace a Celtic oratory established in AD 490 by St Gwithian ('Godhyan' in Cornish, also known as Gocianus). The Celtic saint was one of a great many missionaries arriving on the North Cornish coast to help defend the beleaguered Christianity as Anglo-Saxon pagans sought to fill the political vacuum left in Britain when the Romans departed (see the Porthkidney Sands Walk).

Beyond the pub, the Red River Valley Local Nature Reserve is located in what was one of Cornwall's most industrialised valleys during the peak mining period. Most of the activity associated with mineral extraction in the valley revolved around the recovery of tin that had been lost from mine dressing floors, and this form of tin streaming was carried out here right up to the 1960s. Today the Red River runs through a peaceful, partially wooded valley, with some lakes and ponds and areas of heathland (see the Reskajeage & Tehidy Walk).

  1. Turn right onto the footpath, following it across the field to the far hedge. Turn left along the hedge and walk to the corner of the field, passing the hedge on your right and then turning right beyond it to take the path alongside it to the track beyond.
  2. Turn left on the track, crossing the lane ahead onto the small path through the dunes. Turn left onto the next small path and follow it parallel to the road to return to the car park at the start of the walk.
close
close

Walk Finder

Find...

Postcode, placename or click the icon to use current location

Click/hold and drag the map to set the centre point of your search location under the red crosshair

from this location

Difficulty

Length (miles)

Themes

close

Find somewhere to Eat & Drink, Sleep or Do

Find...

Postcode, placename or click the icon to use current location

Click/hold and drag the map to set the centre point of your search location under the red crosshair

from this location
close

Interactive Map