Godolphin Hill walk
A gentle ramble up to the top of Godolphin Hill which boasts one of the best views over West Cornwall. On a clear day you can see St Michael's Mount and St Ives bay.
Map
Start:
Godolphin reception/tea room; grid ref: SW600318
1
Leave the car park and turn right, up the track past the path in the hedge on your left. Continue past the barns and where the track curves to the right, go over the cattle grid still on the far left and follow the path across the field. At the far end, go over the stile to enter the wide tree-shaded lane known as the Slips. Turn right and follow the path. Continue up the Slips to reach an arrangement of gates and walls, developed over centuries to give livestock access to the estate's main water supply, which follows the line of the avenue.
The Slips
This old lane - its walls cloaked in ivy, ferns, herb robert, navelwort and red campion - runs directly from Godolphin House to Godolphin Hill. The name 'slips' crops up in many Cornish places, referring to narrow pieces of land, strip fields or 'stitches'. In medieval times, this lane passed through a strip-field system and this might explain the name. Its width is typical of moorland droving lanes, used for moving sheep and cattle to and from summer hilltop grazing lands. In the 17th century, the lane was planted with sycamore trees.
2
Continue through the gate and up hill, passing fenced-off pits on your left and mine shafts protected by 'collors' of moss-covered stone walls. Follow the path through a gateway and onto a widening triangle of scrub-dotted land at the top of the Slips. Continue up hill until you reach the junction with the path encircling the base of Godolphin Hill. Turn left and take the path around the hill.
Pits and mine shafts
The shafts around you are about 400 years old and include an old adit which carries the water supply to Godolphin House from the workings. They are now home to lesser horseshoe bats and the Slips provide an excellent night-time feeding area for them. The old deer park to your left was created when the family was at its most wealthy, around the 16th century. It was very much a status symbol as the park extends down to the garden, making it prominent for any eminent visitors.
3
Follow the path until, close to Leeds' Shaft, a path forks left down to Park Gate, an opening in the old deer park pale. Ignore this path and take the one on the right up towards the summit.
Deer park boundary
You are now walking towards Tregonning Hill, topped by a distinctive war memorial and rich in archaeological remains. The wall surrounding the deer park pale is at least 400 years old and is part of the original boundary of the earliest deer park at Godolphin. As you walk up the hill you are walking through a landscape scarred and pitted by centuries of human activity; beneath the gorse and heather lie the remains of ancient field systems, tinner's pits, artificial rabbit warrens and Bronze Age settlements.
4
When you reach the top of the hill the full breathtaking panorama is revealed. Leaving the summit take the path north, on the right which will lead you down towards the Slips, from where you can retrace your steps to the car park.
The summit of Godolphin Hill
As you follow the circuitous route towards the summit, you may encounter grazing ponies in the summer and Red Devon cows in winter. By munching the gorse and trampling the bracken, both help to create a more diverse habitat for wildlife. The top of the hill, in the view of so many other hills, was an old beacon site. There is a prehistoric enclosure from the neolithic period, 4,000-3,000BC, similar to those at Carn Galver, Carn Brea, Trencrom and St Michael's Mount.
End:
Godolphin reception/tea room; grid ref: SW600318
