Cornwall

Godolphin Hill walk

Enjoy a gentle ramble up to the top of Godolphin Hill, which offers one of the most impressive views over West Cornwall you can find – on a clear day stretching to St Michael's Mount and St Ives bay.

Near to

Godolphin

Start point

Godolphin reception/tea room; grid ref: SW600318

Trail information

View route

Print trail

Difficulty*

Accessibility**

Full trail

DistanceMiles: 2 (km: 3.2)

Duration1 hour

Dog friendly***

*A moderate climb with some uneven paths. For further details, please see Terrain section.
**Walk not suitable for wheelchair users or pushchairs.
***Dogs welcome but please keep on leads when around cattle. For further details, please see Facilities section.

Mine Shafts & Livestock

Please stick to the paths, this route is through old mining land and there may be undiscovered mine shafts off the paths. Godolphin Hill is a working farm and you may encounter livestock, including a herd of Red Devon cattle, on your walk.

Dogs
Dogs must be kept on a lead on the farmland of Godolphin estate, including the fields and Godolphin Hill, due to livestock grazing. Unfortunately, we have received an increased number of incidents of dogs chasing, worrying, injuring, and killing livestock over the years. This causes immense stress on the animals, famers, staff, and people witnessing. Please read and comply with the signage asking you to keep your dog on a lead when walking around the farmland at Godolphin estate.
Car park
Free car parking for National Trust members.
Toilet
Toilet and baby changing facilities at Godolphin
Tea-room
Enjoy a warming beverage and delicious slice of cake after your walk in the Piggery tea-room.
Total stages: 6
Total stages: 6
Start point
Godolphin reception/tea room; grid ref: SW600318
Stage 1
Leave the car park and turn right, up the track past the path in the hedge on your left.
Stage 2
Continue past the barns and where the track curves to the right go over the cattle grid 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.
The Slips
This old lane 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.
Stage 3
Turn right and follow the path 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. Continue through the gate and uphill, passing fenced-off pits on your left and mine shafts protected by 'collars' of moss-covered stone walls. Follow the path through a gateway and continuing uphill until you reach the junction with the path encircling the base of Godolphin Hill.
Pits and mine shafts
The shafts around you are about 400 years old and include an old adit which carried 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.
Stage 4
Turn left and take the path around the Hill. Follow the path until, close to Leeds' Shaft, a path forks left down to Park Gate, an opening in the old deer park pale.
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.
Stage 5
Ignore this path and take the one on the right up towards the summit of Godolphin Hill.
The summit of Godolphin Hill
As you follow the circuitous route towards the summit, you may encounter grazing Red Devon cows. By munching the gorse and trampling the bracken, the cows 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.
Stage 6
When you reach the top of the hill, the full panorama is revealed. On a clear day you can see both coasts, to the south views of Mounts Bay with the iconic St Michaels Mount and to the north views of St Ives Bay. 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.
End point
Godolphin reception/tea room; grid ref: SW600318
Trail map
Godolphin Hill walk map | © Crown copyright and database rights 2013 Ordnance Survey
You made it
Share your experience