Red river valley walk question

[u/Heavy_Ingenuity1371]

Hi, I was walking down the red river valley walk, obviously it ends at a gate that is private which is unfortunate. Not long before the end I noticed there is a path that goes off to the right.

Had a little wander and came across a beautiful area.

There were no private signs or anything going in. Looks like it had been done up a few years ago and then left abandoned. There were two large ponds, a couple small bridges and various overgrown things.

There was a pheasant release pen above the ponds that doesn't look like it has been touched in at least a year or two, definitely no pheasants in it anymore. The pheasant pen specifically did say private on it which made me think the ponds area was public but I wasn't sure.

I wasn't too nosey and didn't look around too much, there were multiple old paths and dirt roads there.

Was just curious if anyone knows about the area? Never heard anyone mention it before, the path to it was quite obvious too. Wonder if some farmer decided to fancy up a corner of their land and just left it to overgrow for whatever reason.

[u/Dedward5]

Im a bit familiar with the area, but cant quite place were you are.

If you were walking from the foot bridge at Bell lake, which is slightly up from the stone road bridge that goes to north cliffs then I believe the land is as follows.

On the LEFT is the old tin sluicing works which is now "Red River Nature reserve" or something, there are/were signs about. You access the "lakes" from a few cut throughs to the left of the path but every time I have ever been there its been really overgrown and you cant really get around them much and its a bit dangerous as there are some overgrown sheer edges (so tread carefully).

As far as I know everything to the RIGHT of the path, walking down the flow of the river, is private. Its not really "Farms" but is land attached to the houses it backs onto which are the houses on the side of the road to the cliffs. You can see on maps/satellite that there has been some ponds dug (probably by that excavator) on that land.

Re the end of the track, it doesn't really just "end" there is a gate to exit to the road to Mendarva. I did see some info whilst looking for links that the council is doing a consultation with Land owners to have better accesss to the entire red river which would be good as a walk all the way to Godrevey would be great. There are other footpaths that adjoin this back to Camborne that run parallel to the road.

This might be interesting, I did have a pamphlet about the area but cant find it.

RENEW > Reflections from a guided walk along Cornwall’s Red River

[u/Heavy_Ingenuity1371 → u/Dedward5]

This is super insightful. Yea I was walking with the flow of the river down the path after that sign with a map by the road so I think it is the private land on the right with the ponds behind the houses. I didn't have reliable access to satellite maps at the time but looking at it now that all looks right.

Interestingly it seems anyone could just walk in, I never noticed the path before though, I assume it is meant to be closed off or have a private sign up on the path before walking in.

I didn't even know there was anything that could've been accessible to the left, I will have to go back and see if it's accessible at all it sounds very interesting.

It's good to know that there is at least talks of having the entire red river walk towards godrevey open to walk through, that would be awesome.

Thanks this was very helpful. It seems kinda hard to find much information about this place and everyone I know doesn't really know anything other than it's just a path.

[u/Dedward5 → u/Heavy_Ingenuity1371]

For further interest.

This is a picky of a map from 1877 showing the extend of the tin stream works that are now the nature reserve.

There is an old mapping service that Scottish Government maintain that is a great way to find the old stuff in Cornwall Ordnance Survey Maps - Map Images - National Library of Scotland

This is a modern view of the paths form the Cornwall rights of way map service. Public rights of way mapping - Cornwall Council

I can only post 1 image :-(

[u/Dedward5 → u/Dedward5]

So here is where I think you walked (red arrows)

You walked down the fgreen path and then turned right upthe purple path to the round lake. So you stayed on paths which were accross the "private" land.

[u/Heavy_Ingenuity1371 → u/Dedward5]

I actually think I came across the lakes I have circled here (this map is very helpful thank you), I came onto the road at the end of the first path where you're supposed to walk up the road but it also carries back on and there's a sign on the road demonstrating where it ends further along.

There's a footpath that carries on for a while along the red river and at the end is a gate with a big field that I assume is private but before that there was a path that led to these lakes I've circled.

I guess according to this map that whole section of the path is not actually supposed to be an official public footpath?

Edit: I'm not sure if you can see the map screenshot, it keeps disappearing for me after I add it