Penzance Madron, Trengwainton Carn, Wishing Well
• Start Point – Penzance, Alverton Road (David Lay’s Auction House)
• Grid Reference – SW 462 301 ///asserts.gets.tolerable
• Car Parking – Alverton Road or in the housing estates.
• Distance – 6 miles
• Time (approx.) – 3.5 hours
• Way Points – Madron, Trengwainton Carn, Wishing Well
• First Walked – in the 1962 Walk Book – Map 2 Walk 1. Revised 2023 by John Rogers. The original walk had multiple routes and options. The walk has been split into 2 (this and Penzance 3 Madron) with no options.
• Author – John Rogers
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2023
Leave Penzance by Alverton Road, and instead of turning left uphill past the Pirate Inn, take the right fork straight on passing a thatched cottage, sideways to the road on the right into a narrow road with a stream on the left.
Cross the A30 with care and take the drive up the hill between the Castle Hornick Youth Hostel and Polgoon Winery, to where it divides, after about 200 yards SW 456 304, take the left fork.
Pass in front of Rosehill farmhouse and enter fields. Follow the lower path on the left around the hill in the first field, not the track up across the field.
Just over the next stile the path branches, take the left-hand branch going down some steps and then keep to the right to a field walk leading to Boscathnoe Reservoir SW 451 311 and, at the road, turn right towards Heamoor.
(You may want to take a slight detour to walk around the reservoirs as it is a tranquil spot for a picnic. Look out for short flight of steps on the right, just before reaching the Heamoor road).
On the Heamoor road, turn left in front of Trengwainton Gardens to go up the hill to Madron Churchtown.
The church is well worth a visit at it is “the Mother Church for Penzance” and contains may relics including a flag from the Battle of Trafalgar.
Turn slightly left as you pass the church to the William IV Pub and then turn left up the road to Mulfra. As you come to the last of the houses on the right SW 449 320, cross a style and take the path on the left across 4 fields before re-joining the Mulfra road.
Continue straight up the road until it bends slightly right at a house SW 441 321 and take the bridleway straight on over open access land at Trengwainton Carn. Follow the bridleway until you reach a road at SW 434 329 and turn right up the hill.
At some houses and a sharp right turn in the road, go straight on over the open access land to find your way back to the Mulfra road at SW 438 330.
At this point the road forks with the road branching left and a track signposted “Bosiliack” off to the right. Find a stile and a footpath on the right heading south-west. Take this path and follow it as it crosses 3 fields and then has hedges on both sides before emerging on the drive to Boswarthen at SW 442 327.
Follow the drive for 100 yards or so and, where it turns right, turn left at SW 445 324 down a track leading to Madron Well.
Pass the well with it’s trees adorned with ribbons and wishes, past the ruined chapel before following a line of pine trees for several hundred yards until the path emerges into fields.
Follow the well-defined path (although it is not marked as a right of way) alongside hedges to Aldreath Road SW 452 323 and turn right towards Madron.
Once you have finished wandering around Madron, head back to the church, keeping the school on your left, find a path heading downhill across fields to the Heamoor road SW 452 317.
Over a stile, cross the road, and turn left towards Heamoor before taking the first right into Boscathnoe Way.
Turn right into Hill Close and look for a footpath at the end of the road by a school. The footpath takes you behind the school and skirts abound the back of Heamoor before exiting into a drive SW 458 308.
Follow the drive for 50 or so yards and you will find a footpath on the right taking you down past the Polgoon Vineyard to the A30 Penzance By-pass. Cross the road and take the footpath directly opposite which takes you into Tredarvar Road and a return to the start of the walk.