Car-free adventures aroundBodminCornwall
GWR's beautiful main line from London Paddington takes just four hours to reach Bodmin Parkway, making this ancient town a great car-free hub. The journey is far quicker and pleasanter by train. And the countryside around Bodmin is stuffed with beautiful destinations, from the stately home at Lanhydrock to the Camel Valley vineyard, that you can reach without a car. We've added a few tips at the end on buses, bikes and where to stay.
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1. Arrive by train
Our Bodmin car-free adventures begin with a train journey to Bodmin Parkway station. It is one of the UK’s finest scenic railways. From Exeter, the landscapes begin to get seriously beautiful. Running beside a wide, wild estuary and then along the coast, there are miles of fabulous views. Where motorists are snarled up round Exeter Services, train passengers can relax with a picnic and enjoy seaside vibe. The railway also crosses several viaducts, bridging valleys in the rolling Cornish countryside.
- Look out for wading birds on the low tide sands, interesting red rock formations along the Dawlish coast and for the pretty River Tiddy near St Germans.
- The view from the Royal Albert Bridge over the wide River Tamar is probably the best among a huge choice of terrific train window vistas. Sit on the left if you can for expansive views over estuary and ocean.
- If you’re peckish when you get to Bodmin Parkway, don’t miss the homemade cakes in the signal box café.
- Bodmin has plenty for car-free visitors, whether by train (or steam train), bus, bike or foot. Arriving by rail (from Exeter, London or beyond), bus 11 runs from Bodmin Parkway station into town (or you can catch the steam train – see 3. below). Cornwall’s former county town and “historic heart” is the point where two old trading routes cross and the only Cornish town in the Domesday Book.
- The station itself is a lovely, leafy place to wait and is also the jumping-off point for several destinations nearby…
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2. Walk to Lanhydrock
The pedestrian route from Bodmin Parkway Station to the National Trust’s Lanhydrock House is perfect if you’re looking for a couple of miles’ scenic stroll with a cafe at the end.
- A beautiful 1¾ mile walk from the railway station, via a mossy tunnel and riverside path, takes visitors to the house and colourful gardens and Lanhydrock offers a 10% discount in the shop or restaurant when you arrive car-free (show your train ticket at the gatehouse for a voucher).
- This walk, along the estate’s former carriage drive, is not just an efficient way to reach Lanhydrock House from Bodmin Parkway station; it’s a great walk in its own right – with views across the valley, towering ornamental trees and peaceful fields of cows.
- Take the signed track from the station car park along a fern-fringed walkway beside the River Fowey. Cross a lane near a small lodge house and go on along the winding drive beyond, joining a huge avenue that leads you straight to the gatehouse.
- Explore the sloping, wooded gardens, old church and herbaceous borders. Have a look round the fifty-odd rooms inside the house itself, including the copper-gleaming kitchen and the 17th-century Long Gallery, its ceiling covered in plaster birds and animals.
- Enjoy 10% off a cream tea at the Stableyard café, a full meal in the restaurant or souvenirs from the gift shop before setting off back to the station. If you don’t want to go into Lanhydrock itself, ask at the gatehouse for directions to the new Park café nearby. The track is mostly downhill on the way back as it heads gently down towards the River Fowey.
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3. Bodmin and Wenford Railway
Also from GWR’s Bodmin Parkway station, you can hop on the Bodmin & Wenford steam railway. Miles of heritage track carry you through woods and fields to the old Bodmin General station at the top of St Nicholas Street. The Bodmin and Wenford runs 220 days a year and through tickets are available from mainline stations. The day rover tickets are particularly good value as you can hop off at one of the smaller stations – handy for further adventures in the nearby countryside.
- Boscarne Junction, an idyllic station two miles west of Bodmin town centre, is not far from the award-winning Camel Valley vineyard. The Bodmin’s Tourist Information Centre also has a leaflet about how to walk all the way to the vineyard from Bodmin.
- Heading in the other direction, a half mile on paths leading north from Colesloggett Halt brings you to Cardinham Woods: bike hire, public barbecues, miles of cycle tracks and walks.
- Best of all, Woods Café is a flower-decked stone cottage in the forest selling homemade, organic food at great prices. Don’t miss the savoury cream tea (cheese scones, cream cheese, home-grown tomatoes, carrot and ginger chutney), which will keep you going all afternoon. If you have any room left, the sticky lumberjack cake and chocolate brownies will soon see to that.
- Getting off at Bodmin General, you’ll find the re-vamped Bodmin Keep (army museum) right opposite the station. Covering two centuries of military history, there are lots of interesting things in these lively, eclectic displays: Russian muskets from Crimea, Buddha statues from Burma, a walking stick carved by a Boer prisoner of war or an ostrich egg that was breakfast for eight soldiers.
- Don’t miss the large, graffiti-ed chunk of the Berlin Wall upstairs – brought back when the regiment happened to be in Berlin as the wall came down.
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4. Wander around town
The streets and square near Bodmin’s 15th-century church of St Petroc are home to ancient holy wells and an engaging (free) town museum.
- The Shire Hall, once the county courtroom, has Tourist Info, a trial re-enactment, an art gallery, and two little leaflets with car-free itineraries.
- You can also climb up Bodmin Beacon – a hilly nature reserve, very close to the town centre with a 50-metre obelisk and wide views towards Helman Tor.
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5. Cycle the Camel Trail
For a longer walk or cycle ride, the Camel Trail is a hugely popular route runs along a former railway line all the way to Padstow, where you can eat pancakes or fish and chips by the picturesque harbour.
- From the very first mile out of Bodmin, the path is beautiful, running alongside a ferny stream past Scarlett’s Well and the welcoming Borough Arms.
- Bus 11 links with the Camel Trail at Bodmin, then at The Borough Arms, Wadebridge and Padstow so it’s easy to walk one way and get the bus back (but watch out for bikes – the trail can get quite busy!)
- With its level surface and spectacular views across the Camel Estuary, the trail to Padstow is justly famous and on sunny days, it can feel like the M25 of bike paths. For cyclists wanting to get off the beaten track, take the hillier, right hand fork, north towards Wenfordbridge and the Snail’s Pace café on the edge of Bodmin Moor.
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6. Go directly to Jail
Near the start of the Camel Trail, heading out of town, you reach Bodmin Jail, an ivy-covered 18th-century edifice built with 20,000 tonnes of local granite. The jail had a huge extension project recently, converting the previously derelict wings into a hotel.
- From Poldark-esque assizes with guys in wigs and frock coats to contemporary prison cells, the jail surveys the history of incarceration with an engaging eye for bloodthirsty narratives. Afterwards, there are sarnies or cream teas in the café and the bar is open until 9.30pm.
- The jail is one of the UK’s “Most Haunted” venues and visitors can book night-time tours, complete with a three-course meal in the vaulted governors’ hall. Resident spectres of some of the 50-odd prisoners executed here supposedly include a ghostly hanged man and a mournful woman in white. You have been warned!
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7. To Padstow and beyond…
If cycling there sounds a bit tiring, bus 11 runs from Bodmin Parkway station or from the centre of town all the way to Padstow via Wadebridge, a charming market town on the River Camel with some great food shops and cafés (and lots of places doing cycle hire).
- From Padstow, you can book a mackerel-fishing trip or a sea life safari around the rugged shore.
- Or walk along the coast path past Trevone Bay, with its surf-facing café and rock-cut swimming pool, and catch the bus back from Harlyn. This ten-mile walk will stretch keen walkers without too many of the exhausting steep-sided valleys that zig-zag the coast nearer the Devon border.
- On the way, you pass an old pilchard tower, keeping watch over the ocean from the sheep-haunted cliffs.
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Buses, bikes and places to stay
Here’s a bit more practical info if you’re planning a staycation in Bodmin
- A GWR Cornwall Ranger gives you unlimited train travel across the county.
- Cornwall now has some spectacular open-topped buses that give you views across the coast and countryside.
- If the bus journeys are local and on the same day that you arrive by train, you can get a bargain PlusBus ticket for unlimited bus rides around the Bodmin area.
- You can hire bikes from Explore by Bike in Bodmin or at Lanhydrock
- There are lots of places to stay in Bodmin. Bus 10 stops at Asda near the Premier Inn on its way from the station.
