Chapel Porth and St Agnes Beacon Loop
North Coast · Coast path · Loop · Moderate
45 min – 1 hr 15 min · Chapel Porth, National Trust car park → Chapel Porth, National Trust car park
Desk-researched — not yet run on the ground
Elevation profile
245 m gain · high 171 m
Hover or use arrow keys to read the profile
16 m – 171 m
Line mapped on a filtered walking graph that keeps to paths and quiet lanes and treats fast or classified roads as cross-only (scripts/walk-graph.mjs); elevation from EU-DEM 25 m. Not from a recorded run.
Mapped from OpenStreetMap footpaths on the OpenTopoMap contour map — a planning line, not a recorded run.
- Distance
- 6.8 km
- Climb
- 245 m
- Per km
- 36 m
- On foot
- 45 min – 1 hr 15 min
- Line
- Mapped
A loop from Chapel Porth past the Towanroath shaft and Wheal Coates engine house, north along the cliffs to St Agnes Head, then inland and up through the heather to St Agnes Beacon before dropping back to the cove. The Beacon gives both coasts at once on a clear day.
Getting there and back
Buses serve St Agnes village, a short link path from the loop. Check current routes.
Parking
The NT car park at Chapel Porth is small and beach-crowd popular; before ten or after four in summer.
Conditions
Gravel cliff path, heather single-track and a firm descent lane, with the Beacon climb steady rather than steep.
Navigation
Cliffs first, then any of the braided heather paths that trend uphill reach the trig. Aim for the cove on the way down and you cannot miss.
Season
Late summer for the heather and gorse together; winter for having Wheal Coates entirely to yourself.
Dogs
Good on leads near the drops. The Beacon section is the free-running reward.
Good for
- The classic engine-house photograph, earned on foot
- A summit finish without a mountain day
- August heather at full colour
Watch for
- Mine workings and fenced shafts beside the cliff path
- Stones hidden under heather on the Beacon paths
- The beach below Chapel Porth cuts off fast on a rising tide — stay off it unless you know the times
On the ground
- NT car park and seasonal cafe at Chapel Porth
- Toilets in St Agnes village nearby
GPX download
The line on this page is mapped from OpenStreetMap paths, not a recorded run. Treat the file as a planning aid and check it against conditions on the ground.
Download GPXMore ground nearby
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Mapped route line
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- Distance
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- Gain
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Desk-researched
Mapped route line
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- Distance
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- Gain
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Desk-researched
Mapped route line
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- Distance
- 6.5 km
- Gain
- 198 m
Desk-researched
Reading for this ground
Race notes
Finding hills in Cornwall: training for a mountain ultra where there aren't any
Cornwall has no sustained climbs, so training for the Lakeland 50 meant hunting down the few spots where you can bank vertical by repetition. Two that earned their place, with parking pinned.
13 July 2026
Data
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One number that predicts how a coastal run will actually feel — with the two places it lies to you.
11 July 2026