Pentire Head and The Rumps Loop
North Coast · Coast path · Loop · Moderate
40 min – 1 hr 10 min · New Polzeath, cliff-top car park → New Polzeath, cliff-top car park
Desk-researched — not yet run on the ground
Elevation profile
281 m gain · high 68 m
Hover or use arrow keys to read the profile
0 m – 68 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
- 6.0 km
- Climb
- 281 m
- Per km
- 47 m
- On foot
- 40 min – 1 hr 10 min
- Line
- Mapped
A loop from New Polzeath around Pentire Point and out to The Rumps, where an Iron Age fort's ditches still corrugate the neck of the headland, returning through National Trust farmland. The Camel estuary opens up on one side, open Atlantic on the other.
Getting there and back
Seasonal buses reach Polzeath from Wadebridge and Rock. The Rock ferry from Padstow makes a good long-way-round approach.
Parking
The cliff-top car park at New Polzeath sits right on the route; Polzeath's main beach car parks add half a kilometre.
Conditions
Firm headland turf and worn coast path, one rocky pinch below Pentire Point, and farm track on the return.
Navigation
Seaward round the headland, out-and-back spur to The Rumps, then the signed permissive path back through Pentire Farm.
Season
Any season; spring squill turns the headland blue in May, and winter gives it back to the fulmars.
Dogs
Good on leads for the stock fields; the fort's drops are sheer where the land runs out.
Good for
- A short loop that feels far bigger than its distance
- Seal and seabird watching off The Rumps
- Escaping Polzeath's holiday churn in twenty minutes
Watch for
- Full exposure on both points when the wind is working
- Rampart ditches and rabbit holes in the fort turf
- Cattle on the farmland return
On the ground
- Car park and seasonal facilities at New Polzeath
- Everything else is back in Polzeath proper
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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A small headland with big output: Crantock beach, Porth Joke and the Gannel's shifting sands.
- Distance
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- Gain
- 151 m
Desk-researched
Mapped route line
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- Distance
- 6.5 km
- Gain
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- Distance
- 6.6 km
- Gain
- 234 m
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Reading for this ground
Data
Cornwall's climbing ceiling: how flat is it, really?
The route data puts a number on it. The highest point is 339 m, the biggest unbroken climb is about 160 m, and the county banks its vertical in tiny bites — which is why hill training here means repetition.
13 July 2026
Data
Cornwall's coast path routes, ranked by climb per kilometre
One number that predicts how a coastal run will actually feel — with the two places it lies to you.
11 July 2026