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Looking for a new route challenge in 2025?

29 Dec, 2024 05:33 By: Ceri Rees

The 36 mile Smugglers Way was created by Cornishman Frank Squibb
in 1994 but it also aggregates the hundreds of routes furrowed by
pirates, smugglers or ‘free traders’ and crosses Cornwall from the
north coast. It also passes near the Two Valleys Walk and Ten Tors of
Bodmin, which are arguably more popular among walkers.
A Cornish sea mist set the scene as I left the craggy bulkhead above
Boscastle harbour, to follow the route all the way to Looe, which sits
on a lovely river estuary.

I’d probably have chosen a day like this to land my prize, whether I’d
survived a harrowing sea journey, or commandeered a herd of
horses to transport my booty southwards. For this terrain of mixed
moorland, rutted fields, tarmac lanes and woodland, two legs is
definitely better than four. Not surprisingly, I didn’t see a single
horse or mountain bike in seven hours of running.

As it turned out, there is no perfect place to evade detection as I had
no difficulty picking up a GPS signal, although following a map by
phone or paper is much more fun when trying to negotiate narrow
lanes, shallow valleys and farmer’s hedgerows.

I had to retrace my steps a couple of times along field lines which
bore no path or style. This then I reckoned was a route in the
abstract sense. Probably meant for the adventurous minded,
especially in a sea fog. A sign on the path, which said ‘Trespassers
will be composted,’ seemed to confirm this theory.

With no other items to declare, except my trusty Suunto Ambit and a
1:25k map of Bodmin, which the swooping seagulls, seemed to find
amusing, I made my way eastwards along the River Valency and then
south, crossing a rickety wooden bridge with only a notional
footpath on the map. Picking over fields and passing hidden
churches, a disused airfield and a bog at the foot of Bodmin, I caught
a glimpse of what this way might have been like before drainage, modern transport, a more popular tax arrangement and global warming had their say.

The route over Bodmin, which is entirely runnable (depending on
your fitness) takes you up the skirt line of Shower Tor then Little
Rough Tor and down and up Brown Willy before reaching Tolborough
Downs and crossing the A30. At the half way point is the Jamaica Inn,
where many a smuggler unsaddled and presumably tried to avoid
the 18 th century equivalent of drink driving, in order to stay in the
game. I parked my pack at the bar and haggled a packet of peanuts.
Would our 18 th century ancestors have been able to rely on maps, I
wondered?

A little intuition can go a long way in navigating, but not
necessarily in the right direction, if you are escaping the law and
there is no obvious line on the horizon once you’ve left Bodmin.
Dozmary Pool, is the toss of Arthur’s Sword away from the inn,
where Excalibur was said to have sunk, probably by someone who
had just left the bar. More importantly, it’s a useful waymark to
guide you southwards across more fields, some of them with electric
fences daring you to jump. Then on to the valley of the River Fowey,
which meets the Two Valleys Walk, which may have also have been a
smugglers route.

There is one more major road to cross (via a small arterial road) the
A38, which slightly spoils the romantic idea of a daring escape from
the HMRC. But the final few miles bisects the West Looe valley,
today flanked by fields of bluebells but which would probably have
been less welcoming in days of yore. Dense forests, probably with
wolves for company would once have made the starry canopy above
harder to get a fix on.

The last five miles are a joy, picking your way through blue bells, with
the salty smell of the estuary infiltrating the Kilminorth woods. There

is just one decision to make, the low tide route or the alternative
path before crossing the bridge to East Looe for a cool pint of
Atlantic in the Smugglers Cott. Just remember the long arm of the
law is never far from your shoulder, if you’re using a GPS phone with
Location switched on. Much better to avoid Strava and stick to a map
and compass.
Maps:
107 St Austell and Liskeard
109 Bodmin Moor
111 Bude, Boscastle and Tintagel