Godolphin Hill 3 May 2025

I was at a loose end, as I often am being signed off with bi-polar. I thought why don't I explore somewhere local to my flat in Goldsithney. Godolphin hill sprang to mind as I've never been up it, although I'd recently been up Tregonning hill next to it. These two hills are quite noticeable and distinct when driving from Penzance to Helston along the A394 and also noticeable from many other parts of West Cornwall. 

I took the road from Goldsithney to Leedstown and turned right at the village of Townshend. The narrow lane winded through pleasant woodland and I came to the carpark at Godolphin house a national trust property. There was a small charge at the national trust carpark , I parked my van up in the shade. A car parked next to me and to my surprise a lovely couple I know from church ... Martin and Marguerite got out . We had a little chat..  they were visiting Godolphin house as they love the gardens there it's one of their favourite places. 

I studied the visitors map in the carpark and set off along the track after memorising  the directions. The track followed along the boundary of Godolphin house past woodland in the left and fields on the right. I noticed the woodland was mainly mature sycamore trees . The woodland floor was carpeted with a mass of bluebells , currently in full bloom . A beautiful sight common in the UK but rare in the rest of Europe. 

I looked over the wall into the gardens of Godolphin house but they were too far off to appreciate them. There were lots of outbuildings , many of them looked like they were no longer in use. 

At the end of this article I  have inserted a short history of Godolphin house which I copy and pasted off the National Trust website. 

I came to a T-junction in the path and headed right , uphill through more sycamore woodland. In the glades there were a beautiful combination of mainly Stitchwort which is grass-like with small white flowers, Bluebells ,Herb Robert and Red Campion, also interspersed amongst them Cow Parsley. 

 I came to the entrance of a grassy pasture where there was an enormous granite gate post with an irregular shape (rather than post shaped) . It might be the biggest gate post I've seen. Crystals of Kaolin, quartz and mica could be seen in the rock. White Lichen grew all over the post signifying how clean the air is here near the Cornish coast. 

I continued along the path, going uphill , quite a gentle incline, not too steep. I left the woodland area went through a gate and was now on moorland, covered with mainly dead bracken from last year ( the young new shoots were still small and not very visable) . Interspersed amongst the bracken were gorse, heather and the odd tree mainly goat willow ( Salix caprea) though I think I remember seeing holly and oak too. 

I was actually already on Godolphin hill at this point, but now the upper part of the dome-shaped hill was clearly visable, covered in moorland. I couldn't quite see the summit as the shape of the hill hid it . 

A bird of prey flew from left to right across the moorland at first I assumed it was a buzzard but as it came closer it had a different silhouette to a buzzard , longer narrower wings and I could make out some white in the wings. It was a Red Kite . Back in the 1970's and 80's this would have been an incredibly rare sight, seeing a Red Kite in Cornwall. They were on the brink of extinction in the UK with only a handful in Wales. However now they have made a spectacular comeback with the help of reintroductions of birds from Sweden, they are now common in many places "upcountry" .  They aren't yet really common in Cornwall but they are fairly regularly seen here. 

Between the 15th and 17th centuries the hill and many fields were given over to a deer park and rabbit warren. These rabbit breeding grounds were a source of high-status meat and fur. The deer park was used to farm for venison, but also would have been used for hunting as a leisure activity.

As I continued up the track ( it was slightly steeper now) I passed large rounded granite boulders that were scattered here and there amongst the bracken and alongside the track. I came to several patches of beautiful wood anemones  (Anemone nemorosa) with their dainty flowers, each having six delicate white petals.  

I reached the summit . The views were great all around . To the west were the Carns (granite hills) of West Penwith (the Lands End peninsula) , to the north-east was the long, flat , high area the Great Flat Lode where a lot of tin mining once took place. To the south was the sea with seaside villages such as Praa sands ,  Perranuthno and Marazion. I can't remember if St. Michael's Mount, Helston and Penzance were visable, but quite likely.  Also I could see Townshend where the road turns off and I could make out the wooded valley of the Hayle river and could follow it's course vaguely to it's source at Crowan, near Praze-an-Beeble. 

I looked in the direction of the neighbouring Tregonning hill and saw the engine house and chimney of a  tin mine I have read about previously " The Great Work Mine". In 1745  a pharmacist from Plymouth called William Cookworthy  was visiting this tin mine and found out about a very fine clay that was being mined on the nearby Tregonning hill. The clay was being used to repair furnaces. He realised it was ideal for the manufacture of porcelain and thanks to him this is where English china clay was first quarried in the UK and the clay from here was used to make the first British porcelain .  

Above is a tankard made by William Cookworthy, using kaolin mined at Tregonning Hill, dated March 14, 1768. It was the first piece of hard-paste porcelain ever produced in Britain.

I headed back down the hill , as I re-entered the woods I spotted  two red admiral butterflies fluttering in a glade . Lower down in one of the car parks a Song thrush loudly sang it's beautiful melody. I headed back to my van via a different route through the woods and crossed over a small clear brook.

Part 2. 

The day-trip was not over however as on the way , just before reaching Godolphin , I had spotted a lay by in the valley of the Hayle river . On the way back I decided to park at the layby and study Google maps. I walked along a track through more woods and came to a lovely spot next to the river. The grass banks have been used by picnickers for many generations I'm sure. Near the river on private land was a small lake covered in lilies and other aquatic vegetation. Across the river was a campsite on a farm. I could hear children playing and it brought back my childhood memories camping with my parents and sister. 

From there I followed a narrow track that entered into lovely pine woodland .. I love pine trees. The track went up and down over old mine workings. Deeper into the woods the trees transitioned into mainly broadleaf species, mainly Oak if I remember correctly. I came to an offshoot of the Hayle river that meandered through the woods, it was very idyllic , the water being clear, shallow and clean.  

And so ends this day trip to Tregonning hill, I hope you enjoyed reading. 

History of Godolphin House (borrowed from National Trust website.)

The medieval period

In the medieval period Godolphin Hill was probably common land to several local hamlets and used as a source of rabbits and seasonal berries. Evidence of surface mining and streaming have been found across the estate dating to this time.

A rising powerful family

It was during the medieval period that the Godolphin estate started to form. A rising powerful family called Godolgun acquired the land around the 12th century and built a defended house on the land around the late 13th century to early 14th century. Moated homes were built at the time to protect stock and produce from common thieves.

A defended house

Evidence of a defended house here comes principally from two sources. In 1478 William Worcestre included ‘ruined’ Castle Godollan in the settlement of Lodollan (Godolghan), in his list of Cornish Castles. Then, John Leland, writing in the late 1530s, tells of a ditch, and a pile of principal habitation of the ‘Godolcans’. 

Tudor and Stuart history

Between the 15th and 17th centuries the family name changed from Godolghan to Godolphin. This was seen as a more agreeable name to the English elite with whom the family had increasing ties. 

Mining intensified in the Great Work area as the tin lodes became exploited, leading to a great increase in the Godolphin family's wealth.

A deer park and rabbit warren

The hill and many fields were given over to a deer park and rabbit warren. These rabbit breeding grounds were a source of high-status meat and fur.

The deer park was used to farm for venison, but also would have been used for hunting as a leisure activity. 

View across fields at Goldolphin House, in Cornwall, with abandoned pit head buildings in the foreground

The Napoleonic Wars

Some of the boundaries surrounding the estate were built by prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. The Duke of Leeds had connections with prisoner of war camps and was able to source labour to work on the land.

These boundary styles are very rare and, outside of the Godolphin estate, they can only be found at Morvah in Cornwall and around Dartmoor prison in Devon.

The Duke of Leeds

In 1909 the 10th Duke of Leeds made a special visit to Godolphin. This was only the second visit, on record, that the Dukes of Leeds made to Godolphin in the 134 years they owned the estate.

A book was created to mark this event, with all the farm tenants listed in it, which can be found in our collections.

A special gift

This visit was quite an event; all the farm tenants at Godolphin pooled together some money to purchase a silver greyhound. The Duke was an all-round sportsman and was noted for breeding and racing greyhounds.

A world heritage site

On 13 July 2006 ten mining landscapes across Cornwall and West Devon were announced as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From 1700 to 1914, the metal mining industry played a vital role in transforming the way of life in Britain. It provided essential raw materials to feed the Industrial Revolution.

Mining at Godolphin continued up to the 20th century, although it flourished around the late 18th century, much earlier than other Cornish sites.

Trip to Ponferrada, the Barcena Reservoir and Cubillos del Sil , Northern Spain.

I had been travelling around Northern Spain and my next stop was Ponferrada , a city I knew nothing about except that a major river called the Sil ran through the city. I was interested in seeing this river as 50 miles to the East is a scenic area called the Canyon del Sil. North of this high canyon is a region of forest and countryside that I have read is full of abandoned villages . That morning I took the train from León . As I left León the countryside changed from open arable fields to dry sandy coloured hills /small mountains  scattered with Pine and other trees. It became more densely wooded approaching Ponferrada and as we arrived at the town we crossed a bridge over a deep wooded river valley, almost a canyon,  with the town on one side . I happily realised that this was going to be quite a scenic area. 

I got off the train and set off on what was going to be a fairly long walk through the city to the hostel I had booked. 

I walked from the station along a road that was pleasantly lined with Lime trees. Then I had to turn left and go through a tunnel under the railway line. I was now in the city proper and followed my map along the roads in the direction of the River Sil. The city roads in Ponferrada were lined on either side with buildings averaging 5 to 10 stories high,  mostly apartments above with shops on the ground floor ...  this is typical of city roads in Spain. I came to a busy roundabout called Plaza Luis del Olmo which has a fantastic, round, multiple-jetted fountain in the centre. I wondered why many cities in Spain can afford to have so many lovely fountains, most of which actually work ... quite a contrast to most cities in Britain . Our fountains, if we have any, are usually not functional and full of litter with the exception maybe of the ones in the tourist areas of central London .

Luis del Olmo , whom the plaza was named after, was born on January 31, 1937 in Ponferrada. He is an actor, known for Tres Días de Libertad (1996), Los Embarazados (1982) and Las Siete y Media musical (1973). He's a prestigious Spanish journalist who has worked mainly in the radio. His program "Protagonistas" was broadcast for more than 30 years.

I crossed the roundabout and continued along the Avenida el Castillo until I came to the river Sil.

My plan was to follow the riverside walk upstream to the next bridge where I would have to cross over the bridge to get to the area of city where my hostel was. 

The riverside walk had trees and shrubs on either side of the path and down below to my right was the River Sil . The distance from the source of the Sil, as the crow flies, to Ponferrada is 40 miles but that doesn't take into account all the meanders. The Sil is already quite wide and deep here, even though it's waters have many miles yet to travel before they reach the confluence with the river Minho near Ourense. 

On an elevated plateau of rock on the opposite bank of the river, above the stands of mature trees I could now see the Castle of Ponferrada, the Castillo de los Templarios. It is certainly a decent size castle, I  took measurements using Google earth,  the maximum length of the castle is 180 metres and the maximum width is 90 metres .

The Templar Castle was commissioned by King Ferdinand II in 1178 AD. It was built to protect pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago. The castle was named after the famous Knights Templar, who defended the town in the 12th century. The Knights Templar were highly skilled warriors and played a significant role in the Crusades. 

I walked upstream along the riverside path , the river to my right was very clear and although quite deep I could see the bottom. It contained plenty of aquatic vegetation , streamer weeds etc. and I guessed the water quality is quite good as it mainly passes down through wooded mountain valleys, with few industrial areas.

I came to the bridge that Ponferrada is named after .. the Puente Cubelos ( Pons Ferrata ). Pons Ferrata means Iron bridge . It is a 19th century stone bridge built in the place where there was once a medieval bridge that was strengthened with iron. This bridge is on the Camino Santiago route and for hundreds of years many thousands of pilgrims have crossed the river here on their way to Santiago de Compostela to the west. 

This is the bridge I had to cross to get to the area of city where my hostel was located. I had to climb quite a large flight of stone steps to get onto the high bridge . As I crossed the bridge I stopped halfway across and took in the great scenery , the castle up on my left , the dark deep river below and the main city to my right. Down in the river I spotted a large trout of about 3lb swimming against the current near the surface. 

Next I spent a considerably long time finding my hostel in the maze of streets near the castle. I didn't have any internet so couldn't use Google maps. In the end I went in a bar and the bar lady used her phone and showed me where to go. I thanked her and said I'd be back for a beer later that evening. 

My hostel , Albergue el Templarin , was good value just £12 for a bed in a dormitory, this hostel mainly caters for pilgrims.  The receptionist, a young lady was very friendly and helpful . I put my rucksack in the locker provided and, keeping my promise, headed back to the bar I visited earlier to relax and watch the Euros football semifinal ...Spain v France . final score 2-1 to Spain . They would be playing England in the final .  

Above : Albergue El Templarin, the Hostel I stayed at in Ponferrada. 

After studying the maps I was very keen to visit the very large,  raindrop-shaped reservoir just north-east of Ponferrada called the Embalse de Bárcena. That evening whilst watching the football I also researched online what the best way would be to get to the reservoir. I would need to get a bus to the village of Cubillos del Sil,  which is located just about a kilometer from the reservoir. The bus leaves twice a day from  Ponferrada bus station.

The main, oval section of the Embalse de Bárcena measures 3 miles in length and 1.3 miles wide . However there is a long narrow offshoot to the north that's approx a further 3 miles long. 

The Barcena dam, located on the river Sil upstream from Ponferrada , was built in 1960 , and holds 341 Hm3 of water. 

Next morning I set off for the main bus station which was a fair distance from my hostal. In the end I caught a local town bus to the bus station to save a long walk. 

I had quite a bit of time to spare when I got to the bus station so I walked a couple of blocks further to the large shopping mall.. the Centro Comercial El Rosal. I was having problems with my phone, the data wasn't working . I went into the Vodafone shop there and the chap got it working.  

My bus left Ponferrada at 14.30 and only took about half an hour to get to Cubillos del Sil. I asked to be dropped off as near to the reservoir as possible, so the bus driver dropped me just before Cubillos and showed me which way to walk. It was a bonus having my phones data working at last, as I was able to use google maps to find my way around. 

To get to the Embalse I had to follow a long, quite straight road . Houses were along one side of the road and on the other side was a fenced- off area of trees and grassland , in the distance was an enormous industrial area with large buildings and two very tall chimneys . 

This is the Compostilla thermal power plant. This power station opened in 1961 or 1972 ( varying sources) and subsequently expanded until 1985. It had fairly recently closed, in June 2020, when its capacity was just over 1,000 MW (Megawatts). The huge complex occupies a total area of about 375 hectares. The plant has five thermal units: units 1 and 2 have been completely dismantled, while work is underway on the others.

 Owned and operated by  Spain’s biggest electric utility company Endesa.  It was developed with 1.3GW installed capacity comprising five coal-fired units commissioned between 1961 and 1985.

Also close to the road I noticed a storks nest high up on a pole just visible amongst the trees. I walked along the straight road past spaced out houses on the left . It was another very hot day. I came to a roundabout and all around me was dry scrubby countryside . I could hear Spanish trance music being played from someone's garden. In the distance all around were big mountains. I felt I was in the middle of nowhere, In a place I knew nothing about , it was a weird yet good feeling. 

I continued straight across the roundabout and before long the reservoir came into view . The road came to a very large gravel car park . I could see this spot is a popular picnic area at the weekends , however there was only two cars this particular week day.  To the left and right of the carpark were two areas of mature pine woodland . The woodland on the left was much larger and followed along the lake shore quite some distance.The high hills next to the lake were also covered in large areas of pine forest.

I walked through the pine woods on my right till I  got to the lake shore. As is my usual custom I walked along the shore and scanned the water for signs of fish. The reservoir was extremely high ... probably at it's maximum height with water spilling over onto the grass . I came to a small area of reeds and pondweed in middle of such I saw the dorsal fin and back of a small mirror carp maybe only 1 or 2 lb. It was feeding head down into the mud. Further along was a small shoul , five or six , young largemouth bass. 

I headed back under the pine  trees to sit on a picnic bench and chill for a while. These were mature pine trees probably 65 years old , tall with a minimum trunk girth of two feet. The bark was deeply fissured. The species was probably Pinus pinaster, the Maritime pine, common in northern Spain . 

I continued along the lakeside a couple of hundred metres  till I came to a square concrete building covered in graffiti which I think was the pumping house to pump water into the power station for cooling. 

From here was a good view of the power station. I then walked back along an access road in the direction I came from . Pine forest was on both sides of the road. I noticed a round concrete water-storage tank high up on a bank in the woods . Upon examination it was empty. I thought to myself it would make a good little dwelling if a tarp roof was put over it . Anyone living there would be safe from wild boar etc.,  protected by the concrete walls.

When I got to the end of the access road I noticed, in a field of long grass , an abandoned bungalow . There are many abandoned buildings in rural Spain in the 20th century many people moved to towns and cities when it became a legal requirement for children to go to school.

I went and had a close up look at the house which was locked and had been recently given new doors and boarded up to improve the appearance. It was empty inside. I then noticed another similar abandoned house set way back in the same field. I went and looked at that house , it was less secured and youth had been in and drawn graffiti all over the walls.

After looking at the ababndoned houses I thought it might be interesting to look at an abandoned train station nearby . I found two train hangars and had a snoop around them .. I decided they might be useful if I ever needed a place to sleep rough. 

I next started to walk past the roundabout mentioned previously into the actual village of Cubillos del Sil . 

I came to some traditional old Leonese buildings on the outside of the village ... see photos below. 

 The roofing tiles are particularly interesting as they are made of slates in different shapes and sizes. But also the stone walls are an assortment of different coloured and different shaped stones , some are round river stones, probably taken from alluvial soils near the river Sil, others are more angular , maybe quarried from the nearby mountains. 

I sat down on a bench near the old houses and a local old timer came around the corner and we started chatting in Spanish.  He's lived here all his life and used to work in the power station.

My bus was due to arrive in the village at a certain time that evening , I had a beer in one of the bars then  waited at the bus stop in the village for my bus. After maybe an hour of waiting it became clear that the bus wasn't going to turn up . This was probably due to the fact that, unbeknownst to me, the approach road was closed due to there being a big show on in the village later that night , the bus had probably been diverted an alternative route that I was unaware of. 

So now I was stuck for the night in Cubillos del Sil , a fairly remote village, I was on a budget and didn't want to pay for a taxi back to Ponferrada. I went back into the bar and asked the landlord whether it was safe to walk back to Ponferrada alongside the lake and river Sil, he said it would be dangerous in the dark mainly due to jabali ( wild boar) roaming the wooded area I would be walking through, it was also a long walk . 

I decided that if I couldn't think of any alternative by the end of the evening then i would stay in the train hangars I had looked at earlier.

Meanwhile I thought I might as well go and look at the show which was now underway in a big grassy area in the middle of the village. 

There was a large stage with lots of lighting and maybe 20 singers /dancers covering well known songs of the last three decades, some in Spanish some in English .

The village green started filling up with many locals  as the night progressed with especially lots of teenagers , I expect quite a lot of the people came from Ponferrada nearby. There were market stalls around the green selling, sweets,  burgers etc   I bought myself a jumbo hot dog

The performers were in colourful modern costumes and danced and sang well, getting the audience to participate. 

I stayed watching the show till around midnight then made my way out of the village to the abandoned train hangars. Thankfully I had my head torch with me. There was a piece of ply wood near the back of one of the hangers and a blanket caked in areas with dry mud. It looked liked someone else had slept here quite a while ago. 

I was a bit nervous / over-paranoid about wild animals coming into the hangars ( wild boar, rats etc.) whilst I sleeping. There were lots of small bits of railway sleeper  scattered through the hangar so I collected them and lit a small fire near where I was going to sleep. I then settled down onto the plywood, using the  blanket as a mattress and my coat as a blanket. I drifted off to sleep for a while then woke after some time and added wood the fire. Then I went back to sleep for the rest of the night.

I woke at about 6 or 7 am after not a bad night's sleep, considering. The birds were singing and it was a lovely morning in the Spanish countryside. I went for a walk and found more abandoned station buildings including the main train station. If I were to follow the paths of the old tracks towards the mountains I would come to a series of tunnels which emerge out at intervals alongside the reservoir. Hopefully  I will visit again ( next time maybe with fishing gear) and will explore these tunnels and the forest around them , and also do a bit of fishing for trout, carp and bass.

The bus turned up in the morning and I got back to my hostel in Ponferrada . The girl who works there was wondering where I had gone for the night being as I had booked for the hostel. I told her what happened and she looked surprised and a bit sorry for me . Recently I was looking at my booking history on booking.com and noticed that they never charged me for the night I got stuck in Cubillos, so wow thanks to that hostel I'll definitely come back there God willing. Later that day I got a coach west to Oviedo in Galicia and that may appear in another chapter or a different book. 

So ends my adventure to Ponferrada, Cubillos del Sil and the Barcena reservoir. As I already said I hope to visit this region again soon and hopefully do some trout fishing. There's a chap on YouTube who's channel is called "Old School Hisma" who fishes in the rivers and lakes of this region, some of these rivers are beautiful set in deep wooded canyons , and full of trout , inspiring me to come back.