Illogan

Illogan is a village and civil parish in west Cornwall, 2 miles northwest of Redruth, sitting between the mining heartland and the north coast at Portreath. The parish church of St Illogan has roots going back to at least 1235, when it was recorded as the Ecclesia of Eglossalau. The current building dates mostly from 1845, designed by J.P. St Aubyn, though the tower and some monuments survive from the earlier structure.

The main draw for visitors is Tehidy Country Park, 250 acres of woodland, lakes, and ornamental gardens that were once the estate of the Basset family. The Bassets held the manor from Norman times and grew wealthy from tin and copper mining - they were one of the four most powerful families in Cornwall. Sir Francis Basset largely financed Cornwall’s first horse-drawn tramroad, which transported copper ore from Poldice to Portreath from 1809. Between 1798 and 1842, 400 acres of Tehidy land were cultivated to feed the influx of miners working the surrounding copper mines. Cornwall County Council purchased the estate in 1983, and the park now contains the largest area of woodland in west Cornwall with over 9 miles of waymarked paths through mature beech and oak. It is free to enter year-round.

Portreath beach is about 2 miles north, accessible by road or by walking through Tehidy Woods. The coast path from Portreath runs east past Porthtowan and west toward Godrevy, offering cliff walks above some of the north coast’s best surf beaches. The village is also well placed for the Mineral Tramways network, a series of cycling and walking trails following former mining routes through the Camborne-Redruth mining district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One route follows the old horse-drawn railway from Portreath to Devoran on the south coast - a line built in 1809 that operated until the 1870s and is now a traffic-free cycle path.