Cornish Tales: From Bronze Age Barrows to Surf Breaks

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Newquay audio tour: Cornish Tales: From Bronze Age Barrows to Surf Breaks

This is a 2.6mi walking tour

It takes an average of 60 mins to complete.

Newquay

The United Kingdom

$8.99

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About the Tour

Please Note

The South West Coast Path toward Newquay harbour has suffered a landslip, there is a diversion in place, please follow the diversion, this will mean missing part of the tour temporarily.

Cornwall’s north coast has always been shaped by its relationship with the Atlantic.

On this coastal audio tour, you’ll discover how Newquay became Cornwall’s premier surfing destination – and how it still maintains deep connections to its ancient past. You’ll explore cliff-top paths where Bronze Age settlers once traded tin across Europe, and learn how smugglers, saints, and surfers have all left their mark on these golden shores.

The tour starts at Fistral Beach, Newquay’s world-famous surfing hotspot where waves can reach an impressive 30 feet when the Cribbar reef is firing. You’ll follow the South West Coast Path, England’s longest marked coastal trail, and walk along rocky headlands overlooking Little Fistral’s wilder, hidden cove.

Along the way, you’ll learn how Celtic saints arrived by boat in the 5th century, bringing Christianity to these pagan shores, and how pilchards once fueled Cornwall’s economy before modern fishing practices changed everything. You’ll also find out how local fishermen once resisted the hotel’s construction, even pushing the foreman’s hut into the Atlantic during its controversial beginnings.

The tour ends at the Barrowfields, ancient burial mounds dating back over 3,000 years, where Bronze Age traders once gazed out at the same ocean you’ll be admiring.

On this 60-minute tour, you’ll have a chance to:

Visit Newquay’s historic harbor, where permission to build a “new quay” in 1439 gave the town its name
Explore the weathered Huer’s Hut, where lookouts once shouted “Hevva!” when pilchard shoals appeared
Stroll down Fore Street, Newquay’s oldest working thoroughfare, which has evolved from fishing artery to tourist hotspot
Walk along Treffry’s industrial tramway that once connected mines to the harbor, and hear tales of mermaids at Tolcarne Beach
See the unique Island House, reached by the UK’s only privately-owned suspension bridge
Discover the Fly Cellars where women once packed barrels of pilchards for export to Mediterranean markets
Learn how the Headland Hotel became famous as the filming location for Roald Dahl’s The Witches in 1990

By the end of this tour, you’ll have experienced Newquay beyond the surf beaches, and discovered how centuries of seafaring history have shaped this vibrant Cornish town.

Tour Producer

Penelewey Tours

6 tours

Hi, I’m Becky Frost, a proud Cornish storyteller and founder of Penelewey Tours and Penelewey Audio Story Tours, also known as PAST. I create immersive walking audio tours and GPS guided audio experiences on the VoiceMap platform, bringing history, culture, and place vividly to life across Cornwall, the South West of England and beyond.

I specialise in historical walking audio tours, indoor audio guides, and place based storytelling for heritage sites, cultural organisations, cities, and coastal towns. My work covers research, scriptwriting, narration, and delivery of audio tours from concept through to launch, ensuring each experience is authentic, accessible, and thoughtfully paced.

As a fisherman’s daughter raised by the sea, storytelling has always been part of my world. My work is rooted in landscape, memory, and the voices of ordinary people, those whose stories are often walked past rather than truly heard. Through carefully researched and locally voiced audio tours, I invite listeners to slow down and connect with the layers of history beneath their feet.

My greatest fascination lies in the Celtic period, shaped by the movement of people, ideas, trade, and shared culture, alongside Cornwall’s long history of resilience and its ongoing fight to retain identity and land. These themes run quietly through my work, blending local history with wider European narratives in a way that feels grounded and human.

I have been commissioned to create audio interpretation for one of Cornwall’s most significant historic religious buildings, alongside developing audio tours for towns, cities, and coastal places across the region. Accessibility and inclusivity sit at the heart of everything I do, audio tours allow people to explore independently, at their own pace, using their own devices, supporting different learning styles and access needs.

My narration is delivered in a clear English accent with a soft Cornish tone, warm, calm, and welcoming, designed to feel like walking alongside a local rather than being lectured. I write, research, and voice my tours myself, ensuring clarity, care, and authenticity from start to finish.

We don’t walk past history with audio tours, we walk through it.

Preview Location

Location 11

Masters of metal

Continue on the tarmacked footpath.

Cornwall’s north coast has always been a place of hidden wealth, riches dug from the ground, hauled from the sea, or quietly slipped ashore under cover of night.

Long before smugglers or miners, the Cornish were already masters of meta... Continue on the tarmacked footpath.

Cornwall’s north coast has always been a place of hidden wealth, riches dug from the ground, hauled from the sea, or quietly slipped ashore under cover of night.

Long before smugglers or miners, the Cornish were already masters of metal. Archaeologists have found evidence of gold mining in Cornwall as early as 1800 BC, on the south coast, Restronguet Creek. Traces of that same gold were identified in the Nebra Sky Disc, discovered in Germany, one of Europe’s oldest astronomical artefacts. Its gold lines, drawn from Cornish ore, prove that this small corner of the world was trading precious metal across the continent nearly 4,000 years ago.

By the Bronze Age, tin had become Cornwall’s true treasure. The earliest recorded tin workings appear in classical writings from around 1,000 BC, when traders from the Mediterranean came seeking this essential metal for bronze. The north coast, rich with lodes around St Agnes, Redruth, and St Just, became the engine of an industry that lasted for millennia. Deep, dangerous shafts followed the veins far beneath the cliffs, while women and children worked the ore-dressing floors above.

Slate, too, shaped the coast. Quarries at places like Delabole and Tintagel carved out stone that roofed homes across Britain. Its dark, glinting faces still mark the cliffs where the sea once carried it away by schooner.

And then there was smuggling, the unofficial economy that filled the gaps between tides and taxes. Cornwall’s maze of coves made perfect hiding places for contraband. Tea, brandy, tobacco, and silk were landed under moonlight at places like Trevaunance Cove, Portreath, and Boscastle. Whole communities turned a blind eye, or joined in, fishermen by day, free traders by night. The same skills that guided boats through reefs for pilchards guided them safely home with kegs of brandy and rum.

Further inland, Cornwall’s china clay works reshaped the landscape. From the 18th century, huge pits around St Austell yielded the fine white clay prized for porcelain, paper, and paint. Tramways and harbours such as Charlestown carried it worldwide, and the pale spoil heaps, the so-called “Cornish Alps” still gleam across the horizon.

Walking along on these cliffs today, it’s hard to separate myth from history, but the spirit remains. The Cornish have always lived by tide and trade, by grit and ingenuity. From the gold of Restronguet Creek to the tin of St Agnes and the whispers of smugglers’ lanterns on the rocks, every shimmer of metal and every shadowed cove tells a story of courage, craft, and survival.

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How VoiceMap Works

Focus on your surroundings, not the screen

The VoiceMap app uses GPS to play audio automatically, at the right time and place, so you can focus on your surroundings, not the screen.

Follow a route with turn-by-turn-directions

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a fixed starting point. That lets us give turn-by-turn directions and use context to tell a better story.

Resume playback to go at your own pace

If you'd like to stop for a drink or go into a museum, end your tour then use the Resume feature to pick up exactly where you left off.

Listen as many times as you like

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Major Landmarks

The Headland
Newquay Harbour
The Island House Bridge
Killacourt
Huer's Hut
Barrowfields
The Fly Cellars
Great Western Hotel, Newquay
Newquay War Memorial
The Tram Track

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Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
Fistral Beach, Newquay TR7, UK
Total distance

4km
Final location
The Barrowfields, Narrowcliff, Newquay TR7 2RZ, UK
Distance back to start location

2km

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins in the corner of Fistral Beach Car Park just by the parking meter that's at the sloped entrance to the beach. A great place to have breakfast or a bite of lunch first before your walking tour or as you stroll back for a well earned drink!

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

From start to finish there are benches to have a little rest, cafes, restaurants and bakeries all through he town. There's also some beautiful open spaces to take a picnic or eat a pasty.

Best time of day

You can follow this walking tour at any time of day however, because of the proximity of cliffs top walks and the lively town I suggest doing the tour during day light hours.

Precautions

There are some hills and steps without rails on this tour alongside some uneven paths. The Cornish weather can never be guaranteed so make sure to pack accordingly and wear comfy walking shoes.

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“This app has become my go-to app for audio tours. I pretty much use it for every trip and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend VoiceMap for travelers to truly experience cities.”

App Store Review

“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”

Google Play Store

Last Updated

17 Nov 2025

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Cornish Tales: From Bronze Age Barrows to Surf Breaks

About the Tour

Tour Producer

Penelewey Tours

Preview Location

Location 11

Masters of metal

How VoiceMap Works

Major Landmarks

The Headland

Newquay Harbour

The Island House Bridge

Killacourt

Huer's Hut

Barrowfields

The Fly Cellars

Great Western Hotel, Newquay

Newquay War Memorial

The Tram Track