Kennall Vale is a Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserve in a steep wooded valley at Ponsanooth, about eight kilometres north of Falmouth on the road to Redruth.
It is a wood full of ruins. Between 1811 and 1910 this was the Kennall Vale Gunpowder Works, one of the main suppliers of blasting powder to the Cornish mining industry, and when it closed the buildings were left where they stood and the wood grew back over them.
The result is a valley of moss-covered granite walls, waterwheel pits, arched leats and dressed stone thresholds under a canopy of oak and beech, with the River Kennall running through it in a series of falls.
Gunpowder manufacture was dispersed by design. The incorporating mills — where saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal were ground together — were built as separate small buildings, spaced apart, with heavy stone on three sides and a light roof and one flimsy wall, so that an explosion would vent in a known direction and not take the whole works with it.
There were explosions. Several, with fatalities.
Water powered everything, so the valley is threaded with leats — engineered channels tapping the river above and running level along the valley side to feed each wheel in turn — with granite launders, sluices and arched crossings. Many of these still carry water, which is why the whole place is wet, mossy and sounding of running water.
Paths run up both sides of the valley and along the river, past the mill ruins in sequence. It is not a long walk — an hour to ninety minutes covers it — but it is uneven, rooty, steep in places and consistently damp.
Visitors describe it as magical and as a trip back in time, and it does have that quality: the combination of industrial masonry and deep green woodland is unlike anything else near Falmouth.
Underfoot: wet granite and moss are slippery. Boots.
Wildlife: dippers and grey wagtails on the river, woodpeckers, bats in the ruins, and a strong showing of ferns, mosses and liverworts — the valley is important for lower plants precisely because it is so wet and shaded.
Bluebells in late April and May.
This needs stating clearly because it is the reserve’s one real drawback: there is no car park.
You park on the residential streets in Ponsanooth village and walk up, and the reserve entrance is up a track from the village. Local signage asks visitors not to block private property or the mill access, and residents are — reasonably — sensitive about it.
Park considerately, read the signs, and expect a short walk in. Do not attempt to drive up the track.
Free, open at all times.
Time: an hour to ninety minutes.
Facilities: none. Nothing at all — no toilets, no café, no bins. Ponsanooth village has a shop and a pub.
Access: not accessible. Steep, uneven, wet paths and steps.
Dogs: welcome under control.
Safety: the ruins are unstabilised, the river has drops, and some structures have open pits. Keep children close.
Ponsanooth, off the A393 between Falmouth and Redruth, about fifteen minutes by road. Buses on the Falmouth–Redruth route stop in the village.
The Kennall Vale gunpowder works, operating from 1811 to 1910, which made blasting powder for the Cornish mines.
No. You park on residential streets in Ponsanooth and walk up. Park considerately — this is a genuine local sensitivity.
Yes, and open at all times.
An hour to ninety minutes round the valley.
No — the paths are steep, rooty, wet and stepped.