Top 7 Lakes around St. Day

Breathtaking views. Especially when combined with the blooming heather!

Worth climb to the cairn for the downhill section on the main access road. Then drop into single track round the back lanes of Carharrack. Sweet! :)

Naturist beach with views.

Great view from the dam across the reservoir towards Carn Menellis

Alongside being an ideal place to park your car for a walk around St Stithians Reservoir, there is also a great cafe here at the activity centre. You can hire watersports equipment here, from kayaks to paddleboards to sailing boats or even launch your own craft. There is also a lakeside campsite should you want to stay overnight. For more information check out the website https://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/pages/site/activities/category/stithians-lake

The 7.3 km long circular route takes you back to a time when Cornwall was covered by sea and then became a Europe-wide mountain range. The sedimentary rocks of this area around Portreath were deposited in a deep marine environment during the Devonian age (ca. 393 - 373 million years): Greywacken: Gray rock with fine to coarse grains (0.3 - 2 mm; 0.01 - 0.08 inch), consisting of quartz, feldspars and fragments of foreign rocks. In some cases, shiny/shimmering components can be seen (mica), the rocks form layers and banks. Siltstones: Light gray rock with fine grains (<0.063 mm; <0.002 inch) that are not visible to the naked eye. Layers can be recognized based on the color difference. Slate: Gray to black, sometimes slightly red to greenish colored rocks with very fine grains (<0.02 mm, <0.001 inch), the rocks appear foliated with very thin layers, often alternating with greywackes. The originally horizontal sedimentary layers of Cornwall were tectonically overprinted around 323 - 299 million years ago during the Variscan orogeny (mountain formation). During this time, the southern major continent Gondwana collided with the northern major continents Laurentia and Baltica as well as smaller continent fragments (terranes) such as Avalonia and Amorica. The orogeny ended approximately 270 million years ago with the formation of the supercontinent Pangea. Due to the pressure from the south, the sedimentary rocks were compressed, folded and internally transformed under increasing temperatures. This is how slates emerged from the original claystones. There are no deposits in the area for the period between the formation of the Devonian rocks until 3 million years ago. During the Ice Age 3 million years ago, the region of modern-day Cornwall lay in a tundra area south of the glaciers that covered the Northern Hemisphere. Periglacial deposits from this period can be observed on the cliffs.

To the west of this bay, a rock wall protrudes into the bay and divides it. This wall is the result of long-term erosion, which led to the collapse of a former cave. The name Ralph’s Cupboard comes from a legend that the giant Ralph lived in this bay. This giant attacked the incoming ships and stored the recovered treasures in the cave, his closet. The eastern side of the bay shows a typical cliff with dark gray shales and greywackes at the lower end and periglacial deposits at the upper part of the cliff.

The Stithians Reservoir is a man-made, dammed reservoir dating back to 1962, with construction being completed in five years. The valley behind the dam was flooded, including 274 acres of land and three country houses. On a good day, taking the paths around Stithians Reservoir can often offer plenty to watch, whether that's sailing, windsurfing, kayaking, SUP and canoeing activities on the lake from the watersports centre, or plenty of bird watching and fly fishing to be enjoyed.