A Long Walk Through Historic Falmouth

1 The walk starts from the Moor, once a tidal creek and now a rather traffic-bound focal point of the town's busy commercial life. Walk down Killigrew Street on the south side of the Moor, then cross High Street onto the Prince of Wales Quay from where you get a long view of Falmouth's waterfront.

2 Return from the Quay and turn left into Market Street, the first of Falmouth's linked main thoroughfares. Market Street merges with Church Street, which in turn merges with Arwenack Street at the handsome Church of St Charles the Martyr. All the way along these busy, shop-lined streets you can divert left to the waterfront quays of Fish House Quay by the Grapes Inn, Upton Slip in Church Street, where you find the colourful figurehead of an old ship, the Amazon, and Custom House Quay, reached from Arwenack Street. Here you find a tall red-brick chimney stack, the King's Pipe, once used to burn smuggled tobacco confiscated by excisemen.

3 From the end of Arwenack Street continue along Grove Place and Bar Road, passing the well-preserved medieval manor house of Arwenack on the right. Opposite Arwenack is an ugly granite obelisk of the late 18th century. Cross over at a junction with Avenue Road, then, opposite the entrance to Falmouth Docks, bear right and go under a railway bridge. Cross, with care, at a roundabout, then continue up the road opposite, signposted 'Pendennis Castle'. Keep right at the top of the rise and go along Castle Drive, then turn right into Cliff Road.

4 Pass above the south-facing Castle Beach and Tunnel Beach, into 'seaside resort' Falmouth. On the inland side of the road stands a line of handsome hotels. Reach an eerie well-staircase that leads down to a tunnel and a viewpoint. At road level ahead is a little Gothic folly. Cross Cliff Road, just before the folly, and with care, and go up the left hand walkway of Gyllyngdune Gardens.

5 Go down right, where the walkway forks, and pass through a little sunken garden, then continue up the other side past two shell grottoes, to reach a gate into the marvellous garden patio of the Princess Pavilion.

6 Leave by the opposite corner and pass by the theatre box office, going left, then right, then left again and out of the Pavilion gates. Turn down right to a T-junction with Melvill Road. Cross the road diagonally right and go down some steps, then turn right along Avenue Road.

7 Follow the road downhill and go beneath a railway bridge, then turn left along the central, tree-lined parade of Arwenack Avenue. Walk between the flanking pillars at the end of the avenue, cross the street and keep ahead along Gyllyng Street to its end. Keep up to the left by a telephone kiosk and then continue along Vernon Place. Bear round to the left by the Jacob's Ladder pub, then, just opposite the pub, turn right, brace yourself, and descend carefully back to the Moor down Jacob's Ladder. The 111 steps were built here by a local merchant, Jacob Hamblyn, in the 19th century as a more convenient link between his house and workshop.