St Teath circular
St Teath village is a little under 2½ miles away: a circular walk from Tom’s Cottage would be to walk out the entrance lane & turn left, continue to the grass triangle & turn right around a bend (signposted St Teath), continue down-hill past Treroosal Farm and enter St Teath village. Turn right at the T junction to reach the centre of village (White Hart on the left, Churchtown Café a little further on the left).
Turn right at the clock tower to start return leg (entrance to churchyard immediately on the left here), follow the road down & up, along a flat-ish stretch and down & up again to reach a crossroads. Turn right here (signposted Delabole), continue past Cornish Tipis entrance, over an old railway bridge on a bend, and Tom’s Cottage entrance will be on the left after about ¼ mile.
Trekee circular
A shorter version of the St Teath walk mentioned above (a bit over half the distance): turn left out of Tom’s Cottage’s entrance lane & take the 1st right. Follow through Trekee farm, up a short hill & on to a T junction. Turn right and follow the road down and up a valley to the crossroads; turn right and pass Cornish Tipis, continue till you find Tom’s Cottage entrance on the left.
Along the Trekee road (on a corner at the top of the hill, by Higher Suffenton entrance) is a footpath across fields that leads to almost St Teath village – it comes out in Rosewater caravan park at the bottom of Treroosal hill.
St Kew circular
Various versions of this walk can be found in books and online and the St Kew Inn is a great refreshment stop part way. One leg of it is to turn right out of Tom’s Cottage entrance to the crossroads, turn right, go down & up hill, pass Tregildrens Farm on the right and almost immediately on the left is ‘Blackydown Lane’ (a bridleway). Walk up this green lane to the very end, through the gate into the field and follow the left hedge down through Lannow and out onto the public road. Turn left for St Kew churchtown to the pub.
The return route we’re a little hazier on, but involves walking the country lanes to Trequite (not far from St Kew, and a pretty hamlet), turning left and finding the footpath on the left at the end of the hamlet which takes you up over fields to the hamlet of Trelill, from where you’d walk the country lanes back to the crossroads, going straight across (for Delabole) until you reach Tom’s Cottage entrance on the left.
Barrett’s Zawn, out & back
This is closest point of the coast-path to Tom’s Cottage. Take a picnic to enjoy at ‘Freshwater’ (the grassy banks of the stream where it flows over rocks to join the sea) …
Walk up the entrance lane, turn left & follow road (bearing left around a corner) to ‘China Downs’ junction on the B3314 (by a white cottage). Beware of fast traffic here, but go straight across the main road, signposted Port Gaverne. Continue for about ¼ mile to the first farm entrances (Higher Hendra on the left and Middle Hendra on the right) – to this point from Tom’s Cottage is about 1¼ miles.
Turn right into Middle Hendra, as if entering the farmyard. Follow the left-hand hedge which will lead you into a track, follow the track past a cottage to a gate into a sloping field below the cottage. Walk the length of the field toward the sea (keeping the wooded valley to your right) to a wooden railed entrance to a footpath.
Follow this path through the thorn alley and on down the valley path down to the sea edge, where it joins the coast-path (Freshwater). You’ll pass Barrett’s Zawn on your left over a great drop below: there is an old smuggler’s tunnel down to the beach but only the bold and local youths ever dare venture down it (unadvisable without local knowledge). If you’re lucky you may see a seal in the water from the clifftop.
Amble back at your leisure, grateful that the picnic bag is lighter on the return ascent – don’t forget to pause and glance back: the view changes as you go!