Legend has it that a giant once lived on Carn Brea. While we can’t quite promise you’ll meet a living, breathing giant on your visit to the famous hill that reaches 738 feet above sea level, we can promise you a monumental encounter of a different kind. Standing at over 90ft high, the Basset Monument can be seen from all over Cornwall’s high grounds and looms over the mining towns of Redruth and Camborne.
The towering granite Celtic cross is an eternal memorial to the industrial past of this part of Cornwall and to one of the area’s most notable sons in particular. Erected in 1836, it commemorates the life of Francis Basset, a local mine owner who became popular in the vicinity after his efforts to improve the lot of the miners who worked for him. He was, in fact, made Baron de Dunstanville in 1779 after he marched a brigade of his miners from Camborne to Plymouth in a bid to shore up the city’s defences against Spanish and French invaders.
Some may say Basset, who was a philanthropist and was opposed to the Atlantic slave trade, wasn’t loved by all in his district. He suppressed a miners’ ‘food riot’ in 1785. He came from a family that could have done much more for miners’ rights over 700 years. But that said, when he died in 1835, it is believed that more than 20,000 people formed a funeral procession and that all the local mines were shut. Funds that were raised after his death were used to build the giant obelisk that today bears his name on Carn Brea.
Although the monument can be seen from all around this area of the county, it’s worth a special trip up the hill to take in its size up close. It will literally take your breath away as you gaze upwards at the mammoth hexagonal tower. While here, also visit the neighbouring Carn Brea Castle that looks like it’s out of a Brothers Grimm fairytale. And take in those surrounding vistas. We recommend the walk up from the site of one of Basset’s mines near Carnkie, although it’s possible to drive to the top of Carn Brea on a fairly pot-holed road. Whichever way you reach the summit, we promise you a visit that will leave you on a massive high for weeks to come.