The Cornish Skyline

A 17 mile Fell / Moor land route taking in the highest points of Bodmin Moor, the highest overall area of Cornwall. An individual challenge for you to have a go at, a great day out on the moor or a speed challenge for those wishing to put up fast times on the route and see who is fastest!

This route has been officially logged on the international Fastest Known Time website and is to be approached in the vein of classic long distance UK challenges such as the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, Welsh 3000’ers and other fell running challenges such as the Bob Graham Round etc.

It is taken on for the challenge and self accomplishment of a good day out in a wilder place! As such you should only venture out onto the moor properly equipped for the time of year, conditions and weather, with adequate provision of safety kit to look after yourself and the ability to navigate your way around the route.

A brief history of the route; The Cornish Skyline was to be one of the races Freedom Racing launched with, in 2016, but it wasn’t to be as we weren’t able to gain permissions for doing it. We had regularly run on Bodmin Moor for years, and would generally do the same route, which became some of the loop of the Skyline. The race didn’t happen, others came along instead, and in the end I deleted the route from my online OS maps account and hadn’t thought about it for a good while…

Until May 2020 when I messaged our friend Will, to ask him for some tips on Vegan Lasagne (he makes epic vegan lasagnes…) and in chatting told him of an FKT idea I’d had up in the Lake District that I was going to hit soon, and mentioned an old route I’d made on Bodmin Moor, and would he like me to send it to him. He wrote out his super-good recipe for vegan lasagne for us - and I put the route into my mapping again and sent it to him, the rest is history…! Here is; Will’s Killer Vegan Lasagne Recipe!

Rules & Info for an official round of the route, to gain inclusion in our Hall of Fame list of ‘completers’ below;

  • A map of the route is here; https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/4989142/Cornish-Skyline

  • A rough GPX file of the route can be downloaded here. This will get you round the route, in about the shortest distance, but will not be on the optimum lines that you could take!

  • Start / Finish - is by TOUCHING the big wooden sign post of Jamaica Inn, outside the front of the pub!

  • High points - most of the tors have a small pile of stones / marker at the top. You need to touch that on your run (as you do in other fellrunning challenges). For Beacon Hill the corner fence post is ‘the top’. Other notable points must be visited, such as Black Rock, just after Beacon Hill. Your run route map shows us you visited these spots.

  • Support runners / pacers are allowed, and as in all fell running classic ‘rounds’ they can carry your gear though there are not really any obvious ‘change over’ points where support runners could swap over.

    Solo or Supported/Unsupported completions will be specified in the Hall of Fame results table.

    The completion will be marked as Supported if you do it as a pair or part of a group when you all stay together or if you are running it at the same time as friends but essentially doing your own thing.

    For eligible Fastest Know Time runs the above points are important, but you will also need to read up on their rules before your attempt to make sure you are eligible should your time be the fastest so far! This is up to the individual challenger to qualify and contact FKT about!

  • Take it on - You can do the challenge solo, or you can do it relaxed with friends as a good day out on the moor

  • You can have support meeting you on the route to resupply / cheer you on (Rough Tor area would probably be the best for this)

  • Rough Tor - You do not have to scramble up to the very highest point as some may find it challenging and in a FKT attempt could be a potential accident spot. To make it fair to all you just need to run along the Rough Tor ridge, to the base of the actual summit tor and touch it before descending off the hill top.

  • Follow the Countryside code when on the moor, especially the basics such as keeping dogs on a lead during lambing season, respecting that the moor is all privately owned and NOT a national park and to make sure to close all gates and take your litter home. The route is on open access land, but in places is adjacent to private fields/land with no access right. These are fairly obvious; if there is no stile or visible path crossing a field boundary then check your map!

  • Acknowledgement - You need to show proof of having done the route. This can be via a Strava link to your run, or your Suunto/Garmin record. Basically we will need to see the route you took to confirm you visited the tops or points necessary, the distance recorded and time you took and if you were un-supported or not. Include a landscape photo of yourself on the route that can be included in this webpages imagery. This can either be shared on social media with @freedomracing tagged so we see it, messaged to us via the Freedom Racing facebook page or emailed to tom@freedom-racing.co.uk.

  • TIME - We need the TOTAL TIME you took to do the whole route, ie from the time you left the sign post of the Jamaica Inn until you got back to it. To be included in the Hall of Fame completers list this is a compulsory requirement and not fair on others if you are listed for the ‘moving time’ that Strava shows and not the total time!

  • Tip - Those trying for a fast time and wanting to compete/compare with others at the faster end of the finishers will run it far faster if they know the moor and have reccied the route enough. There is lots of rougher, tussocky ground between some of the hilltops, but if you go and learn the little paths and trods that link up then you will find the best running lines and be quicker… (for example, people don’t tend to do one of the UK fell running rounds without knowing the ground and best lines; ‘learning’ the route will pay off)

  • The route is to be run anti-clockwise. The points / tops you must visit are;

    - Beacon Hill 369m (the corner fence post is ‘the top’ - do not go over the fence and into the private field)

    - Black Rock

    - Leskernick Hill 329m

    - Buttern Hill 346m

    - East boundary/corner of Rough Tor Plantation

    - Showery Tor 385m

    - Little Rough Tor 390m

    - Rough Tor 400m

    - Louden Hill 315m

    - King Arthurs Hall

    - ‘Garrow’ settlement

    - Brown Willy 420m

    - Tolborough Tor 348m

skyline map image (1 of 1).jpg

Hall of Fame of Completers, listed in order of finishing times (S = Solo, U = Unsupported, SD = Supported, W = Winter months of December, January & February)

There have been a few people doing DOUBLE completions of the Skyline in big day out too - these are in the list below the standard completers!

2:12:49 - David Starley - 26th August 2023 - S+U

2:15.16 - Paul Crease - 16th July 2020 - S+U

2:19:13 - David Starley - 26th January 2023 - S+U + W

2:21.49 - Marc Smerdon - 5th July 2020 - S+U

2:23.06 - Stuart Walker - 25th April 2021 - S+U

2:24.39 - Will Harper-Penrose - 31st May 2020 - S+U

2:27.09 - Dan Alsop - 12th July 2020 - S+U

F - 2:27.37 - Jo Meek - 28th May 2021 - S+U

2:27.50 - Phil Dawber - 28th July 2020 - S+U

2:29.20 - Chris Madeley - 19th September 2020 - S+U

2:33.50 - Tom Sparkes - 21st June 2020 - SD

2:36.47 - Andy Vallance - 5th July 2020 - SD

2:48 - Ian Boyd-Wallis - 5th May 2023 - S+U

2:48.45 - Nigel Swift - 28th June - S+U

F - 2:53.10 - Joanne Page - 10th July 2020 - S+U

F - 2:55.06 - Jo Meek & Sian Longthorpe - 5th July 2020 - SD

2:57.34 - Tom Carthey & Robin Watson - 5th July 2020 - SD

3:08.20 - Shane Caughey - 11th March 2022 - S+U

3:17.41 - Darren Evans - 18th December 2021 - S+U + W

3:18.46 - Toby Lowe & Daniel Poole - 19th June 2020 - SD

F - 3:18.46 - Gail Hartill - 29th July 2020 - SD

3:20 - Andrew Kartashov - 13th April 2021 - S+U

3:22 - Nick Hearle & David Bishop - 25th October 2022 - SD

3:30 - Jim Briggs - 12th August 2022 - S+U

3:34.16 - Mark Wreford, Adrian Sandry, Sean Marsh, Scott Robinson, Gary Martin, Neil Helson - 3rd July 2020 - SD

3:39.19 - St Austell Massive (running in 2 groups of 5) - Gav Rowett, Richard Hosken, Mike Gittins, Dan Cocks & Jacob Howard-Endean plus Lee Williams, Dave Grose, Luke Cracknell, Steve Lee & Paul Hughes - 28th June 2020 - SD

3:39.46 - Mark Picken, Andrew James, Richard Wadman - 27th June 2020 - SD

F - 3:41 - Melissa King, Julian Wills, Kasim Langmead and Liam Newton- 24th June 2020 - SD

3:41.56 - Dave Speake - 5th May 2023 - S + U

3:41.11 - John Busustow, Owen Hambly, Joshua Smith, Ollie Rowland - 1st August 2020 - SD

3:47.53 - Steve Crummay - 15th February 2023 - S + U + W

3:48 - Andy Banister - 1st July 2021 - S+U

3:57:06 - Richard Holbrook, Barry Pound, Mark Spear, Luke Cracknell, Dave Huchingson - 2nd April 2023 - SD

F - 4:08.18 - Rosie Edmonds - 22nd August 2020 - S+U

F - 4:08.48 - Christine Fritsch - 15th May 2022 - S+U

F - 4:10.01 - Claire Mensing, Aidan Jepson, Oli Pool, James Skeplorn, Rob Standing - 18th July 2020 - SD

4:12.37 - Adrian Brown - 6th June 2021 - S

F - 4:14.57 - Suzanne Williams & Matt Johns - 5th July 2020 - SD

4:15.9 - John Bosustow - 5th July 2020 - SD

F - 4:16 - Anna Gough & Neil Helson - 12th July 2020 - SD

4:22.08 - Yelda Muge Parsons, Gemma Finnegan, Ashley Davis, Sean Marsh, Bill Deakin - 3rd October 2021

F - 4:44 - Lizzie Mcintosh, Anna Herbert & Christian Wilson -28th June 2020 - SD

F - 4:50:39 - Sue Sykes & John Busustow - 16th October 2022 - SD

F - 5:11 - Anna Jenkins & Anna Shekdhar - 20th June 2021- SD

F - 5:26.33 - Lerryn Udy- 25th June 2020 - S+U

6:02.13 - Rob Thompson and Austen Osborne - 21st November 2020 - SD

F - 6:45.05 - Sally Greene & Corinne Share - 5th September 2020 - SD

F - 6:46.24 - Ali Campbell & Caroline Studd - 8th June 2020 - SD

7:14.21 - Peter Pascoe & Mark Smitheram (did 19.7 miles total after route issues) - 24th June 2020

7:53.02 - Luke Elliot & Rob Young - 10th November 2020

DOUBLE SKYLINERS (circa 53km & 2200m)

7:41 - Jonathon Milton - 9th November 2022 - S+U

8.36 - Anna Jenkins - 9th August 2021 - SD