Great Flat Lode Trail
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Great Flat Lode Trail is a 12 km (7.5 miles) long circular trail around Carn Brea in West Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, and is one of Cornwall's Mineral Tramway Trails.
The Great Flat Lode is a huge mineral-bearing body located to the south of Carn Brea in West Cornwall. It gains its name from its unusually small gradient of about 10 degrees to the horizontal. Normally lodes lie at between 60 and 90 degrees to the horizontal. "Lode" is a Cornish mining term for a mineral vein. Its small gradient allowed for optimal location of the mines. Its discovery in c.1870 was a huge boost to the Cornish mining industry which was in decline at the time. Many of the mines amalgamated and continued production until the First World War.