A run of cascades where the River Fowey tumbles through an old oak wood on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor
Golitha Falls is not one big drop but a series of cascades and rushing pools where the River Fowey works its way down a wooded gorge on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor. It is a small National Nature Reserve, and the pull of it is the setting as much as the water: oak woodland, a good chunk of it ancient, hung with mosses, ferns and lichens in the damp air off the river. In autumn it is especially good, with the leaves turning and the river high.
The walking is easy and family-friendly. From the car park a level path follows the river down into the gorge, with the cascades opening up as you go, and you can turn back whenever you like rather than committing to a loop. It gets slippery near the water and there are no barriers, so keep children and dogs in hand along the edges, and steer clear of the rocks when the river is running high.
It sits handily for the rest of this corner of Cornwall. The village of St Neot is close by, and up on the moor to the north-east you have the strange stack of granite slabs called The Cheesewring and the three Bronze Age stone circles known as the Hurlers. The reserve joins onto the wider Upper Fowey Valley if you want to walk further along the river.
