Spurring southwards off Powisland Drive, Roborough we find Caradon Close sporting views over Caradon one of the six districts that make up the neighbouring county of Cornwall.
With a population in the region of 80,000 – well under a third of that of Plymouth – Caradon district extends over some 256 square miles and is bounded to the west by the River Fowey and to the east by the Tamar. Its northern extremity runs through Bodmin Moor and includes most of the southern half of that area.
The district itself takes its name from Caradon Hill, famous in recent years for the television mast that it has on its summit. Nearby is the hamlet of Caradon but the name appears to have come originally from the hill for all the early spellings give the first element as Carn, a common place-name element in Cornwall (Carnglaze, Carnewas, Carn Boel, etc.), meaning tor or rock, with the second element dun or don, which is an old English term for hill.
