The Restronguet Creek resembles an inland tidal lake, where twice every day the tide draws seawater from the area of the Fal known as the Carrick Roads through a narrow gap called the 'gut'.  The Creek itself covers the area of water from Restronguet Point and Weir Point up to the road bridges at Penpol, Devoran and Perran Wharf adjacent to the A39.

The Creek is fed from the Carnon and the Kennal rivers which flow down from the 'spine' of mid-Cornwall, through an area of once extensive tin and copper mining. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Restronguet Creek was an important industrial waterway, navigable by ships of considerable size, which brought pit props from Norway and Wales for the tin mines of mid-Cornwall; coal from Wales for the smelting works at Point, for the railway and mine engines and for people's homes; lime to slake the acid soil on surrounding farmland; and transported copper ore, which had been brought down the Carnon Valley by the Redruth and Chasewater railway.

Over the 19th and 20th centuries, the Creek has silted up with debris from extensive mining activity in the Carnon Valley and beyond.  The County adit system, which drains the vast area of mineral mining in Cornwall, also flows into the Carnon river at Twelveheads.

Today the Creek is recognised for its beauty, its wildlife and its industrial heritage.