Cornwall's Hidden History Blog
It is fair to say that if you look hard enough every nook and cranny of the Cornish coast has some tale or other to tell. Whether it is shipwrecks, mermaids, ancient cliff castles, strange geology or wily smugglers, it’s really hard to find a cove or cliff without some story attached to it. While […]
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Just when I think I am becoming familiar with our prehistory I discover somewhere new! Warbstow Bury is Cornwall’s second largest and best preserved Iron Age fort. Built around 2500 years ago the impressive concentric rings crown a spur of high ground in North Cornwall close to the River Ottery. On a clear day standing […]
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‘The story goes that one day the devil came to the Tamar from the Devon side and stood rubbing his chin and considering. ‘No,’ said he, ‘I won’t take the risk. Yonder every person is made into a saint and everything into a pie. I do not feel qualified for either position.’ It is true […]
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Beyond the bustle and bright lights of Newquay’s busy streets is the Huer’s Hut. It perches on the cliff top at Towan Head with the crashing sea below. This iconic white building is in part a historic, cultural monument to an industry that once meant so much to the Cornish people and Cornwall’s past prosperity. […]
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The small hamlet of Poundstock huddles in a lush wooded valley between Boscastle and Bude. It is a picturesque place. Peaceful, timeless. But the quiet belies what was once a rather bloody past. A past which saw feuding Cornish families take up arms against each other and led to one of Cornwall’s most notorious murders. […]
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Droskyn Point towers above Perranporth beach. The crashing waves of the Atlantic beat its rocky cliffs. But this spectacular headland hides an ancient secret. Hidden down a steep, narrow path is thought to be the earliest known evidence of mining in Cornwall. Beginnings . . . The origins of tin mining in Cornwall are hazy […]
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“The seashore seems to be a potent spot for ghosts. Fishermen dread to walk anywhere near where a ship has foundered. The souls of drowned sailors are said to haunt such places and the ‘calling of the dead’ has frequently been heard . . .” James Turner, The Stone Peninsula, 1975. Fishermen and sailors are […]
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“All the grandeur of the North Cornwall coast is here . . . It is truly a superb bit of scenery combining grand and fantastic rocks with a sea constantly varying in its blues, greens and purples . . . Those that stand above these cliffs must acknowledge that even Cornwall has not a finer […]
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“For many connoisseurs the cliff walks between Boscastle and Tintagel are the finest in the whole of the Cornish coast . . . fantastically shaped rocks amuse the lonely walker with the attempt to read some significance into their contorted features, but are, at dusk, too frightening to linger by.” S.H. Burton The stretch of […]
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I have crossed the Cornish border many times. By car and by train, on big bridges and small. But I realised a few days ago that I have never actually crossed it on foot. So the next day I set out to Marsland Mouth to change that. The Cornwall/Devon border wiggles it’s way between the […]
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