A Blog about Cornwall's Hidden Places & Untold Stories
I really don’t remember the last time that I visited Lands End, for me the famous point that so many travel to see has been turned into some kind of strange theme park, expensive and overcrowded. I do however still love it’s sister headland, Cape Cornwall. In the summer it also has it’s fair share of visitors […]
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I grew up in a household where farm work and animals came first above anything else. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not complaining. I had a blessed childhood with a kind of freedom that sadly very few children experience today. It taught me not only independence but also the importance of hard work and responsibility. […]
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The last time I visited the beautiful St Michael’s Mount, just off the coast of Cornwall, there was a steady stream of tourists crossing the tidal causeway ahead of me. I have walked this cobbled path many times in rain and shine. It’s a place that is different in every season and in every light. On […]
Read MoreTrencrom offers one of the finest views in Cornwall. This ancient Iron Age Hill Fort gives you a 360 degree panorama of the Penwith. It is one of the few places from which you can see both the north and the south coast at the same time. St Ives bay on one side . […]
Read MoreThe names spin by outside the car, Buryas Bridge, Drift, Catchall and then I see the tiny turning that I need and swing the car in, on to the dirt road. This is the track to Boscawen-un, one of the first ancient places on the Penwith that I ever came to. That was probably 20 years […]
Read MoreDriving out of Zennor village towards St Ives there is a house known as the Eagles Nest perched on a crag looking out to sea. It was in the valley below this house that D H Lawrence spent 1915 writing Women in Love and just opposite its white painted gate there is a track leading out across the downs. […]
Read MoreJust beside the road, not far from the much-visited Merry Maidens stone circle, is an ancient site. It is often over-looked as people whiz by it on their way to have their picture taken at Lands End. Tregiffian Barrow, which is in fact half covered by the road, is a prehistoric burial chamber. And is between 4500 […]
Read MoreWhat happens when the truth turns out to be far duller than the legend? Do you try to get the facts to fit the exciting story that you would like to believe. Or do you acknowledge that history and time can sometimes make fools of us? And then of course there is a third option. To present […]
Read MoreIn the winter the Penwith landscape is all the muted tones of grey and soft brown as if the granite bedrock has leeched up into the vegetation. The bracken is burnt black with the cold winds. It is only when the sunlight spills across the ground that details in the countryside appear. Quite suddenly I am […]
Read MoreLiving beside the sea means you have a long-term relationship with a wild, wonderful and mysterious entity. You can never be sure what she will do next. It’s important to remember that you can never trust her. You must expect surprises, the occasional wet foot and salt-misted glasses. I grew up fearing the open water […]
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