A Blog about Cornwall's Hidden Places & Untold Stories
In wandering over some of the uncultivated tracts which still maintain their wilderness . . . against the march of cultivation, we are certain of finding rude masses of rock which have some relation to the giants. The giant’s hand or the giant’s chair or it may be the giant’s punch bowl excites your curiosity. […]
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Here we are on the verge of going to Cornwall. This time tomorrow we shall be stepping onto the platform at Penzance, sniffing the air, looking for our trap and then driving off across the moors to Zennor. Why am I so incredibly and incurably romantic about Cornwall? – Virginia Woolf, 22nd March 1921 Some […]
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Just outside the village of Veryan, which is most famous for its round houses, there is a large mound in the middle of a field. It is known as Carne Beacon because it was at one time used as a signal point. But beneath the turf legend has it a king is buried. King Gerennius, […]
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Which came first – the carving or the legend? It’s almost impossible to say for sure. There are other stories of Cornish mermaids at Padstow, Lamorna Cove, Seaton, Cury and Perranzabuloe. But the legend of the Mermaid of Zennor seems the most deeply embedded in the psyche of the Cornwall. And is one of the […]
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Sustainability is the word on everyone’s lips and Boardmasters is leading the way! It feels like Cornwall has been embracing in the eco-friendly movement for a long time. From Surfers Against Sewage in the 1990s to the Plastic Free communities of today, I like to think that we go all out to protect this beautiful […]
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Nobody visiting Zennor should fail to take the path leading to Zennor Head. Sunk at first between highbanks, it soon gains its freedom and superb views open out. The sea beats furiously against the feet of the massive headland and the lichen covered rocks, heather-topped hills and the endless succession of coves and forelands to […]
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The Lizard has some of Cornwall’s most picturesque fishing villages. Coves that bring to vivid life the salty past of this almost island. Kynance, Kuggar, Coverack, Cadgwith. But there is one more I’d add to the list. Church Cove. Most people who visit the UK’s most southerly point pass through Lizard village. They usually see […]
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The view from St Agnes Beacon is breath-taking. The high moorlands, heather and gorse clad; steep valleys and bubbling streams; the bracing winds and the infinite variety of land and seascape . . . S H Burton, 1955 The view from the top of St Agnes Beacon is one of the most impressive in Cornwall. […]
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John Lloyd Warden Page described his visit to Boscastle in 1897. The romantic harbour, the flashing stream, the tortuous cliffs. And Willapark Lookout standing above it all. The entrance is guarded by the low headland of Pelly Point, crowned by a rock bearing a curious resemblance to a tortoise with head uplifted. The towering height […]
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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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