A Blog about Cornwall's Hidden Places & Untold Stories
The Helford River is fringed by beautiful ancient woodland. Dominated by oak trees, each of these woods has its own name and its own history. There is Bonallack, Bosahan, Calamansack, Carminowe, Merthen and Roskymmer, old Cornish names that dance on the tongue. Most remain untouched, home to rabbits, the odd deer and perhaps a clamour […]
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On the 19th May 1845 the greatest Arctic expedition ever planned set off from England, its mission – to find to elusive North-West Passage. This was the most technologically advanced and best-equipped enterprise of its age and, despite the failure of many previous attempts, the Admiralty and all those aboard the HMS Erebus and HMS […]
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In a copse of trees known as the Rookery not far from the city of Truro there is a large granite column called the Pencalenick Obelisk. This isolated stone pillar has been the cause of speculation and rumour for more than a hundred years, since those who remember why it was built have all gone. […]
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Not far from the village of Coverack is an open stretch of moorland called Crousa Downs. This rough ground is a home to adders, thick with knee-deep undergrowth and dotted with large boulders. But hidden amongst these natural stones is an ancient man-made structure called the Three Brothers of Grugwith (sometimes Grugith). In an area […]
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One of the highlights of walking along Cornwall’s stunning coastal path is coming upon a lighthouse perched precariously on a cliff edge or rocky headland. These are magnificent buildings – bold, seemingly impregnable but undeniably functional. Their towers stand smooth and solid against the rough rock and the inconstant sea. But perhaps the most fascinating […]
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The precipitous descends and ascents of the north coast near Millook Haven can be a challenge to even the most experienced walker! John Lloyd Warden Page wrote in the 19th century that these coves are “desperately hard to get out of!” and I think it is fair to say that he was right. But it […]
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Robert ‘Bobby’ Leach was a daredevil stuntman said to hail from Cornwall. In July 1911 he became the first man, and only the second person, to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. After recovering from his injuries he became an international celebrity, travelling the world with his barrel, regaling audiences with his tales of […]
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This autumn something really rather special is happening down west. A trilogy of six hundred year old Cornish ‘Mystery Plays’, known as The Ordinalia, will be performed in St Just in Penwith. These three powerful, biblical plays are the oldest surviving plays in Britain and will appropriately be performed in arguably the country’s oldest working […]
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The legendary headland now known as Land’s End is probably Cornwall’s most famous landmark. Whether you love or hate the recent development there no visit to the area is complete without standing on that towering cliff top at the very tip of mainland Britain. For hundreds of years ‘Pilgrims’ have flocked to here for the […]
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A strange thing happened to me a couple of years ago, I bought a secondhand book exactly 110 years to the day that a man mentioned in it had died – the 23rd March. The book was The Oxford Literary Guide to the British Isles, published in 1977. I had started leafing through it in […]
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