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A clear, crisp and bright blue sky greeted us when we woke up at Fingle Farm, frost whitening the long shadows in the grass cast by the trees and covering the windows of the car. After a quick breakfast with our three legged friend Guinness we were on the road heading toward Lizard Point. (I found out the name derives from the old Cornish Lis-ardh, meaning fortress, not those sun basking little critters you see on stone walls), the most southerly point of the British mainland, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, famous for countless shipwrecks on the 500 million year old jagged rock lurking just below the waves. We saw a herd of about eight grey seals sunning themselves above the tide mark as well as a huge variety of seabirds that pass this point on their travels up the English Channel. We walked down to the kelp lined shore and picked up a stone for our collection, the peace and quiet a nice change from the busy roads we would soon be returning to. As it was such a gloriously warm day we decided to take advantage of it and continue on the A30 to Land's End, an hour further west, past the village of Penzance, the lanes and roadways lined with bushes of bright yellow gorse. This spot, the most western point on mainland England has inspired people since ancient Greece times when it was referred to as Belerion, Place of the Sun. It didn't disappoint. We climbed down the cliff top trails as far as we could, numerous signposts advising us of danger due to steep edges and imagined we could see off in the distance the Isles of Scilly. But due to the Sunday crowds like us enjoying the sunny day we didn't tarry long and headed out to our AirBnb in St Just a few miles away to meet our hosts Rebecca and Ted. We finally arrived there after much searching up and down narrow and unmarked streets, settled in and did a quick recce of the village, most of the shops and galleries closed. Then on the recommendation Ted we walked a feet over to the Kings Arm for supper before retiring early.
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| St Just, Cornwall |
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| Lizard Point, Cornwall |
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| Land's End, Cornwall |
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| Lanust House AirBnB, St Just, Cornwall |
Rain and low clouds greeted us the next day as we made our way to St Michael's Mount, our morning's next adventure spot 20 minutes away by road in Mount's Bay. Once home to over 300 Islanders today it is home to the boatmen, gardeners and guides who show guests about this 12th century home of the St Aubyn family who live their still. We took a small boat across as the tide was high and scrambled and slipped up the rough stony path to the castle. On this small island, once a military stronghold, you can see sub tropical gardens, a church, graveyard and fabulous views of the towns of Marazion and Penzance. They have found evidence of human settlement here dating back about 3000 years and in ancient times merchants used to come here to buy Cornish tin. For more than three centuries the Mount was controlled by the Abbey in Mont-St-Michel in Normandy (we visited this Abbey back in 2017 so now have come full circle) and they began building work in 1135. After cup of tea and cakes in the café we left by the long cobbled causeway ( the tide had gone out during our visit ) with a strong wind blowing in from the water to remind us we were still in the first week of April. It was a short drive to Penzance, stopping at the Boots druggist before continuing on to Geevor Tin Mine, a must see when in this part of England.
Hard rock breeds hard men who slip between earths cracks for a living.(James Crowden). In the 19th century Cornwall produced two million tons of tin. Here in St Just where we were staying it was a short ten minute drive to the Geevor Tin Mine, the largest preserved mining site in Britain where we were able to get an overview of the Cornish mining story that goes back to the Bronze Age. About 25% of the Cornish population once worked in mines, young boys of 8 underground (in 1839 there were 7000 children employed in Cornish mines) and girls and mothers toiling as bal maidens above crushing ore into smaller fragments with hammers on anvils. Worked for hundreds of years Geevor Tin Mine closed in 1990 due to crashing tin prices and now is a stark but lasting memorial to the tough men and women who toiled there. We left the mine after two hours with a new respect for these people that did so much for this county. Next stop: Huist Champflower in Somerset. GWS
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| Geevor Tin Mine, St Just, Cornwall |
