Walking the Moors of Cornwall

My last day on my own on this trip, and I decided to travel around the beautiful Bodmin Moor.  Most of my knowledge of the area probably comes from my love of Time Team, all of their episodes online really got me through the pandemic.  As well as just hiking the moors I wanted to see some of the sites I had seen on the show. 

To properly explore Bodmin on my own, I got a rental car.  That is always an adventure in England.  I can manage driving narrow lanes and on the wrong side of the road.  But doing it in a vehicle larger than I’m used to, where I never feel like I know my width was an extra challenge.   I ended up on some very narrow roads that didn’t even seem wide enough for ONE car, let alone navigating if you came face to face with another.  Luckily I really only had to reverse down a lane way once.  

I started this morning with another lovely breakfast at the hotel before setting off.  Going counter clockwise around Bodmin my first stop was Golitha Falls.  It was a pretty little spot close to the road so an easy walk.  Lots of people out this morning, and lots of dogs running about.  It had the ruins of old wheel housing from the old workings in the area, it is now a protected area with lots of old growth oaks and flora and fauna. 

I kept along the road to the town of Minions with has some beautiful stone circles, the Hurlers, just a short walk from the car park.  I kept walking along to moor up towards the Cheesewring, which is a stack of stones resembling the slabs of the same name used to press cider apples.  These ones are enormous and there is debate if they are a man made monument or naturally occurring.  The area was also heavily quarried.  Some of the stone cladding along the Tower Bridge is from here.  

I love the open ramble laws of Britain, it was really neat to just wander through this field, past the stones and then continuing up the Tor.  I passed cows, sheep and horses all in the field.  You also have to be careful while driving because the sheep had not been taught to check before crossing!

At the top of the Cheesewring were lots of pits that looked to be from mining and quarrying. It is hard for a novice like me to know which stone circles are Victorian quarries, which are old mining pits and which could be as old as the Bronze Age Rillaton Barrow I was able to find on the top.  They are all, however, stunning.  I didn’t go all the way to the top.  My stamina and my ankle are just not what they were a few years ago and I had a whole day of agony, sorry hiking, ahead of me. 

There were a few interesting spots I would have liked to try and find along the moor, but a couple of the monuments don’t really have road markers.  You just need to find the right lay by and footpath along the road and head off for a walk.  So I did stick to the better marked spots.   The next part of my route ended up being a bit poorly planned with some driving back and forth.  I stopped first in the village of Altarnun that was recommended soley for having a pretty little stone bridge and a lovely 15th century church.  Both were picture perfect, but it probably wasn’t worth navigating the narrow roads in and out for just 15 min!

I headed up the highway a little bit - two lanes! Wide and open! To the Jamaican Inn.  Famed for being a smugglers hide out, the original location was built as a staging post for travellers across the moor.  It got a reputation for smuggling and became famous due to a novel written in 1936 by Daphne Du Maurier.  It got its name as the original owner of the area was also once the British Governor to Jamaica.   

I had a nice lunch there and looked around the 18th century buildings.  I think if there is ever a return visit to Cornwall this might be a good place to stay as well.  It’s also another allegedly haunted site.  With a gorgeous pub for lunch. 

Next was a bit of back tracking, I wanted to go see Rough Tor and google was recommending driving through Altarnun.  A little bit of sleuthing and I decided to take a slightly “longer” route.  The roads seemed to be bigger and I was right and got to drive at a decent speed for most of the way to the spot.  Rough Tor is part of what Time Team had investigated in Bodmin so I was quite interested to see it.  During their weekend you couldn’t seem to turn around with out tripping over prehistoric round houses.   I’m not even sure I walked the best parts and I was not disappointed.

I’m not sure what I was thinking, I managed 3.5km and an elevation gain of over 200m in just an hour.  The wind was howling and the rain had started.  It was everything one could expect of hiking a British Moor.  I didn’t even have the goal of making it to the top of the Tor.  I just staggered passed the amused cows and sheep to the top of the gradual rise, and saved the steeper stone top for tougher souls.  It was incredible.  There were stone circles everywhere, likely the prehistoric round houses.  Stone lines were field boundaries, dating from the medieval and further back into the mists of time.  And stacks of stones at the top of the hill that were carried up there by people a lot more determined to me.

With the day coming to an end, the wind threatening to steal my hat, and my knees about to never forgive me, I headed back down to the car to head back to the hotel for my last evening in Cornwall.  Of course that wasn’t the end of the adventure, I still had to drive the narrow roads back to the bigger towns. At one point I actually stopped driving to take a picture of how ridiculously narrow it seemed for even one vehicle!

But I made it safely back to the Bodmin Jail Hotel, which is a gorgeous luxury hotel with amazing food.  My one word of warning is to maybe never visit alone.  At least during dinner in the old Chapel I have had some issues with low moods.  Maybe that is just me though and just a coincidence…you’ll have to see for yourself!

In the Footsteps of History and Myths

One of the places I have longed to visit in Cornwall is Tintagel Castle. Reactions to that have varied from derision for going some where only known for mythology and appreciation from others for the beauty and history of the site.  While much of what makes the area so attractive to tourists does come from its association with the great king of legend, there is also some real history there too!

Ruins on Tintagel date to around the 5th and 6th centuries. While that can be roughly the time of Arthur, there is little proof that he actually existed. How ever kings and warlords mentioned in his sagas, and battles they fought likely did.  Then in the 13th century, Richard the Duke of Cornwall, and son of King John, traded some valuable land to acquire the land around Tintagel.  He built and rebuilt on the mainland and on the promontory.  There is speculation that the romance of the legend of Arthur and as well the legend of Tristan and Isolde is what made the land valuable to him.  Slowly the true history of the land is shining through with the legend.  The 13th century ruins are just as fascinating to me as the legends of Merlins Cave.

I made a slight miscalculation by starting my tour at the “end” because I wanted to see Merlin’s Cave during low tide, which was early this morning.  After walking most of the way down to the shore, I settled for some scenic shots of the cave from above.  There were a lot more stairs in my near future.  As per my watch, 36 flights.

It was a slight trudge back up the hill before taking the switch back track to the entrance to the Castle.  In most areas the walls are only a foot or so high, but a few sill reach above the heads of the tourists gathering around. With the sun just starting to peak out, I was delighted with the views.  Looking back down to the beach where gorgeous clear water was splashing around Merlin’s Cave and all along the beautiful coast.  

Nowadays there is a good bridge that links the land to the island.  Once, the outcropping had a narrow land-bridge but it had collapsed in the 15h or 16th centuries.  Then one would have to climb down the steep steps to a small bridge that had been built before climbing back up to the top of the island.  In 2019 British Heritage finally added a higher bridge that removed part of that difficult climb. 

There is a gorgeous walk around the island, through parts of the Dukes castle, as well as past some of the 5th century walls.  The views were epic, all along the coast which is also accessible as part of the South West Coast Trail. As well as some ancient wells and gardens there is a modern statue called Gallos, he is a Kingly Figure that isn’t meant to represent Arthur, but all the kings of Drummonia who likely lived in the area and fortified the hill.

Then it was back down all the steps again to just above the cove.  And a slow trudge back up to the town.  I cheated slightly and paid for the shuttle.  Annoyingly it dropped us off at the bottom of the last steep climb to the main street.  I may have paused a couple times to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery.  

After Tintagel I drove up the coast to the town of Boscastle.  I had read it was a beautiful harbour town, and it certainly was.  I had lunch at what used to be the Mill, the Wellington Pub, before walking down along the river to the harbour.  Apparently there is an amazing site of a blow hole at low tide, but with the tides right now being low early in the morning I hadn’t been able to see it.  

Boscastle also is the home of a Witchcraft Museum.  It is said to have had the skeleton of Joan Wytte on display for decades.   She was a prisoner of the Bodmin Jail and executed for witchcraft.  First her body was given to a governor of the Bodmin Asylum for a prop in his sceances. Eventually the new owner of the Witchcraft and Magic Museum wanted Joan respectfully interred.  Even in the 90’s it was apparently hard to have her placed in consecrated ground, so they found a place for her in the nearby woods with a monument, so she can be visited by those who respect a wise woman. 

My final stop today was just at the Camel Valley Winery.  I had tried their wines at the Oyster Festival and really enjoyed them.  It was a beautiful location, though as I was driving and on very narrow winding roads, I didn’t try and more.  Oh yes, I haven’t really mentioned, I have a rental car for this part of the journey.  I’ll have to tell you all about that tomorrow!  There will definitely be more driving as I will be headed all over Bodmin Moor to see sights and hike very small amount of the epic country side. 

Bodmin Jail

I will be staying three nights in Bodmin Jail.  Well, the luxury hotel on the site of Bodmin Jail.  This gorgeous hotel is extremely comfortable, although the atmosphere might be a bit oppressive.  I am a believer of energies connecting us all.  I don’t know how or what form it takes, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there is more than just this.   Usually it doesn’t affect me much, but maybe a ghost tour before bed wasn’t my brightest plan?

The guide seemed excellent, legitimate and interested in the stories.  They will apparently be on an upcoming episode of My Haunted Project which he was quite excited about.  The guide led us down to a basement level of the jail, and told stories of the local area as well as the past, and present, inmates of the jail.  

While telling tales in what was the morgue, and is now a display like a court room, the lights continually flickered. It did seem a little fantastical to me, though the guide swears that the lights have all been checked repeatedly and no faults can be found.  Interestingly, the claim was the lights flicker more when the story is told of Sara Polgrean, and when he started talking about other stories the flickering almost completely stopped.  Instinct makes me skeptical, but I want to believe he isn’t the one lying at least.  

We carried on the tour into some cells that have been restored.  I found out we were in the Navy Wing, which means just a few stories below my luxury cell for the night.  We were able to look around the cells. Which also included a macabre example of Victorian Mortuary Photography.  And the story of the one cell that is completely sealed off.  The ghost given the delightful name of Sausage Fingers allegedly led to the swift resignation of many a worker during the renovations.  So after two failed exorcisms the whole cell is now sealed off.  

The tour wound its way back up to ground level, over the land where several of the executed prisoners are buried- don’t tell the school children, that’s their picnic area! Before finishing at the hanging pit.  What was once a public spectacle was eventually moved to an indoor hanging pit to give the prisoners a little bit of dignity.  Apparently it’s still functional, so if England changes the laws again the Hotel may have a new income option.

After the tour ended I returned to the Chapel restaurant for dinner.  It was a lovely steak, but I did find myself feeling a bit down.  Not sure if it was being tired, or someone negative had been stealing my energy, but I decided to head to bed a bit early.  And I offered a deal to any “roommates” I had, I would leave the chair free of anything for them to use, and they could use the bed during the day when I was gone, if they would let me sleep in peace.

I then went to watch TV in bed before falling asleep.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find my go to wind down show, Ghosts.  I hope my new friends weren’t disappointed.

From the Coast to the Moors

After a rough sleep and lots of walking the last few days I was having some trouble getting motivated for my last day on the coast.  So I decided to have an easy day wandering Penzance as I pleased.  I headed down the hill to the promenade and had a lovely walk.  It was a bit dreary too, but no rain.  I started out having a cup of tea and a croissant from a little trailer set up on the promenade.

Next I walked down to the Jubilee Pool.  When packing for this trip I had debating bringing a swim suit, but I could not remember why I thought it was a good idea.  While Cornwall has beautiful beaches, it was not going to be very seasonal for swimming.  None of my hotels had pools.  So I shrugged it off and didn’t bother. 

Well, the answer was the Jubilee Pool.  It started out with the town piling rocks to create a swimming area.  In 1935 the Jubliee Pool was opened for King George V’s Silver Jubilee.  It is a triangular shaped pool that is managed, but is filled by seawater and has a small children’s section.  And the reason for my need of a swim suit was the recent edition of a geothermal heated pool.  The hot pool was filled with people, and a few taking laps in the main pool as well.  

My stroll then continued to the Yacht Inn where I had lunch and a pint of local lager.  Further along I stopped at a building that was the oldest lifeboat house in Cornwall, and is now a little cafe.  The family that runs it also has a meadery.  So with my tea I sampled a flight of six meads.  They were not quite to my taste, but I enjoyed the peach flavour quite a bit.  

My slow meander through town took me back up the hills now, where I stopped at 45 Queen St, a small fancy little restaurant for an early dinner.  I relaxed there for a bit with a glass of wine and my book before heading back to my inn.

I had seen a sign that it was a trivia night, and they collect money for a charity in hour of the landlords nephew who passed from cancer recent.  The funds go to support cancer treatment with the NHS.  I slipped into the main pub and ordered a pint.  It can be hard being on a trivia team of one - I was dead last at one in Australia! They are still fun none the less.  But the lovely people of the Fountain Tavern had none of that.  One of the locals asked if I was playing and I was encouraged to join one of the teams.  

It was lots of fun getting to know the locals, and I did provide a bit of an edge with some questions.  Though not too many!  My best was being able to name five famous Jennifer’s from film and television.  To some hilarity when I was asked where I was staying, I replied that I was staying at the inn there.  With some laughter I discovered two of my teammates owned the establishment!  They and their friends had quite a good night and were very welcoming.  I had an excellent stay and was glad I decided to join the trivia challenge. 

In the morning was check out, not a rush as it was just a one hour train ride to my next destination.  I’m staying in Bodmin near the beautiful Bodmin Moor.  I am also very excited to be treating myself to a very posh hotel that was once the Bodmin Jail.  Built in 1779 it was a remarkably modern jail for its time, inmates had individual cells, women had a separate area and there was even hot water!  The room are comprised of three cells to make them very spacious, and I think my bed is actually in what was an extra fire place in the women’s section so the pregnant and nursing mothers could have some extra heat.  So kind of them.  That wing was eventually given over to the Navy and used to house prisoners from the military. 

The restaurant is in the old chapel, and the bar is the Chaplin’s office.  From here he could see the executions in the public yard from the comfort of his own chair.   I’m quite excited to stay here, both the luxury and the history.  There is an eerie silence in my rooms though with the think stone walls.  As well as a plaque on the wall that says the cell was used by Benjamin Ellison who was executed in 1845.

Tonight I will be doing a ghost tour of the museum that is on the site.  I’m really looking forward to a nice sleep in the plush comfort of my room.  So I hope I won’t regret the tour!

Thousands of Years of Cornish History

Tuesday morning I had arranged a tour with a local astroarcheolgist who does walking tours of the ancient sites around Cornwall.  She was very interesting to talk with, and very passionate about her work which always makes for a great guide.

We had an easy start to the morning and drove up to the Merry Maidens stone circle.  It appears that Cornwall is littered with standing stones and they are along public foot paths and many are very easily accessible.   The Merry Maidens are 19 stones standing in a circle in a field.  Of course no one is exactly sure why they are there, but one antiquitarian claimed that on May Day if one stood at a single standing stone in a another field and looked at the circle, one could see the Pleiades rise above the centre stone.  In her research my guide also went to the circle on May Day for sunrise.  She said at first looking at the sun rise through the stones, nothing special jumped out, but as she walked around to the top and looked back down the hill, the shadows of the stones reached out and crossed each other in seemingly deliberate patterns.

We carried on down the lane a short way where there was a Neolithic Entrance Tomb along side the road way that had survived, though had been dug out by the Victorian Antiquitarians.  And across the way in the field was a single tall standing stone that appeared to be looking towards the Maidens and could easily be connected to them.

Back in the car we drove along to Boscawen-un, another stone circle.  This one is a little more off the path and very popular with locals and pagans who still visit frequently. More mystery here of course, with a slanting oblong stone in the middle.  As well all of the 19 circle stones were of the local granite - except one.  The stone that appears to be opposite the entry way is made of quartz. 

The next stop was only about a mile away if one hikes, by car it was a bit farther on winding Cornish country roads.  At the top of a hill was Carn Euny which was a village that dates from the Roman era.  There didn’t seem to be a lot of evidence of Roman occupation in Cornwall, one theory was that the Cornish had long been trading tin all over the world so was quite used to foreigners and just happily kept trading with the Romans.  Which in turn led the Romans to leave them mostly alone to protect a status quo.

Carn Euny consists of a series of round houses, each with a front section and entry way where a family would have lived.  It also has a Cornish Fougou, an underground passage and this side had a perfectly preserved underground beehive hut.  It was amazing too that the stones had a bioluminescent moss that glittered with just a touch of light.  The original entrance to the Fougou was a very small passage one would have had to squeeze through.  It did have enlarged entrances as the medieval farm on the site used it for storage.  There was also the remains of a very small farm house in the middle of the site. 

Further up the path were the two wells on the site.  The first we came to was scared to the pagans and likely used in the pre Christian era.   After a dry spell it didn’t appear to have any water while we were there.   Further up the path there was an Anglo-Saxon era church dedicated to the local St Euny that is mostly gone.  The spring and the holy well remains and is a beautiful spot.  The locals would often come to dunk their ill children or any “changelings” to request protection of the saint.  It is still tradition for locals to come up on the saints day.  Though no one ducks a child anymore.  My guide says many will dunk a plushie to keep the tradition of requesting protection from the saint.

The next place we stopped was the oldest spot, some Neolithic standing stones that likely used to be another buried entrance tomb, with evidence of other smaller tombs around it (basically it sounds like there are tombs everywhere in Cornwall.)  The three stones still stand together like an arch.  Though they were replaced once, when 200 years ago they were struck by lightening and knocked down.  The people came together to replace the stones, and carved 1824 on the side.  The locals had a celebration last year for the 200th anniversary of the reconstruction.   And in the hill in the distance is the remains of an old tin mine.  It’s locally known as the Ding Dong Mine, as the local pastor complained that the “ding dong of the bells calling the miners to work were too noisy and people couldn’t hear the parish bells.”

The final stop on my tour was a walk along side farmers fields still lined with the medieval stone field boundaries and had a few ruined old farm houses.  We walked up the path to the Men a Tol standing stones.  Which translates to ‘Hole Stone’ because that’s all it is.  Well, more than just that.  It’s a circular stone with a good sized hole in the middle standing between two short standing stones.  They say if you crawl through it can fix an aching back or a crick in the neck.  While I was tempted to see if it would work after staying in slightly more basic accommodations, it can also help with woman getting pregnant.  So I decided to skip crawling through and focused on just taking pictures!

My guide was lovely enough to drop me In Marazion on the way back.  While I had seen most of what I had wanted to see, I calculated the out going tide to start revealing the causeway late in the day.  I had regretted yesterday not getting pictures from the land side as the path was revealed.  So today I slowly walked along the path with other collecting pictures as the waves dropped lower and lower.  My trusty waterproof shoes worked very well, till I got a little lazy and stopped paying attention.  Waterproof doesn’t help when the waves slosh over the top and down into the shoe.  Sigh.  Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.  I kept up my pictures and enjoyed chatting with the others on the path till the way cleared.

Then a bus back to Penzance, another nice dinner where I ended up chatting with a lovely lady who has spent the last 6 days walking the west coast trail.  Though commiserating about sore legs is a little embarrassing when the other woman did so much more than you and is easily your mother’s age!

In Penzance…No Pirates Found

On Sunday I took the train to Penzance, it was an easy journey with another small delay.  Luckily both trains I had to take were delayed so I didn’t miss my transfer and made it to my destination easily.   Penzance is a beautiful little town built on the coast but up the side of some hills.  It was only 15 min walking to my hotel.  But all up.  With my luggage.  

I stayed at small Inn above a tavern, so while I was a bit early for check in I was able to have a pint and a rest while waiting for my room.  It was a simple little place, perfectly comfortable except my room was just two twin beds.  Normally something I can manage, but I am used to a nice queen to myself and felt a little constrained! Probably also because I can’t wrap myself up as will with a twin duvet.

Well, it being Sunday I went out to find a pub serving a good Sunday roast and was happy to have dinner at the Longboat Inn. It was a beef roast with all the fixings, including a delightful Yorkshire pudding.

Monday was an easy start, my plan was to head to the near by Marazion to see St Michaels Mount.  Many people have heard of the gorgeous Mont St Michel in France, and if that’s what you are picturing, well it’s close.  It’s a smaller version of the same idea and a monastery was founded over a thousand years ago when Edward the Confessor was very impressed by the French monastery and requested the monks come and establish one in England.  There is evidence how ever that the Cornish have been living there for countless millennia as 6000 year old round houses were recently excavated on the east lawns.  It is also the location of home of the giant from the story of Jack and the Giant Killer.

With the dissolution of the monastery’s by Henry VIII it has been privately owned.  It changed hands a few times and since the end of the Civil War, and has belonged in the St Aubin Family who still live in the castle, but run the Island jointly with the National Trust.  A small group of people still reside on the island too, both staff for the family and general workers for the site.

There are two ways to get to the island.  The main way is by boat and there are small boats that travel back and forth regularly to support the residents and bring over all the tourists to visit.  And then when the tide is at its lowest, a causeway appears and anyone can walk across.  In high season they still require a ticket to visit the island to control the flood of tourists.

This time of year the gardens were closed, which was a pity as they appeared to be absolutely gorgeous from what I could see.  I get a ticket to explore the public side of the castle, which includes many artifacts from the Lords St Levan (the Baronnet of the St Aubyn family) and items dating back to the monastery.  Much of the castle has been rebuilt over the years but It is possible to see part of the old priory, and a worn down stone floor in the window of the rectory.  It’s said that’s where the guards were posted who spotted the first ships of the Spanish Armada and lit a signal fire to alert the country.

The tide was low in the evening, so I walk back to shore along the cause way trying to get some good pictures with the glistening stones and the sun backlighting the castle.  It felt very magical.   I also had a pint in a restaurant over looking the bay, before taking a bus back to Penzance.   I had dinner in a small pub called the Dolphin that claims to date from the mid 1500s and they say is where Sir Walter Raleigh puffed the first pipe of tobacco from the New World in England.

I went back to my Inn for the evening, and finally there was a Blue Jays playoff game that wasn’t started too late so I stayed up with a pint to watch the start.  And well, the less said about that the better.  Still 5 more games to go! (I hope!)

I’ll be adding all my pictures up to my instagram as I have time to edit them.  If you haven’t seen it -its also @medicinparadise

Falmouth Oyster Festival

After an easy overnight journey on the Riviera Sleeper Train I arrived in Falmouth very early Friday morning.  I was staying at the Poltair Guest House and they told me I was welcome to drop my bags off before check in so I didn’t have to lug them around all day.

It was still very early in the morning so nothing had started yet.  I did a walk along the beach to start, where a few hardy souls were swimming in the ocean.  I ventured over to the Event Square where one coffee shop had wisely opened early to cater to all the staff and volunteers showing up to get the day started.  

The Falmouth Oyster Festival celebrates the harvest season of the local Fal oyster, which is harvested from Oct till March.  After not happening last year it was back on and seemed to me to be a wonderful success.  On Friday I watched a couple cooking demonstrations and listened to live music in the square.  I was able to try a few of the local oysters with some Cornish sparkling wine.   The Fal oysters seem a bit more minerally tasting than I have had before.  But they were enjoyable.  Especially with the lovely dry Brut.

In the afternoon I walked back to the guesthouse to check in and settle into my room, before walking over to the second location at the Princess Pavilion.  There was an arts and crafts show as well as more live music before I joined a wine tasting of 5 wines influenced by the ocean.  It was a lot of fun trying the wines and chatting with some locals there.  I finished the evening at the Beach House Restaurant with an absolutely massive plate of delicious mussels.

In the morning I went for a walk to Pendennis Castle to start the day.  Built by Henry VIII it has been protecting the English coast from Europe for 500 years, including as a fortification during WWII.  The large port of Falmouth was the launching point for many actions in the modern wars, as well as ancient sea travel.  

Next up was the Event Square again, with the cooking demos there was also an oyster shucking competition.  It was a fun mix of skilled locals and eager visitors who had never shucked an oyster before.  They all did a good showing and no blood was spilt!

I walked through the town, visiting a few of the shops and made it as far at the Prince of Wales Pier where the local ferries launch from.  I had a Cornish pastie for lunch on my walk and tried some local beer.  Back at the Festival I just enjoyed the atmosphere, some oysters and chatting with various people during the shows.  I stayed for the live music in the evening.  Frustratingly they started a bit late, as I was pretty tired from some long days and more than a little sampling of local spirits.  The first group was the Quarter Masters and they were a lot of fun.  Second was the Flats and Sharps, but I wasn’t really feeling their bluegrass set so I decided it was time to retire.

I had an easy morning today, having breakfast at the guesthouse in the morning.  There is a slight gap between check out and my train so I am settled in the Princess Pavillon again with a cup of tea and enjoying the atmosphere of the festival.  The morning is a little more kid based with the Miracle Theatre - Secret Squirrel Society performing.