My Favourite Place —West Cornwall –
The coastal drive around the West Cornwall peninsular is truly spectacular – through towns villages , windswept hillsides , granite monoliths and outcrops , mines, farms – a trip back to another time , the course of the road largely unchanged for the past 150 years. This is where my family came from and consequently is very special to me .
A UNESCO World Heritage site and site of special scientific interest , the history goes back to the Stone Age . Field systems date back to the middle bronze age , hill forts , standing stones and circles , along with numerous burial chambers and fogous a uniquely Cornish structure ( for what ? all part of the mystery… ) . These sites are magnificently located on hilltops headlands and the geometry and alignment is unnervingly exact . Circles aligned to the Autumn solstice , ley lines , typified by the Men an Tol monument set in the middle of a Moor.
Starting at St Ives , we can celebrate numerous artists potters and sculptures , including JMW Turner , Whistler ,Bernard Leach , Barbara Hepworth amongst many . Writers including Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens have walked these cliffs , – with the books ‘To the Lighthouse’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ both influenced by the area .
Mining , fishing and agriculture formed the backbone of the economy of the area up until the arrival of the train in the 1860s . My family once lived in and around Zennor which has a folklore all of its own – Mermaids , DH Lawrence, the clifftop home called the Eagles nest, once home to Patrick Heron a renown modern artist , visited by Virginia Woolf who described as“ the loveliest place in the world . It is so lonely”. Emperor Haile Selassie stayed here on his exile from Ethiopia in the early 1940s .
The remains of Mine stacks are prevalent particularly as you enter St Just towards the far Western tip of the County – this is typified at Botallack Mine where they mined under the sea! Amongst so many others ….
Botallack Mine
The road from St Just down to Cape Cornwall gives views to Lands End and on a fine day to the Isles of Scilly, which are visible 28 miles offshore ! Its on this craggy coastline that you see a number of Zawns , jagged inlets into the granite cliffs and its here that Commandos can be seen at times practicing for their Mountain leader badge – cannot say I would want to do their nighttime moonless cliff climb but that’s probably why Im not a commando !
On down to Sennen where the surf and beach are big – as well as the storms in winter sometimes engulfing the quayside houses . Lands end is beautiful although somewhat commercial nowadays . Porthgwarra where you can walk through a hole in the granite cliff conjures images of sea weed being hauled up to the farms on carts as well as smugglers and wreckers!
At this point the North / Westerly orientation of the coastline changes as we move Eastward , which brings a change from rugged windswept flora and fauna to something almost most tropical , palm trees and other exotic plants start to appear with a number of hidden coves little known to the masses , Penberth and Lamorna particularly .
Perched on the cliffs at Porthcurno is the Minack theatre carved into the cliff with what must be a unique theatre view out to sea , where performances have seen with dolphins jumping in the bay – what a backdrop!
On to Mousehole a charming fishing village , burnt down by the Spanish and resurrected , home of the last native Cornish Speaker ( her only language ) . On through Penzance , a town with its own story ( ask about the Brontes Mother!) and history to end up at the tidal island of St Micheals Mount , previously a benedictine monastery now being run by the National Trust – One of the Trusts top 5 sites in the Country .
To describe this area in just these few words does it no justice , and even now I keep finding new and fascinating stories of the people the places . Theres so much more to tell – but that would spoil it wouldn’t it ??
PS One of best pasties in the county available on route at McFaddens in St Just .
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