After one last ride in Windsor Great Park, we picked up our new wheels and hit the road – destination, Cornwall.
I grew up loving the 1990’s Australian version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, starring Jon English as THE pirate in the purple pants. I was therefore (understandably, I think) disappointed that there were NO PIRATES and NO PURPLE PANTS to be seen when we arrived in Penzance on our first day! However, I can forgive much because the weather was phenomenal.
With a cat-like-tread, we made our way along the coast to Mousehole and found a hole-in-the-wall cafe – The Old Pilchard Press. It was amazing – the scones were freshly baked, the salmon and prawn sandwiches were delicious, and the discussion on jam or cream first was perfection itself. Because I agreed. Jam first. Always. You will be asked to leave The Old Pilchard Press if you dare to put your cream on first, and rightly so!
After our stop-in at Mousehole, we made our way back in the other direction toward Marazion to have a look at the island castle that sits off the shore, St Michael’s Mount. It’s a private home, so I didn’t realise it would be open to the public, but it was! We quickly got ourselves tickets and decided to spend the afternoon exploring it to pass the time before our evening festivities began.
It was low tide, so we walked the cobbled path to the castle. It was SUPER windy, much more what I was expecting of Cornwall! A guide at the foot of the castle warned us that it would get much windier up top so we needed to be careful – I’d have appreciated a warning about the steep incline instead, thanks though!
The castle was built by monks that had come across from Mont St Michel in Normandy, France (thus the name) and it was said that future monks would often be sent to serve their first few years at the castle in Cornwall to test their endurance. It is a spectacular place.
It was wonderful looking at the photos of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip there. The current owner is a godson of now King Charles, so there are photos of them together visiting at the castle. There is a little blue room that still has the blue satin sofa that Queen Victoria sat on when she visited during her reign. Funnily, she arrived without warning, so the family weren’t even home – so she sat and drank tea with the housekeeper instead!
After we had whiled away a few hours, we made our way back down the hillside to the little ‘village’ at the foot of the castle and found that the tide had come in, so after a spree in the gift shops we made our way to the harbour and hopped aboard one of the boats back to the shore.
That evening, we had tickets to see Pride and Prejudice (sort of!) at the Minack Theatre. The theatre is located at Porthcurno, carved into the granite cliff face just a few miles from Land’s End. It was built by a woman named Rowena Cade and the history of the Minack as told in the little museum dedicated to it’s story is fascinating. A true testament to the determination and will of a strong woman.
Being an open-air theatre, I was a little concerned about getting wet, but we were blessed with near perfect weather – only a few threatening sprinkles landed and the show just went on like it never happened. The production was fantastic, the actors were amazing, it was VERY worth the drive back to our little farm-house later that night.
On day 2 we went for a little (wet weather) ride at Perranporth, then made our way down to the beach and the local pub where we made friends with the resident doggo named Luna – she was a little bit (read, very) cute. By the time our overstuffed selves had got back to the car it was (in Cornish fashion) properly raining. On our way back to our house we made a random stop at a place called Cornwall Gold – what a find!
Cornwall Gold is a gorgeous old tinnery, now set up as a very nice jewellery shop and cafe alongside the Tolgus Tin Mill and Museum – a functioning in mill that is kept working from proceeds of the jewellery sales that are made in-house in their Tolgus range! We bought two strings of pearls and some earrings and had the BEST chai latte in the UK at the cafe. Seriously, so glad we stumbled across it – even more so once the lovely cashier that we bought our jewellery from gave us a list of must-see/dos, almost all of which we managed to squish into the remainder of our trip!
Now, as a Poldark fan, there was no way I could go to Cornwall and NOT see the Bodmin Moors. Like, seriously. Thankfully, first on the list of recommendations was Jamaica Inn – of Daphne de Maurier fame – right on the edge of that very vast space, and steeped in it’s own remarkable history.
A smuggler’s den of note, it is a fascinating place to visit and it is made all the better when you colour it with the novels that de Maurier wrote to add to it’s character. They love writers – there are quotes from de Maurier and Poldark strewn throughout the building which I just love.
Next on the list was Tintagel Castle. I had never heard of it. Now I want to live there. The remnants of the Roman era fortress and village have been exposed on the cliff face and you can climb all over the hillside via the well-cut walking tracks. The weather was so windy and varyingly blue and cloudy, I couldn’t have taken a bad photo if I’d tried. It was so amazing!
Historically the place where King Arthur of legend was conceived, one of the caves in the cove below is ominously named ‘Merlin’s cave’ where the wizard took the infant Arthur and hid him. Now, I didn’t see any wizard, but there was plenty of sand and water so I imagine it wasn’t the best place to keep a baby, just sayin.
We had run out of time to do the last two things on our list once we had spent the rest of the day at Tintagel, but thankfully the cafe/gift shop there let us tick off the one of them which was trying Castellick ice cream, since they sold little pots of it there! Its a shame we didn’t get to go to the actual farm where the ice cream is made and we missed out on visiting Healey’s Cider Farm, but they’re on the list for next time…!
And just like that, our Cornwall adventure was over. We went back to our farmhouse and spent the evening watching Poldark episodes and nattering about the next day’s plans before we made our way to our beds. Our next stop – Bath.
Victoria Clarke 