Well, I am meant to be writing this from sunny Portugal but due to a chaotic, overly cautious and emotive government decision making process (assuming they actually made a decision rather than just flipping a coin) I am actually undertaking a wet and cold Cornish road trip. The last minute chaos and ineptitude (yes, I am taking it personally!) has not only cost me money in wasted covid fees and vastly higher hotel costs, it also means I have missed out a planned road trip to somewhere new, northern Portugal. Cornwall may be pretty (and that is dubious as I sit here looking at the rain lashing against the window) but it certainly has a distinct lack of Portugese castles!
We started the day with a trip to Plymouth to drop the dogs with Sofia. I think she was more excited about seeing them than I was about the break so that was lovely and the dogs will be utterly spoiled by everyone in the house. We then drove across the Tamar and further into Cornwall as the blue skies began to be replaced by clouds and then the rain drops started.
Trelissick Gardens
Our first stop was Trelissick Gardens, a National Trust property that Deb had chosen even though it wasn’t a castle. The girl checking our bookings was lovely and we had to park in the overflow carpark as the place was so busy. The site had all the usual NT facilities plus holiday cottages (the Water Tower looked amazing!), plant sales, shop and a second hand bookshop.
Deb took one of the maps and we began our tour of the gardens. These seemed to be a series of terraces with views down to the sea, where foliage permitted. As you’d expect they were well maintained and the plants were all labelled nicely and we didn’t really see that many other people. I have to say my favourite part was one of the hairy palm trees that someone had woven the fibres into little plaits.
The exterior of the house itself seemed incredibly ugly with a bolt on portico that looked very out of place. I’ll have to do some research on the building later. The stables were pretty though and there was lots of lovely old weathered brick walls throughout the gardens.
Deb navigated and we wound our way up and down the slopes until she announced we’d seen everything. We’d expected to be at the gardens for 4 hours but 2 seemed plenty, probably because of the rain – instead of sitting and admiring the vistas we had a quick look then hurried on to somewhere with tree cover.
There was plenty of seating in the courtyard cafe so we were able to have a warming coffee inside before leaving. Deb would probably have liked to buy some plants as we do have some very small areas of garden that currently don’t have plant pots on them!
We drove through the rain (did I mention that?) to our first hotel on our Cornish road trip, The Ship Inn in Mousehole. Mousehole was a bit of an experience – busy (damned other tourists!) and incredibly narrow and tight roads with a distinct lack of parking. Anyone would think it was designed without car driving tourists in mind! Although there were a few cafes and ‘tourist’ shops I got the impression that most of the residents were people who had retired there because they liked it when they visited on holiday and now they resented tourists coming to see it.
The Ship Inn is right on the harbourside and we had a very friendly check in before getting our room. This overlooked the harbour and was a decent size for a short break although with parking being so difficult (I can imagine in the sunshine you’d have a very long walk if you returned from a day trip mid afternoon!) you have to plan what you’re doing.
We caught up on correspondence for a while and had a cuppa before venturing out for dinner. It seems very few business owners in the area had tapped that market – we could only see 2 places within the town that were open after 6PM and therefore loads of people were being turned away. Luckily we were able to eat at The Ship otherwise we’d have been reduced to eating the free biscuits from our room (which was actually my dessert in the end!). We had a fantastic meal, superbly fresh foccacia bread for me and delicious pan seared salmon.
After dinner it was the now familiar routine of back to the room and write stuff up before I forget it. This time I was able to look across at the harbour at the steadily receding tide and the occasional small fishing boat returning (by ‘occasional’ I mean I saw one in about 2.5 hours). It was actually very pretty but the light was so dull and flat it wasn’t worth a photo. Hopefully tomorrow AM will be brighter.
Isles of Scilly
Well, tomorrow AM has not turned out to be brighter. More drizzle and we were up early to leave at 7.30 to drive to Penzance for our trip to the Isles of Scilly. The roads were thankfully empty at that time in the morning as most of them were at best a car width wide. We parked at the harbour long stay car park in Penzance and walked towards the ferry port, pleased with ourselves for arriving early for once. This soon dissapated when we saw the size of the queue!
The fog/cloud meant that helicopter flights were all grounded so those passengers had to go by ship and also that jolly old ubiquitous crowd control method called ‘social distancing’ slowed everything down to a crawl. The net effect of this was that we had an hour less on the island when we got there. The Scillies were meant to be the highlight (for me) of our Cornish road trip but the combination of over zealous covid interpretation and dismal weather knocked it down a place or three. I did see enough to want to return though.
The ship was decent enough for a ferry and my sea sickness pills knocked me out for most of the journey. Having to wear a mask onboard was a bit of a mixed blessing as I woke up with a mask full of dribble where I’d been dozing! The pills did their job though and although my mouth was a bit like Jim Carey’s in Me, Myself and Irene and I needed some water I didn’t feel in the least queasy.
We arrived in St Mary’s on the Scillies to low cloud but no drizzle. Once we’d finally got off the ship we headed to the Garrison Fort, purley because it was the only landmark I could see. That took a couple of minutes walk up the hill and there wasn’t really much there, certainly nothing open. We continued on up the hill to the Star Fort, now a hotel but built in the late sixteenth century as a gun fort to repel a potential second Armada. There were various other batteries along the coastline but we didn’t have time to see them.
We walked back down the hill, briefly pausing at the Higher Battery that was built to defend the harbour entrance before meandering through the little streets of the town and along a couple of beaches. These were pretty deserted and it would seem the average age of Scilly residents and visitors is about 75 as all the benches were occupied by pensioners eating chips or sandwiches, or possibly both.
We followed a path to Harry’s Walls, another sixteenth century fort that was started but never finished but still has substantial remains.
From there we continued on to the main sight we (Deb) wanted to see on the island, Carreg Dhu Community Garden. As its name suggests, this is run by volunteers and also shows the spread of a common pre-Saxon language as the words Cennan and Dhu are also used in Welsh and Gaelic. Fascinating fact I’m sure you’ll agree.
The gardens were a little overgrown but lovely to walk around, especially with no one else there! There were some amazing colours and also a Narcissus collection of historic varieties that were now out of commercial use. I didn’t realise that for a long time the wealth of the islands was largely derived from flower selling.
After all that walking in a very muggy atmosphere we wanted to stop for a drink and luckily there was a cafe about 5 minutes walk further on. This turned out to be probably the grandest building we saw on the island – as well as the cafe there was also a hostel and lodge, all built to modern eco standards and looking excellent. Food at the Longstone Lodge was ok, I was expecting something a bit more home made and unique but my waffles and ice cream could have been served anywhere. Lovely building and friendly staff though and a welcome pause in our walking.
We walked the 25 minutes back to the port and joined the queue where we then stood for about 40 minutes before boarding the ship. So that was the Scillies. If we’d had more time we would have seen more on St Mary’s and also taken the boat across to Tresco as the Abbey Gardens there are meant to be fantastic. I think it’s somewhere to return for a long weekend once all this pandemic rubbish is over.
More dozing on the way back to Penzance and then back to the hotel. We were out for over 12 hours but only had 3 on the island so that was a shame. We had a light dinner at the hotel and then the usual notes and photo sorting completed the evening. A long day and another early start tomorrow.
St Micheal’s Mount
Friday was, according to the Met Office, going to be brighter with just a 10% chance of rain. We had a fantastic cooked breakfast before leaving our hotel – it was a shame we missed yesterdays! The RNG gods were having their usual fun and the 10% chance or rain each hour meant about 3 hours of alternately light and heavy drizzle.
We drove to Marazion car parks and walked the short distance to catch the boat across to St Micheal’s Mount, another place that our Cornish road trip had been designed around. There was a constant stream of boats ferrying people backwards and forwards to the island and 5 minutes later we were on the quayside.
Once we’d gone through the usual covid warnings and NT check in we were free to wander so we headed up to the the castle. From looks this was an authentic medieval castle that had been remodelled, probably by the Victorians. There were also several WW2 pillboxes on the shoreline. The island was originally gifted to the Benedictine monks of Mont St Michel after the Norman Conquest but then passed, by dodgy means, into lay hands.
We walked up the steep path to the castle and it is the first place we’ve been to for months that was actually busy. There were a couple of gun batteries before the castle entrance and then we went into the castle itself. Inside were some excellent exhibits – weapons and armour the family had collected from around the world, plenty of personal family history items and some restored medieval rooms. There were NT guides in each room and it was a lot less formal and stuffy than some of the NT places we’ve visited.
There was a pause on the tour to walk around another terrace of battlements but I got the impression these were very much for effect, looking like the Fisherman’s Bastion in Budapest. There were nice views down to the terrace but it was difficult to take pictures because of the rain and the sheer volume of other people.
Once we had been through the castle we then started on the part Deb was looking forward to, the gardens. We’d seen the extensive terracing from the castle walls and splashes of colour through the mist and rain, which luckily stopped for the whole time we were in the gardens.
I have no idea of the plants we saw but lots were pretty and they were incredibly colourful and sculptural. The whole shore side of the island seemed to be cultivated and covered with plants. There was a set route to walk around (due to the narrowness and steepness of the paths) and the number of people did make it seem a bit production line at times. Even though I’m not a plant buff the sheer colour and vibrancy was enough to almost make me forget the weather and expense of this Cornish break. Almost. We spent longer walking around the gardens than inside the castle and I left Deb to it so I could take some more photos of the mount itself in the better light.
The tide was now out so I walked across the causeway, past the snaking queue of people hoping to get in and looking like a technicolour Dunkirk scene. The causeway was impressively dry and slime free and when Deb joined me we walked into Marazion for coffee. That was a bit hopeful because every place we found seemed to have no staff at all so we eventually gave up and went back to the car.
Minack Theatre
The drive to Minack was interesting and I can’t really blame my sat nav this time. Cornish roads are just crap, stupidly narrow, often with people parked at the side of the road making them almost impassable and stone walls and banks meaning that squeezing into the edge for someone to go past is likely to be quite expensive!
The ticket guy at Minack was great – when we handed him our booked ticket he said it was for next week and did we have a booking for today? Our faces must have been a picture as he started laughing, bloody excellent and kudos to you, ticket guy! We parked and sat at the picnic benches having a coffee and cake before walking down the terraces that make up Minack Theatre. The theatre was started in 1931 by Rowena Cade who bought the Minack headland in the 1920’s for £100 and built the theatre over the next 60 years.
On a clear day the views are quite spectacular and it is a setting to rival any of the Greek theatres we’ve seen. It goes without saying that today wasn’t a clear day but we spent around an hour walking around and looking at the plants and views. We didn’t see any signs about the exhibition on the building of Minack but I guess it was closed due to covid.
From Minack we had a two hour drive north to our next base on this Cornish road trip, Tintagel. Due to a combination of late booking (we only had a week’s notice to cancel our Portugal holiday …), high demand (where else could anyone go?) and the G7 (taking place in St Ives) hotel choices were both limited and expensive. I opted for the Camelot Hotel, mostly because we could walk to Tintagel Castle from it so I had a morning with no driving. Other than the enhanced police present the drive was uneventful and we checked in to our room.
Tintagel
Once we’d sorted ourselves out we walked into Tintagel for some dinner. It was around 18:30 but the drizzle had started again and it was a lot colder than the previous evenings. As usual, most places were full or closed. It still surprises me that a business owner would rather keep staff on furlough than open or extend their hours to cope with the increased domestic demand. We eventually found a pub and sat down for an excellent value meal before going back to the hotel to sort photos and notes as usual zzzzzzzzz.
I slept really well and when I woke up there was the odd trace of sky visible through the cloud. We left the hotel around 8.30 to go for breakfast and it was damned cold and totally cloudy again. We went to King Arthur’s Cafe for breakfast and it was fantastic – huge portions and good value and while we were there the clouds burned away too so a good start to the day.
We walked down the hill towards Tintagel Castle, chatting to various English Heritage people on the way and then got to the landward side of the castle. We explored the outer bailey there, revelling in the warmth and blue skies. The castle doesn’t have any massive fortifications remaining but it really has enough natural defences anyway. Various cliff collapses have led to remodelling during the occupation although it was only really inhabited for a hundred years.
Various myths and legend surround the castle and its associations with Merlin, Arthur, Tristan and Isolde but there is no contemporary evidence for any of it. The setting is absolutely fantastic though and we spent a couple of hours wandering round the headland and looking at the views, plants and occasional remains of buildings. There is a statue of King Arthur on the headland which was actually quite well done. It was certainly a focal point for a lot of visitors which has to be a good thing. From there we walked past the chapel and pleasure garden and then down the steps that led under the bridge and to the beach path.
Deb stayed on the path while I went on to the beach to look at Merlin’s Cave (a natural tunnel that goes right through the headland) and look at the bridge from ground level. After a quick pause for a drink at the cafe where we people watched for a while (ie; judged people) we trudged up the path and back to the hotel.
I’d obviously got sunburned so had a coffee and then just fell asleep for an hour, most welcome but also a bit of a waste of time! Well, as expected, Deb found my sunburn hilarious and it serves me right, as always! I left her chortling and went for a walk along the coast path to do some more photos. It was an interesting route that I chose to join the main path and it was quite lucky Deb hadn’t come along. I eventually got onto the proper path and walked a short way but the area was so photogenic I was stopping every few minutes for photos and ended up taking 217 over the day.
The rock formations are quite amazing with the layers of strata showing and also the alpine plants clinging to every surface that they can. After about an hour walking around Barras Nose I went back to the hotel and we had a coffee before a shower and heading out for dinner.
This was at another pub, King Arthurs Arms, which was the third place we’d stopped at to check availability. The portions were massive and Deb couldn’t actually finish hers and I was distinctly stretched after eating mine! We slowly ambled back to the hotel to wait for the food to go down so we could have another coffee. It was then notes and photos again before a brief trip outside to watch the sunset. Although it was a warm evening the very light breeze made it freezing on our sunburn so we wussed out and went back inside!
We both woke up just after 5AM on Sunday as the curtains in the room were so thin it was practically daylight. I decided to go for an early walk so headed down the usual route to the castle to get some people free pictures and then went down the original steps to get to the peninsula stage of the castle before the bridge was built. The beach with Merlin’s Cave was completely submerged by the incoming tide so I took a different path and followed the coast walk to Glebe Cliff which gave different views of the Tintagel peninsula and bridge. At St Materiana’s Church I then followed the road back into the village, past some impressive neo gothic Victorian properties.
Then it was the joyous clean up and pack routine before walking into the village for breakfast. We had another huge breakfast at the cafe and then returned to the hotel to finish packing before leaving for Lanhydrock gardens, the final stop of our Cornish road trip. We had by now learned our lesson and stopped using the sat nav, navigating by waypoints to avoid the ridiculous ‘shortcuts’ we were offered. Lanhydrock was a hugely popular NT property that was well signposted with a large car park.
Lots of people seemed to be using the parkland area or cycle tracks but we opted for the more sedate gardens. These really were the NT at its nature constraining best – the topiary was razor sharp, grass very much of the ‘don’t walk on it variety’ and borders were certainly look but don’t touch.
We spent a couple of hours walking around the gardens and some of the nearby walks before going in to the kitchen to see how a state of the art Victorian home functioned. The short answer was, lots of hard work. Things we take for granted now needed lots of manual labour even a hundred years ago. Fridges didn’t exisit so the dairy was cooled with running water and the meat was stored in ice boxes that needed constant renewal. Now that’s all done automatically and our generation is worried about being replaced by machines when it’s pretty much already happened.
After a coffee we walked back to the car for the drive to Plymouth to collect the dogs from Sofia. Four very expensive days in Cornwall, redeemed by the weather at the end but highlighting both the highs and lows of a UK holiday!
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Some amazing photographs, particularly considering the English weather, and a good write up of your trip. I liked the wind up by the Minack Theatre guy, about your tickets-very amusing. Lanhydrock house and gardens looked fantastic-how wonderfully well kept-really liked those photos 🙂 Although not Portugal, at least it seemed a very nice trip away from home and work 🙂
Interesting to see ‘home’ through the eyes of a visitor. Two thoughts……..we don’t think the roads are narrow……and when you go to Scilly again -fly!