A Trip to Cornwall - III

Apologies this is going to be a long one.

Sunday morning, awake bright and early for an 8:30 breakfast and a whole day exploring quite a short length of Cornwall’s coastline ending up on the Roseland Peninsula. First off I navigate BondWoman through some very narrow lanes to Gorran Haven (more from here in the next post) where I spent many a happy hour as a child growing up; OK so I lie, I grew up there but my childhood was less than happy unless I was off on my own exploring the cliffs.

From here we head over the top of the headland, which finally comes to a point at the Dodman, and down to Hemmick Beach; this is a very pretty little spot which is quite difficult to get to, but is very much worth the effort for those who enjoy beaches. Personally I do not enjoy beaches as much as I did as a child, but BW loves swimming in the sea, and I suspect that she would have been quite tempted if she had had her cossie with her.

Over the top of another hill and down into Porthluney Cove, better known to locals as Caerhays Beach; again this is a very pretty spot with a safe beach, and is much more easily accessible than Hemmick. I spent many an hour as a child, having made the substantial walk from Gorran Haven, digging up this beach at low tide in search of sand worms to facilitate my childhood passion of angling. As we drove up the hill towards Caerhays proper we stopped in a small lay-by about three quarters of the way up for a very fine view of the Dodman in an extraordinary light right after a quite heavy shower.

The next stop was Portholland, and by this time we are really into the very narrow lanes which follow the coastline. Portholland is a very tiny place, not much more than a hamlet, but has a very fine beach indeed; it is also a very good stop off point for anyone walking the Cornish Coastal Path. From here there is a very narrow track hugging the cliff around to what I think to be one of the most picturesque villages in Cornwall; yes, indeed, I know that I am biased towards the south coast of Cornwall.

Portloe is quaint, and my advice to anyone would be to park in the car park on the eastern edge of the village and walk down into it for the full effect; not that there is much parking space in the village anyway. Until now we had only been out of the car briefly, but here we stayed a little longer than we had so far and took a bit of a walk on the cliffs getting some wonderful views back into the village, which is a conservation area thank god, it can no longer be spoilt by pandering to the tourist accommodation blight. Portloe has both a good hotel and a very good pub, all that is really needed in a Cornish village.

After Portloe we head down through the village and out of the western end towards Veryan stopping en route at Broom Parc, a really lovely old house which achieved fame when being used for the TV version of The Camomile Lawn. Veryan itself is, I suppose, a typical Cornish village, and is nothing special, that is except for the ‘round houses’ for which it is famous. The round houses themselves are quite charming, and were, apparently, built that way to ‘keep the devil out of the corners’.

We had hope to find somewhere for a coffee in Veryan, but no luck; so we head off on the road to Portscatho, not that I was in any hurry to get there as you will learn later. We had not driven very far before we came down a hill and found an absolutely stunning spot Melinsey Mill, which is a very arty crafty sort of place, and as it offered a café that was open we decided to stop and take on refreshments, in my case a cup of peppermint tea to help digest the huge breakfast that had been consumed.

After a walk around the rather whacky gardens of the mill we could no longer postpone the inevitable - Portscatho! Now this is one of the very very few places in Cornwall which I could happily give a very wide berth indeed; but I had promised to show BW Cornwall and thought it only fair to show here the more tasteless side as well. Portscatho is a nothing sort of place these days, given over to holiday cottages and second homes (a subject very dear to my heart - NOT). There are a few ‘artists’ residing there, but from what I saw in the couple of galleries I cannot say that I was at all impressed with the standard of work on display. There was one painting of a wave breaking painted by someone who had absolutely no idea of how waves form let alone break. Enough already, let’s get out of here!

Leaving mediocrity behind s we head out to St. Anthony Head; now this is one of the most spectacular places on the south Cornish coast providing fantastic views up and across the Carrick Roads into both Falmouth and St. Mawes. The headland itself is riddled with all sorts of paths providing great walking opportunities; we walked down to the lighthouse, a stunning building in itself. We were very lucky that when we were there the light was just outstanding, which is not all that unusual in Cornwall as the reflected light from the sea all around makes Cornwall in many ways quite unique.

Time to head off to the final stop of the day, St. Just in Roseland. Again this is pretty much a typical Cornish village with not much going on, but it has a quite beautiful little church which nestles in quite stunning surroundings. I would say that this church and the churchyard surrounding it are definitely a ‘must not miss’, it is purely and simply such a peaceful spot.

Heading back we stop of in Mevagissey (more of this in the next post) for food. Parking on the harbour we find a quite unprepossessing place which actually served us some very good food indeed along with some very good bottled beer; and with views out over the harbour it was, all in all, a good end to a great day. Food and beer finished we retired to the B & B for a glass of red and some much needed sleep.

Pics

All pictures from the trip can be found here.