Penzance (Cornwall)

Wednesday, 20 November - Friday, 22 Novemeber 2019

Wednesday, 20 November

We are driving to Penzance today.  It is 100 miles away, so it should take about 2.5 hours.  Luckily there is a neolithic site we will stop at to break the drive up a bit.

We left the AirBnB and drove to Scorhill Stone Circle, just outside of Gidleigh, England.  We arrived into town and drove up a narrow road that ended in a parking area.  We entered the gate and walked uphill about 15 minutes and was rewarded with a great view of the Dartmoor moors.

When we went over the rise, Scorhill Stone Circle was in view:

Here is a zoomed in look:

Standing in the circle:

As a bonus, just a short hike away is a clapper bridge, so off we went.

Tim's fingers taking a walk:

Great action shot Tim:

OK...enough of this.  Time to hike back to the car and drive to Penzance...if these cows get out of our way!

We arrived in Penzance around 2 PM, checked into the AirBnB and then went out for a walk.  Here is a photo of our neighborhood.  It is a bit stormy out here.

We walked around town a bit and found Cornish Crown Brewery just a few blocks from our AirBnB, so of course we had to stop for a flight:

It was starting to rain, so we headed back to the AirBnB hoping for some better weather for tomorrow for our driving tour of the Penwith Peninsula which Penzance is a part of.

Thursday, 21 November

We awoke to stormy weather so slept in some, had breakfast, and waited for the rain to slow down.  When it finally did, we headed to the car to explore the Penwith Peninsula.  First stop is a small village could Mousehole.  We parked and walked down to the walking path along the English Channel.

This is a cute town.  I could just imagine it with blue skies:

Well look...The Ship Inn looks interesting. It is a St Austell Brewery inn which isn't actually a brewery, but since they had 4 different St. Austell beers on tap, we decided to order a flight:

Here is a nice Cornish toast:

We walked back to the car along the path along the water and enjoyed the scenery.

Back to the car and onward to continue our Penwith Peninsula tour.  These Hedgerows are an icon of Cornwall and aren't as soft as they appear.  There are rock walls behind that greenery making for a "fun" drive.  And yes...this is a two way road.

More crazy, narrow roads through Lamorna Cove.

Check it out...Lands End is only 7.5 miles away.  Going there will complete our end-to-end tour of the UK, but first we have a few more stops.

We continued for about 1 mile and pulled off to the side of the road to visit Merry Maidens Stone Circle.

What a nice circle, especially since we had it to ourselves.  About a half-mile beyond Merry Maidens is a Celtic Cross which marked the way for Celtic pilgrims traveling to Santiago de Compostela during the 6th to 10th century..

Rick Steves mentions a tiny road leading to a secret cove called Penherth Cove.  We had to go check it out, so we made a left.  This was really a tiny road, and again, it IS two-way.

We arrived to a sign that said visitors weren't allowed past, so we parked on the side of the road and walked the rest of the way to the cove.

This contraption is to help pull the fishing boats out of the water and onto the slipway.

Cool stone buildings on the cove.

This is the South West Coast Path and travels 630 miles along the entire coastline of the Penwith Peninsula...maybe one day we will walk the path, but for today we just walked up to a nice viewpoint.

We returned to the car, drove back up that tiny, narrow road and made it back to the main road.  Next stop Land's End, the westernmost point in all of England and is now a tourist trap with a pricey parking lot.  All we wanted was a photo of the sign, so instead of paying for parking, we took turns leaving the car an getting the obligatory photo.

That is us...the little blue dot on the map.  By the way...I am as close as you can get to the sign without having to pay.  We were in John O'Groats on 21 September, exactly 2 months ago today.

It is now after 3 PM, so we decided to head back to Penzance and finish this driving tour tomorrow.  We stopped at a Lidl and bought some food for dinner and headed back to the AirBnB for a relaxing evening.

Friday, 22 November

We woke to another rainy day, but it won't stop us from exploring the rest of the Penwith Peninsula.  Right at 11 AM we arrived at Cape Corwall AKA "The Connoisseur's Land's End" because it feels like the end of the world without all the touristy gimmicks of the actual Land's End.  We parked in the parking lot and walked to the top of the bluff.  On the way, we passed the ruins of the tiny 6th-century church of St. Helen's Oratory.

We are headed up to that chimney.

Made it...and check out the views:

We walked back to the car a bit soggy from the rain, but still not letting it stop us. Next stop is the Crown Mines of Botallack.  The 1860's were the hayday for these tin mines.  We found a visitor center and talked to the park ranger for a bit as she explained that the mines went down the cliffs and under the Atlantic.  The Geevor Tin Mine in this area extended a half-mile under the ocean.  See this drawing that Tim took a photo of.  All those mine levels are under the ocean...pretty cool.

Here are some photos of mine ruins

Back to the car for a scenic drive to St. Ives through, as Rick Steves put it, "mining towns, farm hamlets, and pastoral fields." Here is a  white-belted Galloway cow along the side of the road and the "pastoral fields."

We made it to St. Ives just before 3 PM and guess what.  There is a brewery here not surprising called St. Ives Brewery.  There were no beers on tap, so we bought one bottle of each of their beers.

St. Ives Brewery

After the flight, we were ready to get back to the AirBnB and dry out.   We arrived at the AirBnB right around dinner time, had some dinner, did laundry, and called it a night.  Tomorrow we have a 3.5 hour drive to Wells, England.  Until then...