Our Adventures in Cornwall

We recently spent a week in Cornwall. It was so lovely! We stayed on the east coast in a little village called Gorran. Our first stop after arriving was Land's End, the very southwest tip of England.

The wall says "The First and Last House of Land's End Signpost."

We shared a cottage with another family who has four children some of whom are the ages of our children. It was a lot of fun. Everyone was constantly entertained and most always had a buddy to play with. Here is some of the gang on the coast in Land's End.

 

Here is Abby posing on the rocks at Land's End. 

Beautiful cliffs drop down to the water.

This is down near Land's End. We visited a theatre built right on the water's edge called Minack Theatre (pictures and description below). This is Alex and her friend Lucy.



This is looking down from where Alex and Lucy are standing in the above picture to a little beach. We came here on two different days because the first day the Minack theatre had just closed so we had to return and see it on another day.

This is St. Michael's Mount (it reminded us of Mount St. Michel in France but a bit smaller.) It is still home to the St Aubyn family as well as a small community. There is a medieval church and castle on the island - with the oldest buildings dating from the 12th century. Unfortunately, we did not get to go over to the island as it was closed to the public. Next time perhaps...

We were tipped off about a "secret beach." So one of the days there we went out in search of it. We found it only minutes from our cottage. We ended up spending the whole day there playing in the sand, exploring, playing in the water and picnicking. It was gorgeous. Here are the girls after we had just arrived at the "secret beach" actually called Hemmack Beach (if I remember correctly, however, we only referred to it as secret. I think the girls thought that was much more exciting!). The weather could not have been more perfect. You can see there was not a cloud in the sky. We literally forgot it was February!

This is another shot of the "secret beach" from further up the hill where we parked the car. Look at the green on top of the dark rock and the gorgeous blue of the water. Even more beautiful in real life. You can not see it as well but the little stone cottage just added to it. How quaint!



another view of the "secret beach"

"secret beach"

Looking for small reptiles or fish on the "secret beach." They found some kind of lizard fish. It was very strange looking and it even bit the boy in the front of the photo but he was ok. The children had been carrying the poor fish lizard around in the net for so long that I am sure he was not very happy.

Huge boulders on the "secret beach" with my Abby in between.

"secret beach"

Abby became obsessed with running on this trip. Every day she went on a run with the mother of the other family. She loved it and was begging to go running on the "secret beach." Here are several of them running on the beach like something out of Chariots of Fire. Now that we are back, I am determined to take her out running more to keep up this new found passion of hers.

The roads down to the "secret beach" were the narrowest we have ever been on. The hedges were literally scraping both sides of the car. Here is a picture of me and my friend driving our cars down to the beach. You could not have opened your car door on those roads if you wanted to. I loved it! Though if a car was coming the opposite way, be prepared to reverse a long way back...

The cottage we rented was so much fun. I am a believer that the place you stay on vacation is just as important as where you are. It can add so much to your trip. This was an old Methodist chapel and stables renovated into a large cottage. The old chapel was the lounge or living room. In the above picture you can see the pulpit in the back of the room. The children loved it. They were standing up there giving sermons constantly.  There was a massive old Bible that they could preach from on the pulpit. Underneath the pulpit was what was called the "sunshine house" where the children had a secret hideout with child-sized furniture, lights and all. This room was so large it was perfect for two families with a total of 8 children to have plenty of room to play.

This is looking at the lounge from the pulpit side of the room. We didn't realize there was no WiFi but it turned out to be sooo nice! We lived in our own little bubble all week. No contact without the outside world. What a great way to relax.

The kitchen was well-equipped and spacious. A lot of antiques throughout the place really added to the feel. What a fantastic place to stay!

This is in the town of Tintagel. This was an actual working post office during the Victorian times but the actual building dates back to the 14th century.

Here is a closer look.

This is some landscape in Tintagel as we were walking down to the beach where the ruins of an old castle (Tintagel castle) is. It is said to be the birth place of King Arthur.

This is a cave underneath the castle ruins called Merlin's cave. The girls were very excited about exploring it. It is a sea cave made by marine erosion. It went all the way through the rock to the beach on the other side. The poet Alfred Tennyson made Merlin's Cave famous in his Idylls of the King, describing waves bringing the infant Arthur to the shore and Merlin carrying him to safety. It was all quite magical.

This is Alex in Merlin's cave.

Here is Sadie in the castle window.

Sadie and I from the castle mound.

That is the chapel.  

This is Merlin's cave after the tide came in. The girls were amazed how it practically disappeared.  

Merlin's cave after the tide. You can see the bridge between the two rocks that leads over to the ruins of the castle on top.

Pretty magical place. Really gets your imagination going. The castle mount wasn't just home to the castle, there was an entire village up there. It would have been some life living up there with the sea always in view.

 

Breakfast back at the cottage

Here is the Minack theatre I mentioned above.

"Minack" in Cornish means a rocky place and the black headed crag below the theatre has always drawn local fishermen. From 1931 until she died in 1983 the Minack Theatre was planned, built and financed by one determined woman - Rowena Cade.  It was one impressive project. It is still a working theatre today. I wish we could have watched a play or something there. It was spectacular to sit in the stone seats and look down to the stage with the ocean as the backdrop. For more pictures of the theatre, click here.        

Here I am sitting in the seat Rowena apparently used to sit in during performances.

Abby, Sammy, Alex and our friend's children all tried to put on a play of their own while we were there. Alex was Rapunzel and Sammy was the director ordering everyone around. It was just as good if not better than a real play!

After touring the theatre, we made our way down to the beach for the second time. We saw two wild seals in the water. We had seen them the previous day we had been there but this time, I got to see them really close up. It was amazing. Of course, our camera could not capture them as close. Can you spot one in this picture? It was fun to watch them diving under or riding the waves. Sammy was particularly thrilled since seals have always been her favourite animal. What a lovely way to end our trip!