We’ve had a great couple of weeks here – helped by excellent weather!
The downside is the journey back tomorrow… Update: Journey not too bad, and we’re home safely.
Goodbye Cornwall
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Monthly Archives: July 2019
Pendeen Lighthouse
Whilst Tina did her underground tour, Rocco and I walked along the coast to Pendeen Lighthouse.
All very scenic!
Geevor Mine
Another day, another mine… This was quite different from the historical ones that we’ve seen so far as it only closed in 1990.
There are many displays and old equipment rooms. You can get a good feel for the extent of the mine workings from this 3D model:
Each tube is an underground tunnel; the blue line is the sea level.
We then stopped for a coffee; Rocco was glad of the rest!
Next was the mill, which processed the extracted rock into Tin and other compounds.
There was also a short underground visit to an older mine – the only place that didn’t allow dogs, so we had to do that in turn.
A full day out, and well recommended.
For more information, see Geevor Mine Wiki
Botallack
After lunch, we stopped a few miles down the coast to see other examples of mine buildings, and to give Rocco a chance to let off steam.
Levant Mine
This morning’s visit was to Levant Mine, a disused but surprisingly complete National Trust property on the coast.
We had an interesting but rather long tour from a guide, mostly about the history, but also the methods used to extract the copper and tin.
There was also a visit to an underground tunnel, but Tina stayed behind to dog sit.
Finally, we had a demonstration of a working steam beam engine that had been restored.
An interesting visit, and quite different from the average NT property!
Land’s End
As we were in the area, we had to visit Land’s End, despite it being horribly commercialised and expensive for car parking.
But some of the cliffs were nice. And Rocco had a leg stretch…
Porthcurno
We visited Porthcurno this morning – noted for the undersea telegraph cables that we’ve both been (loosely) associated with in our working lives.
The buildings have now been made into a museum.
Quite an interesting museum, with a good collection of old telegraph and radio equipment.
The WW2 tunnels were also interesting, with a set of “escape stairs” that led to the top of the cliff.
Also on display was the small hut where the undersea cables terminated:
Modern fibre optic cables use much more equipment at the ends!
There were also some ‘low’ telegraph poles used for training:
We then explored the rest of the area, though not the (nice) beach as dogs are banned:
Carn Brea
Another lovely morning today, so Rocco and I had a high speed walk up a local hill, Carn Brea, which according to the information board “is the most westerly hill in Britain”.
Nice paths all the way (which makes a change!) and great 360° views from the top, despite it only being 198m (650ft) high.
A nice walk.
Sancreed Beacon
This is a small hill near the cottage – we can see the top from the garden. As we were passing, we parked up and did a short walk up to the top.
Unfortunately, the ponies had beaten us to the summit, so Rocco had to be on the lead. The top has 360° views of Penzance, St Michaels Mount, Gonnhilly, The Lizard and a lot of the surrounding countryside.
And some nice moorland paths.
Wherrytown Beach
Rocco was very well behaved (and on the lead) all morning, so whilst Tina did some shopping, I took him for an off lead walk and a swim.
He was so much happier!