We went to the southern most point yesterday , so it seemed logically to go to the western point today - Lands End . We pulled up in the carpark and paid for our parking before heading in for a look . It seemed to be geared up for kids & families , with 4 different attractions to keep the kids happy & entertained , there was also a pub . There were a couple of red phone booths contrasting the whitewashed buildings , that have souvenir shops , cafes etc.
Then there was the all important spot where you queue up to have your photo taken with the sign telling you how far you are away from various cities in the world - you do get your family name on the sign as well !! We declined , it wasn't warm enough to hang around that long 😉
There's a light house out on a rocky stretch off the coast as well .
Leaving Lands End a little underwhelmed , we headed over to the next small village of St Just - seemed appropriate to us anyway 😁 We came upon this driveway leading down to a large manor house - Forthledden House , the Warner Family so the sign said .
Continuing down the road to Cornwall Point , we had stone walls either side of the road , there were a couple of houses down below and a tower or something on top of the rocky outcrop .
We parked again , another National Trust area , so free parking for us , and went for a walk down to the houses - being used for holiday accomodation again .
We walked down past the houses , as the track continued on . We could have gone upwards to the top of the rocky outcrop , but decided to go here first .The views back across the bay were excellent , with a few more cottages perched on the side of the hill.
We followed the track around the headland and had great views back along the coast towards Land End .
The track started going upwards , and we paused to let a younger couple come down , and chatted to them for a minute or two . They were from Manchester, and down till tomorrow . They told us the track led up to the top of the hill , so we continued on .
The path and rockwall stopped and steps appeared , so did a small building perched on the cliffside . It was a coast watch building , manned by volunteers and you can wander in and have a chat with the volunteer , so we did . Said Hello to this gentleman in uniform and had an Aussie accent straight back at me , G,day . He was from here as a boy , but moved to Melbourne with family many moons ago , now lives in Penzance , and has done for the last 26 years , and loves it ! After chatting for about 15mins , we headed off up the steps? , rocky slope to the top , near the tower .
The views from up here were extensive and well worth the walk up . Down in the bay is a boat ramp and boat sheds . There are a couple of commercial fishermen that fish out of kayaks - filling their kayaks as full as they can , even using the buoyancy tanks to store their catch in .
In the valley on the other side are the ruins of many buildings - Boswedden Mine - mining for copper & tin in the 1900's
The views are stunning with stone fences dividing up the hill into smaller paddocks . We also noticed there's a golf course on top of the hill just above the houses just right of centre .
We made our way back down then up to the car and headed toward Penzance for a look . Well Penzance was another big place with little parking , so we continued driving the narrow streets and found an island out in the bay - St Michaels Mount , complete with castle on top , so we set out to get there for a look .
Finding our way round the bay was easy , but again parking was a fair walk away from anywhere we wanted to look at , so this next shot is from the cemetery . Penzance is the town in the background , and access to the castle is via a ferry - or there is a causeway at low tide apparently ,if you don't mind wet feet.
We settled for our view and headed back toward our apartment in St Austell , but with a slight deviation to Charlestown , also on the coast very close to St Austell . It's a port where they used to export clay , you can see a shute near the boat on the left . Apparently it was as dusty as hell with clay dust flying everywhere whilst they were loading up . The water in the bay didn't look very palatable - a very off browny green colour ( that was what I was seeing anyway). We walked around the bay , and there was a bridge at the ocean end to cross over , which was handy !!
A hotel , restaurant & shops beside the harbour.
Break walls protect the harbour from the prevailing weather conditions , which can be far from what we were having today .To the left of the small inflatable is a lock , so that the boats in the harbour stay afloat at low tide ???? That's where the bridge across was , across the top of the lock .
That was our day , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1xGyzEDCK1lDJ8XQKSO2440EqVb9kB_Y&usp=sharing
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