Falmouth – Where is Phil now?

St Mawes and St Just of Roseland.

Sunday 20 December 2015 – St Mawes, Falmouth, Cornwall.

I had a much better sleep last night than I did the night before. The hotel room is really comfy, though a little warm for my liking. I was awake early and got a bit of typing done on yesterday’s post before heading down for breakfast when the kitchen opened at 8:30. Another nice breakfast!

The weather was not anywhere near as poor as yesterday, the wind has died down significantly – to merely strong, and there was only showers forecast – heavy ones, but still only showers. I decided to try for the ferry over the harbour to the Roseland Peninsula and the village of St Mawes again, so headed out soon after breakfast. Grabbing a coffee on the way I was at the wharf just as the small ferry arrived, they were definitely running today, Yay.

The 20 minute journey started off smooth enough, but as we hit the middle of the harbour, the swell briefly picked up and we rocked and rolled for a while until we were safe in the lea of the far point.

My first stop for the day was St Mawes Castle, the little sister to Pendennis Castle that I visited yesterday. I could see it on the headland as we crossed the water.

The ferry arrived safe and sound in the small inner harbour at St Mawes and I spotted this great sign on the wall of the wharf.

St Mawes is on old fishing village that has mostly turned to tourism over the last twenty years. It is a pretty place, with lots of the sights common to this part of the country, cute thatched roof cottages and old stone buildings.

Like Pendennis, St Mawes Castle is run by English Heritage, and because I finally signed up yesterday for a year, it was free admission. Not that this is a particularly expensive place to visit. I was surprised to find other visitors here today.

The first view of the castle was a good one ! Like Pendennis it has been really well preserved and looks spectacular.

St Mawes was built at the same time as its big sister between 1540 and 1545 to ward off the threat from Spain and France to the Fal river – and access into Cornwall and England. With the harbour being over a mile wide at the entrance and the artillery of the day only having a range of half a mile, it required artillery forts on each side of the harbour for complete protection. The castle was used militarily up until 1905 when the guns were removed. it was a tourist attraction from 1920 until WW2 when it was re-armed to guard the Fal again, becoming a tourist attraction after the war.

The clover leaf design is really cool, multiple layers of defence and the round walls supposedly made it harder for enemy cannon balls to penetrate. It was quite an amazing design. I really liked, it is now one of my favourite castles. I think English Heritage have done a good job here !

I haven’t used my big old DSLR for ages, I took it away on this trip so I could spend some time with it, remind it that I love it dearly, but it is not user friendly if I am going out with El to do something that is not supposed to be photograph related. I was intending on some sunrise/sunset photography with the tripod, but there was no sunrise or sunset to be seen on any of the days I was away. I had some issues with it not handling really strong contrasts, and blowing out the highlights in one corner of the sensor, hopefully it is a me issue rather than a camera issue. Much as I would like to get a 5dMk2 or Mk3, even second hand they are a lot of money! I must admit I really enjoyed using it over the weekend and it will get some more work outs.

I took my usual walk around the outside of the fort first, I really liked the areas on the walls where Henry VIII’s crest was mounted.

The geometry of the fort is wonderful, I spent well over an hour in this small space, and could easily have taken a lot more photos than I did, and this is just a small part of what I took.

Down the back I discovered a stairwell down to the gun batteries, I was the only person I saw venture outside, so most people would have missed this area. The batteries and a store room were built in the 1850s – trouble with the French again. The main fort was converted into a barracks as new technology allowed for bigger, more powerful guns to be used from the battery. The walls protecting the ammunition store were really thick and hidden behind quite deep earthworks.

Continuing my walk around the grounds eventually led me to the entrance to the fort.

Like Pendennis, the inside had been partially set up like it would have been in the 1700s, and there was an audio guide to take with you explaining what life was like at the time, as well as describing the castle itself. It was all quite interesting.

The weather was sticking to forecast and the skies were actually quite clear when I left the castle. Before I left this morning I had decided that if it was fine I would walk to the tiny hamlet of St Just of Roseland, about 2 miles up the Fal from St Mawes.

The direction was sort of a guess, walk near the water…

The sign was so old, worn and mossy that it was totally unreadable, but there was an arrow heading that way, so I was sure it was OK to walk in that direction.

The walk was not particularly interesting, just along the bottom of farms, near the rivers edge, it was pretty muddy in places, specifically where National Trust had their gates.

At the end of the path at the bottom of the village there is a small shipyard, so I headed up the hill and found the entrance way to the church there. The view down through the gate, down a steep tree lined graveyard to the church was quite lovely, sadly my photo was not.

The graveyard is really big, and looks like it is still being used as there are a number of recent grave stones, unlike so many London grave yards that are close to full now. I loved this Cornish cross, and the mosses growing on the old headstones made for a really interesting view.

There has been a church on this lovely river side site since the 6^th century, though the church is relatively modern, having been built in the 13^th century. It is such a lovely building in a very special location.

The church grounds are a large garden filled with many exotic trees, palms and things that are very un-English like, the warmer temperatures in this sheltered valley allow some unusual things to grow. I do not know what these were but it looked like a field of large dead bats…

Before heading back the way I came I stopped for a drink of water and a snack bar, it was past mid-day now and I was starting to get peckish. I almost regretted this as when I was most of the way back and checked my watch I realised I was very close to the departure time of the hourly ferry. I picked up my pace and power walked back to the castle, breaking into a run down the road back to the wharf, I arrived just as the ferry was backing out, damn. All that effort, and I am so unfit it was an effort wasted. I resolved to go to the pub and wait, sacrifices had to be made.

When I turned around to head back up the wharf I spotted this massive storm cloud sweeping in across the harbour, I stopped to take a couple of pictures of the ferry moving into the storm – you cannot see it in under the rain in the second shot.

I had just got into the pub and was sitting myself down upstairs when the storm hit, it was ferocious with rain and hail and strong winds – all lasting about 5 mins. I could hear people screaming on the road outside as they were walking down the hill and received an unexpected soaking. I really enjoyed the pint I had in that pub !

By the time I left just under an hour later, the sky had cleared and it looked like my journey across would be fine. I took a couple of pictures of the small harbour before boarding the ferry.

The ride over was pretty good, there was one moment when the swells were quite high and I got quite wet trying to take photos of Pendennis point – luckily I swung my camera out the way before the spray hit me.

As we arrived into Falmouth another storm cloud arrived, I made it most of the way to the end of town before it hit. I got the first hit of hail and the sudden heavy rain before getting into another pub, where I also had a pint while I waited it out. This pub was not so nice so I did not linger, and left as the last remains of light rain fell.

The rest of the afternoon was not spent doing anything useful, I watched football on my laptop, then uploaded photos from the day before heading back into Falmouth for dinner. I was surprised at how many places were open for dinner on a winter Sunday night, pleasantly surprised as it meant I had a choice. I chose a place close to the hotel, which just happened to make a really nice pizza…

I really liked Falmouth, and I am a bit surprised by that, I know I did not stray far from the main tourist sections of town, but it is the last weekend before Christmas and town was busy with local – and not so local shoppers, and it had pretty good vibe to it. As I said back on my first post about Falmouth I had not done much research and was really surprised to find the ship yards, and drunk students on Friday night. This gave me an impression of the town that was not warranted, and it was pleasing to have my opinion change.

PS. Not very happy with the relationship between Windows Live Writer 12 on my Windows 10 PC and WordPress. Formatting did not come across as I set it up in Writer and my photos look a bit crap. I didn’t have this issue on my old laptop. Tomorrow’s job is to find a new blog writing tool. I was warming to Writer after I was forced to switch from Blogdesk.

Pendennis Castle and Falmouth.

Saturday 19 December 2015 – Falmouth, Cornwall.

It was a really windy night, and it is now a really windy morning. The wind was howling around the hotel making things whistle and creak all night long. The weather is pretty lousy this morning too, rain is forecasted for most of the day and with 30mh winds blowing in off the sea I don’t think I will be doing too much coastal walking. But there is a castle, or two to visit – so not all bad !

After a very nice, and not too large Cornish breakfast I got myself organised and was out the door for 10:00, opening time for Pendennis Castle. My hotel is one street back from the beach and wow, the wind was so strong! It wasn’t raining when I left so I made the most of the time and took a couple of photos of the sea before power walking up to the distant castle.

The Lerryn Hotel, where I am staying, I have the near balcony room, but the view has been pretty much entirely grey since I have been here.

At the top of the hill I took a detour around the back of the castle to see if there was a view over the wall, which there wasn’t, but there were a couple of trees just begging to have their photo taken so I happily obliged. I love trees without leaves, most of the trees in and around Auckland are evergreen, so I am just not used to seeing so many naked trees. Such a clear marker of seasons changing.

As I discovered last night on my stroll in the dark, there is a decent, though empty moat, and high walls separating me from the castle.

Once across the moat and through the entrance I decided to do something I should have done about five castles ago – I joined English Heritage for a year, hopefully this will not mean I stop visiting English Heritage run castles now I have paid the fee. I am planning on doing two today, so a decent start.

Like St Mawes Castle, a sister castle on the far bank of the Fal River, Pendennis Castle is a Henrician castle built under Henry VIII between 1540 and 1545 to protect the river from a perceived threat by both the French and the Spanish. I was surprised to learn today that the harbour at the entrance to the River Fal is the third deepest harbour in the world, after Sydney and Rio. This made it very attractive as a naval base, though it was never really used as one at all. The castle is one of a string of castles built across the south coast after Henry decided to annoy the French and Spanish when he rejected the Catholic church.

The castle was expanded during Elizabethan times with the majority of the outer buildings and the high walls being added then. As an artillery fort the site was continued to be modified up to and just after the end of the Second World War as new artillery technology was developed. The fort was abandoned by the military in 1956. A story I heard while I was there was the that most damage done to the fort since a siege during the English Civil War was caused by the MOD in the 60s when they destroyed a temporary barracks building by blowing it up – and cracking the walls of other buildings in the process.

As it wasn’t raining once I was on site, I decided to follow my usual tactic of walking around the perimeter, looking at the views and checking out the outside of the tower.

I headed down toward the WW2 observation post and had a look at the window.

I tried to find my way to the WW2 gun emplacements below, but my efforts seemed quite fruitless as all the paths were gated off – reading the map was going be a last resort obviously. I eventually came across a tunnel… I so love a tunnel.

This led the way under some earthen defences to the gun emplacements. There was a small group having a tour while I was there so I tagged along and listened in. Turns out the group were the only other visitors on this miserable day – and they were Kiwis too. The wind was really howling on the point, the whistling as the wind passed through the mast was incredible.

I walked around the grounds a little bit more, before finally entering the Henrician artillery tower as the rain arrived again. I liked the gargoyles, sadly I got rain on my lens, but I have decided to keep the photo anyway.

The inside of the artillery keep was decked out like it was in the 1700’s, including a very loud soundtrack that kicks in when you walk in the door – a bit of a surprise.

The roof was locked off but I was told I could go up there if I re-barred the door once I was back inside, I could see why once i was on the narrow steep, circular stairs to the roof, they were quite wet and slippery. I met one of the Kiwis on the stairs and we took it in turns to go out on the roof and have a quick look around, while the other held the door closed in the ferocious wind.

Down from the roof I headed over to the more recent barracks block – only a hundred or so years old and had a coffee and piece of cake for a late morning tea, and that was pretty much my last act in the grounds and I left the castle soon after.

I decided to replicate the walk I did round the moat last night.

And then headed down to the sea front to visit Little Dennis, a small coastal blockhouse. The wind was so strong here, I was struggling to stand still to take photos. It is right on the tip of the point with wonderful views across a blustery sea to St Mawes.

This ice cream seller was very keen, surprisingly I saw a couple with ice creams as I walked up from Little Dennis, so I suppose his efforts paid off. Good on him, it was not nice out there, but at least it was not cold…

I took the coast path around the point rather than walk on the roads like last night.

There were a couple of guys living in tents on the edge of the forest, they must be facing very tough times to choose to be in a tent with wind like this. The coast path was pretty greasy, but so much nicer than walking on the road.

Soon enough I was back in civilisation, I walked past the ship yards that caught me so much by surprise last night, it was raining pretty hard by now and this was the last photo I took before hiding my camera away in my back pack – and putting a rain cover on the pack as well.

It was a short, but wet and not particularly lovely walk into the waterfront area of Falmouth. Money has been spent in the area nearest the port, with new restaurants and bars including a Pizza Express which I am pondering for tonight, I do love pizza and there is something special about the anonymousness of a chain restaurant when you are a solo eater. There is a Rick Stein’s fish restaurant but it looks too stale for my tastes, though I am sure it is lovely, pricey too I bet. By the time I had passed round the back of the new buildings the rain had passed and I could ditch the rain cover and get my camera out again. I sort of liked the waterfront, it is big yachting harbour, so slightly reminiscent of Auckland and other yachty places.

Falmouth has allowed itself to be taken over by tourism, as I was walking down the hill from the castle I passed a new waterside development of ‘exclusive’ apartments and a lot of the old buildings in town have become shops or tacky bars and eating places. Who ever thought that the old harbour master building would make a good Mexican cafe and hairdresser was badly misinformed/taking a kick back or something. I understand that towns need to keep relevant and make money, but sometimes selling your soul is not worth the price.

Having said that, so far I kind of like Falmouth, but it has not made the most of its waterfront, unless you count car parking as a value add. All the small wharf areas are full of cars, I have tried to miss them when as I have taken photos, but they are there.

I was planning on taking a ferry over to St Mawes to visit the sister castle to Pendennis, but due to the really strong wind the ferry was cancelled for the day.

Time for a new plan, it was only afternoon and I had pretty much seen all of Falmouth’s waterfront area. I headed up to the art gallery for a quick peak. Nice building, some interesting local art as well.

That was pretty much my day, it was definitely my day photographically. I went back to the hotel and uploaded and edited photos, watched some football and had a rest before heading out for an early meal. Back in time for the final two episodes of The Bridge season 3.

A nice time so far in Falmouth.

This new laptop I am using is Windows 10 based. So far I am really liking it, a far better experience than I expected – except the version of Windows Live Writer I have been using to write and manage blogs screws with images uploaded to WordPress. Boo Hiss !!! I hate writing blogs in Wordress, time to find a new writing tool. So far I have loved and lost Blogpress and now Live Writer, hopefully the next tool find is as good and lasts longer….