Tag: penzance

Wednesday 26 July 2023 – Marazion, Cornwall.

In the next month I will visit four different English regions. Today, we’re in Cornwall in the South West, this will be followed next week by a day in St Leonards in the South East, then Macclesfield in the North West, finishing with a work training session in York in the North East. This wasn’t planned when the first trips were booked but there is a nice symmetry to it all. To mostly wrap things up I will be visiting Birmingham in the midlands in September for a work related trade show.

We had planned this trip to Marazion a few weeks ago, booking this as one of two short breaks to celebrate Eleanor’s birthday. Due to train and tube strikes we cancelled this holiday a couple of weeks back and postponed a overnight visit to Aldeburgh to mid-October. When the strikes were cancelled we managed to rebook the hotel, thankfully, and here we are in Marazion, a small tourist town three miles east of Penzance. There’s not much in Marazion but the hotel has everything we need and it is directly opposite St Michael’s Mount, somewhere I’ve longed to visit and sitting quietly looking at the view is almost as good as pretty damn good too.

We caught the train down on Monday morning and for a five hour journey, it’s quite enjoyable, particularly from hour two and the far side of Exeter. I took a few photos out of the window as we travelled; the weather at times was ominous.

The hugely important, inventive and clever civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed and oversaw the build of a few sections of the railway along the coast including the great Saltash Rail Bridge over the Tamar river and the fabulous coastal section either side of Dawlish.

Unfortunately we were on the rail bridge so I didn’t get a photo of it, though I did get one of the parallel road bridge.

We arrived in Penzance mid-afternoon and took a taxi to the hotel. After checking in we went for a walk through the tiny village of Marazion, with its view dominated by the Mount. I love the Mount and took so many photos from so many different angles; fortunately I’m not sharing all of them. We were slightly bemused by the volume of union flags flying in the village main street, and also the number of cottages that appeared to be short term lets.

We had booked dinner in the hotel, it was a recommended restaurant and the main reason we chose to stay here. We had an early table which turned out to be a good plan as we got shown to a table right by the window and a great view of the Mount. We took a slow meal and spent a lot of time just gazing out the window at the early evening scenery.  After eating a very nice meal we had a drink (or two) on the deck until the bar closed. It was a lovely evening admiring the outside, drinking a very nice rose and listening to the classic 70s rock playlist coming from the bar.

We were either really lucky or had planned brilliantly but Tuesday, our only full day in Cornwall, was sunny and warm and neither the on-off showers of Monday, nor the rain all day of Wednesday had much of an impact on our trip. With the help of the hotel we booked a 10:30 visit to the Mount. Sadly the tide was wrong and we weren’t able to do the hoped-for walk over to the island so had to catch one of the boats that ferry small groups over.

10:30 was the second bookable slot for the day and I’m so glad we went early, the island wasn’t too crowded while we were there and the queue for the boat going over when we arrived back on the mainland was massive. Early seems to be the right time to do things; who knew?

St Michael’s Mount is a tidal island about 100 yards offshore and is fully accessible at low tide. The island was a monastic site, possibly dating back as far as the 9th century. It changed hands numerous times over the next 800 or so years, swapping between different religious orders, royalist and parliamentary leaders over that time. It was sold to the St Aubyn family in 1649 and they’ve owned the island ever since, with family members living in the castle most of that time. Apparently there is a ‘secret’ underground railway from Marazion to the island, and I wish I knew that before we visited as I would have looked for both entrances.

The way up to the castle is steep and cobbled and not for someone in stilettos; we saw a woman heading that way in them as we walked back to the hotel.

We weren’t overly excited about the castle, it was OK, but as Eleanor said once you’ve seen a few lived in castles you’ve pretty much seen them all, there was nothing special about the castle itself. Great location and it has great views, but it’s a bit so-so inside. I can’t believe I managed to get all those photos with no people in them.

The gardens however…

Wow, I loved them. I’m not a garden person normally but this really was something special. The gardens are terraced up the side of the mount towards the bottom of the castle and the unique micro-climate here they are able to grow a mix of plants we don’t see elsewhere in outdoor English gardens with strong representation with various types of agave and aloes mixed in with more traditional flowering plants. This is not a traditional manor house garden and all the better for it too.

It was hot by the time we left so we stopped for a cold drink and snack in the café on the island before heading back to the mainland on the boat and a brief rest before heading out again for adventure two for the day.

Friends of our who are familiar with the area recommend Treemenheere Sculpture Gardens which were about halfway to Penzance and just inland from the coast. We asked about the gardens in the hotel and they were quite surprised when we said we would walk, and it wasn’t even 40 minutes from the hotel. I guess like most rural communities, this is a car town. I led the way. I won’t say it was disastrous, but Eleanor didn’t enjoy it very much, particularly the dashing across a busy A road motorway. In my favour I was following the fastest suggested walking route on Google Maps and the dash across the A road was at a designated crossing point. I think Eleanor was more annoyed at the overgrown narrow path surrounded by bramble and nettle and then the walk alongside a farmer’s corn field, than the road dash. Either way we walked back a different, albeit slightly longer way that included a road bridge rather than a dash across a busy road.

The gardens were worth it though. We had a very nice lunch and then explored the gardens; there was not a huge amount of sculpture for a sculpture garden.

The gardens themselves were not traditionally pretty, nor fancy and  ornamental; there were a lot of shrubs and trees, lots more cacti and the types of thing that grow in the warm, which Cornwall certainly is compared to other parts of the UK. It was very subtropical and I was surprised to see a load of punga trees, a tree fern I’ve not seen in England before, but are everywhere in New Zealand. It almost felt like a walk in Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges. We really enjoyed it and it brought back some happy New Zealand memories.

We spent the evening around the hotel again, sitting outside and hoping for a spectacular sunset which never really came, though there was early promise. It was lovely sitting outside and looking over the Mount. For me, these are the moments that make a holiday. Just sitting quietly, hanging out with Eleanor and enjoying a lovely view.

As predicted, Wednesday arrived under a blanket of low cloud and rain, it was a good day to be heading back to London. I must admit the mount looks great under those low clouds.

We lurked around the hotel after a long breakfast and took a taxi to the station in Penzance at check out time. We were still very early so went for a walk in the rain; lugging our bags with us as there is no left locker storage at the station. Penzance is probably a prettier town if the rain isn’t falling.

Our journey home was frustrated with signal failure and a very busy train. We were hoping to get a snack and a drink on the five, which turned into a six hour, journey to Paddington, but with only a food cart and a very full train we didn’t get served for four and half hours and there was little left. As well as getting a little hangry we did get a partial refund for the delay which partly made up for it. I managed to snatch a photo of the Brunel’s magnificent Saltash Rail Bridge as we approached which was I guess the one bonus of the slow journey.

Soon enough we were home in London, and as always, Cornwall and the South West were wonderful. Next time we go for longer!