September 6, 2015 - Padstow to Land’s End to Oxford

We woke to bright, sunny skies and beautiful temperatures – a great start to a full day! Tobey and I walked across the street from the hotel to see the beach. When we arrived last night there were several people walking back to their cars wearing wetsuits, carrying their surfboards so we wanted to check it out. This morning the tide was out, but there were quite a few people walking on the beach.

Our first stop today was Land’s End – about 1-1/2 hours away, and the westernmost point of Cornwall. There are miles of walks you can take along the cliffs with spectacular views.
We wandered along several of the paths and stopped to see the views across the Atlantic. From one point we could look back and see the hotel and restaurant near the carpark.

There have been over 130 recorded shipwrecks around the Land’s End, as well as countless more unrecorded. Now, Longships Lighthouse at Land’s End forms one point of an important protective triangle - Longships Lighthouse, Wolf Rock Lighthouse and the Lizard Lighthouse collectively create one of the best lit waterways in the British Isles.

We were three of the over 400,000 visitors, from all over the globe, who traveled to Land’s End this year! There is a signpost showing the distance to New York – we are only 3147 miles away!

From Land’s End we headed back east about 20 miles to Marazion so we could tour St. Michael’s Mount. The castle has changed ownership over the years from Bronze age settlers, monks, pilgrims and soldiers. The St. Aubyn family has lived on the Mount since the 17th Century!

At low tide, there is a causeway which allows you to walk out to the island. When we arrived, we had to take one of the boat shuttles out to the island – $2GPB per person – one way! After arriving at the island, we purchased our admission tickets then started the long climb to the castle entrance at the top of the hill!

We were able to tour several of the rooms within the castle (where the family still lives today!) and see the many collections of art, books, and maps.

From the terraces, we were able to look down at the private gardens and also see the pillboxes used by the military during the war. They are well camouflaged with the grass growing on top of them.

There is also a medieval church with nave and central tower dedicated to St. Michael, which is still used for Sunday services within the castle. It was first built in 1135, then rebuilt in the late 14th century.

In addition to the stained glass in the church, the family has a large collection of other pieces in the Chevy Chase. The Chevy Chase was the refectory for the priory and actually was used as the main dining room for the family until the 1950s.

Before heading back down the hill to the boat ramps, we enjoyed seeing the route the causeway takes from the mainland. It was still underwater, so we took the boat back!
On our walk back down the hill we took time to find the “Giant’s Heart”, one of the small, dark, cobblestones in the pathway.

I also stopped several times to admire the beautiful flowers on the island. I know I will have to research them further, but I doubt they will grow in our dry, Colorado climate!

Back in Marazion we walked by this skinny building which I remembered from my trip here in 1997! It’s now a little café.

We had a lovely day, but my legs were tired and it is a long drive back to Oxford, so we hit the road. It was a beautiful drive back through the countryside of Cornwall. All of the farms look so neat and tidy – and we loved the hedgerow fences.

We were also amazed at how many solar farms and wind turbines are in the area. I had to chuckle as I listened to my two engineers trying to calculate the speed at which the turbine blades were moving! I am glad their educations paid off.

We arrived back in Oxford about 7:30 and fixed dinner and relaxed. Tyler goes back to work tomorrow and Tobey and I will decide what other sights to see.