We were renamed by Janet at one B&B who when booking a table for us (at the 400 year old pub with the entrance to the smugglers tunnel) forgot our names and saw something that made her say “Goshawk”!
We had a hire car and a couple of spare days. The surf was fleeting so we headed inland for more middle-aged pursuits of gardens, castles and stately homes and staying in a couple of very nice country house style B&Bs.
The first visit was the Lost Gardens of Heligan – such an enticing name and story of former glorious gardens found and reclaimed. Some truly inspiring edible gardens and acres of woodland and jungle. Now discovered by half of England and a couple of Australians!
The second was the Tudor house of Cotehele, and the original estate mill and quay on the Tamar River. Such an old house barely changed in 500 years, hung with the original incredible tapestries in every room.
Even our brief stop in Launceston (which we’d heard nothing about) meant a visit to the remains of a 700 year old castle and a uniquely carved 500 year old church. “It just keeps coming” we keep saying.
Had a couple of great chats with born & bred Cornish women in Launceston – talking to one about how here and in Scotland the originals seem outnumbered by folk from the SE of England. She thought that the Cornish bred were now about 1 in 10. But we can see why everyone would want to come here – we’ve been trying to dream up ways of spending more time here ourselves.
The weather will probably keep us in Denmark though – the rain and fog on about half of our Cornwall / Devon midsummer days has been a bit of a shock! We had a day to spend in Dartmoor NP hoping to walk to a Tor, hang with a pony or two, dance around a stone circle but by the time we got to the moor the fog was so thick we could hardly see oncoming cars until they were upon us.