An amazing final finish at Land’s End!

Monday 23^rd September

We could hear fog horns when we woke this morning and had our fingers crossed that unlike yesterday it would lift by mid morning.

We had great expectations for breakfast and they were well and truly met. Clive and David are perfect hosts and a really dynamic duo. David makes his own plum jam & it’s delicious.

Our departure for the day trip we’d planned was shrouded in fog and so we made some adjustments.

First stop was St Michael’s Mount…it took us longer than expected to get there…we found ourselves in a huge traffic queue…after about ½ hour when we were ushered forward by the Police we realized that we were behind a Charity Run…we could see the support van plastered with Richard Whitehead runs Britain & we then saw Richard himself…he’s a double leg amputee who is running to raise money for charity. We were OK with being held up when we saw what it was all about.

The tide was in when we arrived and so we had a boat trip out to the island then climbed the cobbled pathway to the fairytale castle and fortress with architecture that dates back to the 12^th century.

It is still the lived in and much loved home of the St Aubyn family. In 1954 Francis St Aubyn, the 3^rd Lord St Levan gave St Michael’s Mount and a large endowment to the National Trust, retaining a 999-year lease for the family to live in the castle. While the National Trust now ensures the preservation and conservation of the Mount, the St Aubyn family continue to live on and manage the island as they have done since the 17^th century.

We particularly loved the intricate plaster frieze 

in the Chevy Chase room…

the Strawberry Gothic drawing room…

and a model of the Mount made out of

Champagne corks by a former butler

By the time we left it was low tide and we could walk back across to the mainland! This was completely underwater when we came across on the boat.

Next stop Mousehole (pronounced "Mowzel") it’s one of Cornwall's most picturesque hamlets; a stunning collection of yellow-lichened houses, built from the local finely grained Lamorna granite, huddled together around the inner edge of the harbour - protected from the force of the sea by two sturdy breakwaters.

It’s one of very few places in the UK that have retained their original character and charm in the way that this tiny fishing village has.

I was keen to visit the gallery and workshop of Julia Mills a glass artist who makes beautiful leadlight pieces that I have admired via the internet for quite a long time. She was in the gallery and we had a chat, I really loved one smallish piece that was on display and she wrapped it up very carefully for me…I think it will travel home in my hand luggage.

We had Cornish pasties for lunch in a café called ‘The Hole’ and had a wander around the village. It was low tide…

We’d love to see it at high tide as well…it’s interesting how the boats are all tethered on ropes…all of these little villages seem to use the same method.

From there we travelled to the Minack Theatre… an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea (minack from Cornish) meynek means a stony or rocky place).

Just a small section of the view from the theatre.

It was planned and built and financed by an extraordinary woman, Rowena Cade…she was a bit eccentric…I love this photo of her.

Last stop for the day was Land’s End and we couldn’t quite work out what was happening when we arrived but soon realized that Richard Whitehead had just finished his run…the BBC was there covering it…here he is…

We have since found out that the run started on August 13^th & Richard covered a staggering 977 miles (1572km) running a marathon a day from John O'Groats in Scotland to Land's End, in order to raise money for Sarcoma UK and Scope.

Land’s End is the windiest place we’ve ever been…

but also quite spectacular…

There is a helicopter pad on top of the lighthouse! 

We then headed for ‘home’ and wandered down the main street of Falmouth before choosing to have dinner in an Italian restaurant it was a very pleasant end to our day.