Page 155 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - England's South Coast

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CORNWALL

With a magnificent coastline encompassing
spectacular rock formations, secluded coves
and sandy beaches interspersed with seaside
resorts, picturesque fishing villages and
smugglers’ caves, Cornwall is one of the most enticing regions of the
country. Inland is Bodmin Moor, peppered with enigmatic standing stones,
while ancient woodland and subtropical gardens lie in the beautiful,
sheltered Fowey, Fal and Helford river valleys of the south.

Cornwall occupies the extreme tip of the mythology, and the region is rich in
southwest peninsula, jutting out between folk tradition and legends. King Arthur
the wild Atlantic Ocean and the calmer is believed to have been born in Tintagel,
waters of the English Channel. Its remote while the arrival of Celtic missionaries from
position has kept the county cut off from Wales, Ireland and Brittany gave rise to a
the rest of Britain; when dinosaurs roamed plethora of legends and holy sites where
the Jurassic Coast, Cornwall was actually an Christian mythology merged with popular
island. Its volcanic past has also left it richer ideas of magic. Folk tradition remains a
in minerals – including gold, copper and vibrant part of contemporary culture, with
tin – than anywhere else in Britain. Although ancient festivals such as Helston’s Furry
mining continues, many pits have been Dance and Mousehole’s Tom Bawcock’s
abandoned – the famous Eden Project Eve involving entire communities.
was created within a disused clay quarry. The region has a long history of
Cornwall remains in many ways a land attracting non-conformists, artists and
apart. For centuries, harbours such as exiles from metropolitan life, including
Falmouth were part of an international the artists whose work forms the core
network of ports, safe havens and of the renowned Tate St Ives. The area’s
anchorages, linked more by sea trade wild, dramatically rugged landscape and
(and piracy) than any loyalty to state or romantic history have inspired several
Crown. Its isolation and natural beauty novels, by authors ranging from Daphne
have fostered a distinct culture and du Maurier to Patrick Gale.

Sea thrift clinging to the cliffs overlooking Bedruthan Steps, between Padstow and Newquay
Bacchanalian sculptures inside the fascinating Mediterranean Biome at the Eden Project

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