Day 1 Land’s End

Today dawned sunny, with blue skies. It was a good start. We headed off to Land’s End in a taxi then made our way to the signpost.

It was quite exciting. “You’re going the whole way then?” asked the man changing the letters on the sign. “Yes” I said. Gulp. It is a long way. The signpost says 874 miles, but 874 miles is by road. My route is about 1200 miles. Twelve miles/day = 100 days. So I did 7 miles (1200/7= nearer 200 days). I’ll ramp up the mileage later. Not tomorrow, or the next day, admittedly, but sometime.

There was plenty to look at:

We passed Sennen Cove, and avoided hazards

and had lunch, a delicious Cornish Pasty from the local butcher (K and D McFadden). I’ll be having another one tomorrow as well.

Later it rained, but not enough to stop us investigating the Ballowal Barrow. A cliff top Bronze Age Barrow with a circular ditch. Unfortunately the circular ditch was put in by the Victorian excavator so people could get a better view so it is now unclear what the barrow looked like originally.

We had planned to walk to Cape Cornwall but the weather looked very grey so we headed for home instead. It cleared up quite quickly so we went on the hunt for more archaeology. We drove* to Carn Euny ancient village, a few miles away, which isn’t that ancient, being Romano-British (200-400 AD) but it is spectacular. And the most spectacular thing is a chambered fougou. I always think the downside of archaeology in Britain, is, that on the whole, it requires a lot of imagination. Not so this fougou.

Yes, a fougou is an underground passage and this one has a stone chamber off it. I felt just like one of the Famous Five. Maybe more like the FF’s aunt or other associated grown-up, but it was pretty exciting.

* The Ancient Village was an extra, not on the walking route. Just thought I’d clarify that.