If you’re going to England and visiting a lot of gardens, homes, and castles, consider getting an Overseas Visitor Pass.  You can see about 100 attractions for as little as £31 with it.  An upgrade is available too that increases the number to about 400, including the castle in Launceston.   We didn’t learn about this pass until we were in our final Cornwall destination, Launceston.  Seeing the castle ruins would have been free if we had the upgrade.

I looked back over the available choices and realized that we would have gotten into exactly one place, Tintagel, with an OVP.    However, the entry to it was less than £10 and I was not happy at Tintagel.   There was almost nothing about King Arthur in the area and I got tired of tourist shops and hearing people enthuse about being in King Arthur’s home.  Actually, the Tintagel Castle ruins date from the 13th century, and it was built by Richard, Earl of Cornwall.  We saved several £s by not having an Overseas Visitor Pass on this trip.  But if we go back….

We saw a lot in Cornwall.  When we were on our way back to London, I looked over what we had missed, and there were 4 major attractions that we didn’t get to for a variety of reasons.  I have learned, over time, to skip some major stuff wherever Ruth & I go and like so that we have reasons to return.   But these 4 seemed exceptional, so if you’re going to Cornwall…..

Eden.  Many people asked if we had visited The Eden Project.  No.  We thought about it but were never close enough to St. Austell to see the place that TripAdvisor calls “Paradise” and the BBC calls a garden of indulgent magnificence. Eden, 2 huge covered Biomes reportedly in a crater, is said to be the largest rainforest under a roof.  It’s actually devoted to the scientific study of rainforest biodiversity.  Its most recent venture is a Western Australian garden.

Port Isaac.  After Ruth watched Poldark, she got into Doc Martin.  Doc Martin supposedly practices medicine in this small, scenic Cornish port, which is seen regularly on this series.  Although other travelers asked if we had been there, the closest we came was finding it on a map.

The Minack Theatre.  Near Penzance, this unlikely outdoor theater built into a Cornish cliff is, according to Lonely Planet, “One of the world’s top 10 open air experiences”.   Something is performed in Minack every day except Christmas and the day after it, and there are busses from Penzance to get you there. However, we had seen the show that was current, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Isles of Scilly.   Pronounced “silly”, this cluster of small, subtropical islands surrounded by aquamarine water is 24 miles off the Cornwall coast.  Five isles are inhabited, mostly by people seeking the peace that comes with a slower pace.  Travelers like to day-trip, walk everywhere, and hop from island to island.  I know this because we had breakfast 2 mornings with a lady named Pamela who was planning to do exactly that.

Hank

Daphne du Maurier wasn’t the only prolific Cornwall writer.  Another was Winston Graham.  If you’re like me, you’re now asking, “Winston who?”  At least that was me a couple of months ago.  Then I went to Cornwall.  I can explain Graham’s popularity in one word–Poldark.

When Ruth knew she was going to Cornwall, she found the BBC series that played on Masterpiece Theater and binge-watched it.  She watched Doc Martin too, but Poldark won her affection.  At first she wasn’t sure she liked it, but by the end of series 2 she was in love with it and Ross.  Her hope was to see where it was actually filmed.   She especially fantasized about standing on the promontory where her romantic hero rode his horse across Cornwall cliffs above the ocean.

Ross is the central character in the Poldark novels.  Winston Graham wrote 12 of them beginning in 1945. He moved to the part of Cornwall known as The Tin Coast when he was 17 and stayed for 34 years.   Over time he wrote 32 novels, but nothing has resonated like Poldark. Early in the TV series and books, Ross returns home from involvement in the American Revolutionary War.  No longer an escaped prisoner of war, he find his father has died, his mine is failing, and the love of his life is engaged to his cousin.

The first few Poldark novels were the subject of a BBC series beginning in 1977. It lasted for 2 seasons and attracted 15,000,000 viewers.  Revived in 2015, 27 new episodes have been filmed.  They begin with the 1st two novels.  New episodes that will surely find their way to the United States begin on the BBC this month.  Poldark location tours are becoming big business in Cornwall, and Ruth made it to that promontory thanks to a woman who lives in St. Just named Christine.  One woman in tourism told me that Americans, who love this series like Ruth does, like to go to Exeter and take a tour of as many Poldark locations as they can in one day.

Thanks to Christine, Ruth visited 2 of the 3 locations near St. Just.  North of Land’s End, Great Britain’s most southwesterly point, Poldark was filmed at West Wheat Owles, the Levant Mine, and, most importantly, the Botallack Mine.  There are 9 other Cornwall sites shown in A Guide to Poldark Locations, a publication of “Cornish Mining World Heritage”.   Poldark is so popular in Cornwall and has contributed so much to its economy that I was asked not to reveal some of the locations I learned about.  Because shooting has been so difficult in a place of narrow roads and limited services, I was told that new episodes will likely be shot in Wales, which also has a rich mining heritage. Check out the overly romanticized, old Bette Davis movie The Corn Is Green.  

The Romans came to Cornwall to trade for what they called stannum. We call it tin.  We spent most of our time at Botallack, where there’s a small, interesting museum about local mining. Here I learned that Botallack had its own Poldark figure.  Stephen Harvey James saved Botallack from abandonment in the mid 19th century with the discovery of copper. By 1865 it was thriving and providing 500 jobs   At Botallack we watched some interviews. Being questioned were a Poldark producer and Winston Graham’s son.

Ruth got to see the place where Ross rode his horse while attempting to solve his problems. Unlike Ross, Ruth had a giant smile on her face.

Hank