Pottering in Penwith

As is now traditional for us, Wednesday is a day of rest when on holiday. Today was therefore spent wholly within West Penwith. We started the day with a slow drive around the coast road, from St Ives to Sennen, before heading back into Penzance for some much needed petrol and other shopping.

Then it was off to the first site of the day at Bodrifty. This is an ancient Iron Age village, and the landowner has constructed a reproduction roundhouse a short way off, to show what the site may have looked like back then. Very educational. I also needed to take some photos of nearby Brook Cottage for someone in New Zealand who had contacted me via email some weeks ago to ask if I had any pictures of where their grandfather lived. Photos will be in the mail as soon as we get home!


As it was getting near lunch, we headed for St Just again, for some wonderful home made soup and bread from the Cook Book in the town.

Then it was off again, this time to spend some time at Carn Euny, another IA village, and the nearby wells of Chapel Uny.

Finally, before heading back to the chalet for some tea, I visited the Boscawen-Un stone circle, and was very surprised to see the site almost totally cleared of gorse and bracken which usually swamps the stones. A small group of volunteers were working hard to get the site ready for bluebell season. I spoke with one of them, Chris Fry, who told me the work was being done in association with CASPN and English Heritage, as well as the landowner. We had a long chat about the difficulties and sensibilities of site protection and restoration, and I thanked him for his sterling efforts before heading back to the car to get ready for the evening's socialising.