A birds eye view down towards the bay and info centre
 from where the castle once stood - there were many
steps to climb

Friday 3 June our destination today is Tintagel Castle and then the West Country Inn near Clovelly.

The ruins of Tintagel Castle sit on a steep and rugged headland (also called an island) that juts out into the Cornish sea. The castle, built in the 13th century, was supposedly linked with the legendary King Arthur - legend or not, no-one knows for sure. But amongst the castle ruins, an earlier settlement was discovered dating back to the 5-7th centuries.

Eating Cornish icecream

It's a steep walk down to the centre and tearooms before walking up countless, jagged steps to the wind-swept cliff tops.  The day is sunny with a warm gentle breeze in our faces - perfect for this outing! We take time to appreciate our surroundings and imagine what it would have been like to live here in what would have been harsh conditions. We tentatively negotiate the clifftops, taking care to stay back from the edges before carefully retracing our way back down the precarious stone steps and then back up the hill, Cornish icecream in hand, to the village above.

The inn (apparently haunted so I have since found out) sits on the edge of the Bursdon moor and is close to the rugged coastline. In the evening, we take a recommended drive down to Welcombe Mouth.



Narrow lanes are everywhere

 The four mile drive is not without adventure. The narrow country lanes leading to the bay lead to even narrower lanes where there is barely six inches (metrics rarely used over here) to spare on either side of the car. Luckily, we follow a small van as it races down the steep 20% incline - other cars are forced to back up for us.

The stony bay is known for its excellent surfing and we suspect the van driver is checking out the surf as he doesn't stay long. It's a lovely piece of paradise but is disappointingly spoilt by the rubbish left and washed ashore. Two large black and white birds, possibly gannets, lie lifeless amongst the rubbish with blue and orange twine entangled in their bodies. Back at the carpark, we see a pile of rubbish around a sign. Sadly, people here don't care. It is something we see everywhere we go - from cities to countryside - man-made waste strewn everywhere.

Back at the inn, it's kareoke night!

Sat 4 June sees us enjoying a slow and lazy start to the day. We take a short walk across the nearby moor and discover the tiniest spotted orchid we have ever seen. Late morning we set our sights on Clovelly.

View of Clovelly from the quay

Clovelly is everything you (Sybil & Vicki) said it was - a gorgeous little village that tumbles down a steep hillside to a deep blue harbour. Whitewashed cottages with slate roofs, colourful pots of flowers, cobblestone lanes and donkeys give this real-life working seaside village a special olde-worlde charm of its own. Clovelly has been privately owned by the same family since 1738.

Steep little walkways amongst the cottages
could be explored...

It's a beautiful day as we explore the shops, admire the houses and gardens and little lanes. The quay is the perfect place to enjoy a wine and beer and watch people on the shore (the tide is out) and others, such as a wedding party, trying to negotiate the cobblestones with ridiculously high heels. Vehicles are banned from the village and for years donkeys and sleds have been used for taking goods up and down the steep hill. The donkeys, now retired, are still a popular attraction for the visitors.

We also enjoy meeting a retired local, as he leans on the balcony and watches the visitors. He tells us he's lived here for 20 years and has seen the sea spray up to 30 feet over the quay during a wild spring tide. We try to imagine the tide surging against the sea walls just feet below his balcony. We are lucky to have two encounters with a bird handler and meet a kestrel and a barn owl.

We are lucky to have yet another
beautiful day

We are pleased we don't have to haul a sledge back up the hill.



High heels do not work well on
cobblestones