Mount's Bay, southwest Cornwall. So much history -- and pre-history -- crammed into such a (relatively) small parcel of land! Stone Age relics, pre-Roman Celtic bastions, remembrances of two World Wars, remnants of Cornwall's prosperous past, mystic mounts rising up out of the mist-shrouded waters of the bay. This place has got it all!
     Have you ever heard of Doggerland? We hadn't. Turns out the English Channel is only about 9,000 years old or so. Before that, England and Europe were one continent. Mount's Bay was a pleasantly wooded countryside. Then, as the Ice Age receded and glaciers started melting, land around Britain began to submerge. Several taller hills along the coast -- such as St. Michael's Mount -- turned into tidal islands, cut off from the mainland for six or so hours every day. But the Mount's Gaelic name, Karrek Loos yn Koos (Grey Rock in the Wood) hearkens back to its ancient antediluvian status.
     We spent a month here, bopping around the Penwith Peninsula and along the shores of Mount's Bay, and enjoyed every stone circle, beach, tiny village, stony path, and cliff we encountered. It's a beautiful part of Great Britain!

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Marazion  --
​For a quick overview:

St. Michael's Mount has a long, checkered past. Once stomping grounds for Stone Age hunters, it's been home to a monastery, feudal castles, a Cornish fishing village, and a noble's palace. In 1659, St. Michael's Mount became the property of Colonel John St. Aubyn, whose ancestors still live there today. The island is its own parish, with 35 residents, including the St. Levans (present-day owners).

Cornwall is rife with menhirs and stone circles. Nobody really knows what their original purpose was: religious? Early astronomy lab? Trolls who stayed out too late and got turned to stone? Not sure. But Cindy and I went hunting for a couple of them near us. These are the Merry Maidens, a group of 19 well-spaced menhirs or standing stones in a perfect circle.

This is Minack Point -- "Minack" means "stony place" in Old Cornish -- overlooking the stunning Porthcurno Beach in south Cornwall. In the 1920's, Rowena Cade built a home here, for herself and her mother. In 1930, a local acting troupe approached her about performing "The Tempest" on her property. This inspired her to construct a theater.

Rowena vowed to continually improve the theater and make it available for performances during the summer months. Every winter, for the rest of her life, she worked on the theater, and every summer plays were performed, and are still today.

The Tate St. Ives opened in 1993, with one of its primary objectives being to reflect the work of the artists' colony that had thrived in St. Ives since the 1920's.

The Eden Project is the brainchild of a Dutch-born British businessman and musician named Tim Smit. He conceived of reclaiming an abandoned clay pit near St. Austell in Cornwall and turning it into a world wonder -- an immense greenhouse complex.

There are two sister forts at the mouth of the Fal River. One is in St. Mawe, on the eastern bank. St. Mawes castle is a striking bit of architecture, with a clover leaf design: the central tower, with three circular bastions all with guns.

One cannot visit Cornwall without getting a proper English tea and crumpets. We found ours at Charlotte's Teahouse in Truro.

Cornwall is littered with the bones of its past, none more apparent than the visible remains of the once thriving tin mining culture. Tin was mined in Cornwall probably since the Bronze Age, and was a primary industry until the 1800's, when it rapidly declined. Today, the old mills are ghosts along the coastline.

We were enchanted by the still-functional, bright red phone booths planted in the cities and towns throughout Cornwall. Superman would be so happy . . .

Gallery - For the whole story

St. Michael's Mount has a long, checkered past. Once stomping grounds for Stone Age hunters, it's been home to a monastery, feudal castles, a Cornish fishing village, and a noble's palace.

It's associated with Mont Saint-Michel, another tidal island off the coast of Brittany. In the 11th Century, Edward the Confessor gifted the island to the Benedictine monks of Mont St-Michel.

In 1659, the Mount became the property of Colonel John St. Aubyn, whose ancestors still live there today.

Marazion (the Celtic name means "small marketplace") is a village of about 1,400 at the approximate mid-point of Mount's Bay. These moss-covered slate roofs are ubiquitous, and seem to last a long time.

It's a sleepy little place whose primary industry nowadays is tourism. Folks come from far and wide to explore St. Michael's Mount and enjoy its beautiful beach.

There are a myriad small villages along the shore of Mount's Bay, including this one, Perranuthnoe.

The prefix "Perran" shows up frequently. It's one spelling of "Piran". St. Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall.

Perranuthnoe's been around since the 1000's. Many of the graves here are quite old.

It's a very pleasant hike from Marazion along the Southwest Coast Path.

Mount St. Michael is a very enjoyable half-day excursion from Marazion.

It receives an enormous number of visitors on a daily basis, but only two who have had their footprints officially commemorated . . .

. . . you probably guessed: Her Majesty and His Royal Highness. It was apparently quite the commotion when they visited!

The island is its own parish, with (at present) 35 residents, including the St. Levans (present-day owners of the island).

The other residents are grounds keepers, maintenance staff, household staff, and other support personnel and their children.

The kids go to school on the mainland every day. When the tide's in, they get a ride on the island's amphibicar (very cool).

The Mount is associated with Jack the Giant Slayer. Jack encounters Cormoran (Giant of the See in Cornish), and lures him into a deep hole on the island.

Once Cormoran is in the hole, Jack chops off his head, then takes the giant's heart (which is quite small). The heart turns into stone, and Jack leaves it in the garden on the island. End of story!

The castle on St. Michael's Mount is both a dwelling and a fort, having provided defense for itself and the mainland for centuries.

The current castle's been around since the 1600's.

Today, though, the island's peaceful.

The St. Aubyn's/St. Levan's, who've owned the place for 400 years, have accumulated quite a collection. Weapons . . .

. . . accoutrements, such as this camel saddle . . .

. . . even full suits of armor from different parts of the world.

The castle's main conference room, showing the thickness of the walls and the British royal crest . . .

. . . with the lion . . .

. . . and the unicorn.

Beautiful stained glass is used throughout the castle . . .

. . . as well as in the chapel.

Windows like this served as decoration and educational tool for non-literate dwellers.

Many of the windows originally served alternatively as arrow slits.

The view from the top is quite impressive . . .

. . . including dizzying views of the gardens . . .

. . . which cover the sides of the cliffs overlooking the waters of the bay.

Truro is the only city in all of Cornwall.

The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary dominates the center of city.

Many antique buildings have been repurposed. The old Coinage Hall today hosts several small businesses . . .

. . . including Charlotte's Teahouse, where one can get a proper English tea and crumpets.

The Penwith Peninsula is the westernmost part of Cornwall, hence the westernmost part of England.

Land's End is the triangle of land that juts out from the peninsula, the last piece of land in western England.

Straight west from here, skimming the southern coast of Ireland, is the Atlantic Ocean and, eventually, North America.

This is an ancient fort we found on our ramblings from Land's End. Not much remains.

It looks out over the precipitous cliffs on Cornwall's tumultuous western coast.

Here you can see the outline of the walls. It's an Iron Age fort, so it existed during the time of the Greek and Roman empires.

The cliffs here are beautiful, and the crashing waters majestic, but they've claimed many ships and many lives. This is all that remains of the Mulheim, which crashed in 2003. No lives lost, thank goodness.

A very rocky shoreline, with many unusual formations.

This one reminded us of one of the Easter Island heads . . .

We encountered this little guy at a farm not far from Land's End.

These razorbills were hanging out on one of the enormous rocks right off the cliffs. They look like penguins, but they're actually auks.

Cindy captured this waterfall cascading down the cliff face.

This is Minack Point -- "Minack" means "stony place" in Old Cornish -- overlooking the stunning Porthcurno Beach in south Cornwall. In the 1920's, Rowena Cade built a home here, for herself and her mother.

In 1930, a local acting troupe approached her about performing "The Tempest" on her property. This inspired her to construct a theater.

She and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, literally carved a theater out of the cliff face at Minack Point, hauling materials by hand along the cliff top or up the long, long trail from the beach below.

In early summer 1932, The Tempest was performed here to great acclaim.

Rowena vowed to continually improve the theater and make it available for performances during the summer months

Every winter, for the rest of her life, she worked with Billy Rawlings on the theater, and every summer plays were performed.

Every year now, the theater is open from Easter to September, with a slate of 20 plays. In August, 2007, the 75th anniversary of the theater, The Tempest was performed.

In 1976, Rowena gave the theater to a charitable trust, though she continued to work on it. She died, age 89, in March 1983, leaving a remarkable gift to the people of Cornwall.

Rowena Cade was an astonishing woman, who made a singular contribution to Cornish heritage.

Porthcurno Beach, below the Minack Theater.

Cornwall is rife with menhirs and stone circles. Nobody really knows what their original purpose was: religious? Early astronomy lab? Trolls who stayed out too late and got turned to stone? Not sure. But Cindy and I went hunting for a couple of them near us.

These are the Merry Maidens, a group of 19 well-spaced menhirs or standing stones in a perfect circle.

The legend is that they were young women who were (gasp) dancing on the Sabbath and got turned into stone because of it. The latest dancer seems curiously unconcerned . . .

This is Boscawen-Un and boy, did we have an interesting time finding this one!

Boscawen-Un (name means, roughly, "pasture near farmstead elderberry") (very poetic . . . ) is like Merry Maidens in having 19 outer standing stones . . .

. . . but unlike Merry Maidens in having a center stone and not being circular (it's more of a rough oblong).

The center stone is leaning, which may have been intended or may be due to too much interaction.

Lovely St. Ives, where we went one lovely day. (We met a man with 7 wives . . . )

It's a picturesque former fishing village on St. Ives Bay. Nowadays it's known for its beauty, its beach, and as a very active hub for art.

One of the Tate galleries is in St. Ives.

There are quite a number of works of art within it walls.

The Tate St. Ives opened in 1993, with one of its primary objectives being to reflect the work of the artists' colony that had thrived in St. Ives since the 1920's.

Artists as diverse as Piet Mondrian, Naum Gabo, and Alfred Wallis have found a home in this gallery.

Barbara Hepworth, an English artist who joined the colony in St. Ives in the 1920's, has been a strong influence.

The Gallery was built on the site of an old gasworks. It receives over 200,000 visitors a year.

Cornwall is littered with the bones of its past, none more apparent than the visible remains of the once thriving tin mining culture.

Tin was mined in Cornwall probably since the Bronze Age, and was a primary industry until the 1800's, when it rapidly declined. Today, the old mills are ghosts along the coastline.

The Eden Project is the brainchild of a Dutch-born British businessman and musician named Tim Smit.

He conceived of reclaiming an abandoned clay pit near St. Austell in Cornwall and turning it into a world wonder -- an immense greenhouse complex.

There are two enormous biomes. The larger is tropical, the other is Mediterranean.

The site opened to the public in March, 2001.

The project emphasizes environmental education, and plants are labeled with their medicinal applications and a discussion of their impact on the environment.

Water for plants in the biomes, for the humidity of the Tropical Biome, and for toilets is all provided by sanitized rainwater collect on site. Only drinking and cooking water is provided by public mains.

Electricity is provided solely by one of the myriad wind turbines in Cornwall; plans are in place to construct a geothermal plant on site, that will supply all of the Project's power, and enough for 5,000 homes in the area.

In 2016, Eden Project became home to Europe's only Redwood forest, when 40 saplings were planted.

Not only is it home to an astounding array of plants, it also contains an amazing collection of unique and whimsical art displays.

It's said the Eden Project brings in over a billion British Pounds every year for Cornwall. There's now plans to construct an Eden Project North in Lancashire, in northwest England.

Falmouth has been the largest port city in Cornwall for over 400 years.

It originated because Henry VIII (you know him) needed fortifications against the French and the Spanish.

It's also where "The Wind in the Willows" (one of my favorite books) was conceived.

There are two sister forts at the mouth of the Fal River here. One is in St. Mawe, on the eastern bank.

St. Mawes castle is a striking bit of architecture, with a clover leaf design: the central tower, with three circular bastions all with guns.

Built in 1540, it continued to function as a coastal defense site, with upgrades to its technology, until the early 1900's.

It served as a tourist attraction until the 2nd World War.

During WWII it was fitted with naval artillery and anti-aircraft guns. Then, at the end of the war, it was once again made a tourist attraction.

Pendennis Castle, sister to St. Mawes, was constructed by Henry on the west bank of the Fal in 1542. Its history is similar, and it's now also open to tourists. It has a commanding view of the city of Falmouth and the Fal River.