Land's End and Across the Moor

Many, many times our GPS looked like this: 

unnamed roads, many curves, and yep, our speed was 6 miles per hour sometimes! All of these roads led to some fascinating places and unfailingly got us where we wanted to go.

After leaving Carn Euny, we continued south to Land's End, seeking tea and coffee. The day continued gloomy and rainy, so a nice inn was what we wanted, someplace cozy and out of the weather.

We found it here: The First and Last Inn in England.

Cozy? Times ten!

And historic too--a regular smugglers den in its day, and a gruesome end for the lady innkeeper.

It was difficult to photograph this, but this is a stairwell that led under the inn to the tunnels in the cliffs where the smugglers and wreckers operated.

The inn as it looked in 1826:

We left the comfort of the inn after being thoroughly warmed, and continued to seek the end of England. But when we got there...

5 pounds? Really? Nope, not worth it to us. The attendant was really nice and let us turn around and head back out.

We took the scenic route again, driving along the coast as much as possible as we headed back towards our hotel in New Quay. The day continued dark and stormy, and perhaps that was the perfect way to see this lonely, eerie countryside. (but please pardon the raindrops on the photos).

Ruins of 19th century mining operations were everywhere in the ladscape. Here, what appears to be a row of miners' cottages stand stark by the side of the road.

An ancient cairn, perhaps a signpost of some sort?

The moors fell off steeply to the sea, whose steely color this afternoon blended in with the gray of the sky.

Under the raindrops, the remains of what was probably another engine house for the mines. These were everywhere in this part of Cornwall, reminders of the tin, coal, gold, silver and copper mines in the rich stone of lower Cornwall.

The road went through several farms like this one, narrowing to squeeze between the buildings. This farm looked deserted.

A standing stone in a field is used as a scratching post for cattle and sheep. We saw this fairly often during our trip, the ancient works serving a simple present day need.

A inn welcomes travelers and walkers with its cheery yellow paint on a blustery day that had turnd quite chilly. My bet is on this being yet another smugglers hangout in its day.

Beautifyl, lonely moors...

This huge home sits high on the cliff overlooking the sea, and once again I was reminded of Jamaica Inn.

And finally, the day darkened to evening, and it was time to get back to the hotel and to bed.

Next post: I'll be away storytelling for a few days so my next post might be a while coming, but it will be about Glastonbury Abbey, our last stop of this trip.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.