Christmas Lights at Mousehole and Newlyn
Lights at Mousehole and Newlyn
The tradition of Christmas lights at the fishing village of Mousehole began in the early 1960s. Over the years numbers and ingenuity of lights have steadily grown and now, for three weeks over Christmas and New Year, the harbour is filled with nautical subjects, the village covered with the usual traditional themes and greetings and many windows feature private displays. The famous Mousehole Cat appears on a harbour wall. The custom spread to the nearby major fishing port of Newlyn where displays include a trawler, a church and a castle. It gets particularly busy at lights time; parking is usually almost impossible but a shuttle bus runs from Penzance.
Mousehole's Leaping Dolphin
Newlyn's Trawler
Photographs
More in Miscellanea
Cliff Castles
Where other parts have their iron age hill forts - and indeed Cornwall has a number of these, most notably Castle an Dinas and Warbstowbury - Cornwall is unusual in having a vast number of cliff castles. These appear to be exactly what the name suggests, iron age fortifications on clifftop sites. But there is a puzzle. Mostly all you find is a curving rampart, perhaps quarter of a circle, from clifftop to clifftop. What useful purpose, you may well ask, did a fort like this serve. It only encloses a tiny area which surely no one would want to live in or even defend. There is a simple answer. When constructed, as hill forts with a view of the coast, they were as much as quarter of a mile inland. In 2000 and more years the coastline has eroded that much. Some of the smaller ones may not have been forts at all, merely fortified farmsteads. Be that as it may, they are now in stunning locations thanks to coastal erosion. Amongst my favourites are Treryn Dinas near Treen in West Penwith, the Rumps near Polzeath, Griffin Point near Bedruthan Steps and Trevelgue Head near Newquay. But take a look at the Ordnance Survey Explorer maps and you will find dozens, especially on Cornwall's north coast. When you walk the coast path it can be difficult to identify some for growth of scrub and bracken but it's worth trying.
Cornish Crosses
Crosses
Cornish Cyder Farm (now Healey's Cider Farm)
Cyder Farm (now Healey's Cider Farm)