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Men Scryfa with the Ding Dong mine
in the background |
Another six months has passed and, on a bright sunny winter's day, we grabbed a welcome lull between storms, thunderstorms and high winds and set out to discover a few more miles of the Tinner's Way. This time we were 'walking backwards', unwinding ourselves as we had not quite made the road on our last visit.
We started just further on from the Men-an-tol studio and walked off across sodden ground along a path-turned-stream with the great 'sacred valley' on our right, following what was obviously once a drove road between two massive Cornish hedges. Below us, in the sunlight we could see the
Men-an-tol itself - with some noisy visitors - the
Ding Dong mine and the
Men Scryfa. To our left and right there were bright blue lines of sea.
We followed the path to the Men Scryfa itself and paid homage to Ryalvran with a reading from the Great Work, describing his death. There is something wonderful about the commemoration of fight which took place in such a far-off corner of the kingdom nearly 1,500 years ago. It is fitting that the loser is remembered and we do not even know the name of the victor. Who would not fight to protect this wonderful landscape?
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| Watch Croft |
Onwards up the hill northwards leaving the rocky outcrop of Carn Galver on the right, we turned left and climbed to the top of Watch Croft, Penwith's highest point at a lung-bursting, altitude-sickness-inspiring 252m (852ft); another of our High Spots of Cornwall. Here we sat down for a well-earned late sandwich before exploring the excitement that is the Watch Croft menhir.
The Pendeen lighthouse and coast twinkled in the sunlight, its mine chimneys peppering the cliff top like so many warning bollards. Within easy reach were three
fogous and Chun Castle beckoned for our next outing.
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| There must be a path somewhere here |
An easy downhill route took us back to a lane and so back to our car as the temperature began to drop and the sun looked as if it wanted to settle down on Scilly, just over the horizon.
A mere 2.7 miles. The
map is here and there are more
pictures here.
We could not resist the drive along one of the great roads of the country: the coast road to St Ives, twisting and turning past ancient farmsteads and fields, imagining D H Lawrence walking these roads.
