| Date: | 14th. May 2007 | |
| County: | CORNWALL | |
| Location: | Porthcurno and Minack Theatre | |
| Type: | Scenic Area (Coast) | |
| Sub-Type: | Beach, Dunes | |
| Viewed by: | WALK from car park | |
| Car Park: | . | |
| Difficulty: | Moderate. Steep path down and up. | |
| Distance: | . | |
| Season: | Winter | |
| Weather: | . | |
| Time Of Day: | Late Afternoon to Evening | |
| Camera: | Casio Exilim EX-Z850 Pocket Zoom (JPG) | |
| Scene Rating: | ••••• |
Xue had seen a photograph of the (outdoor) Minack Theatre not long after we arrived in Cornwall and had long wanted to visit it. We'd passed a sign pointing to Minack on the A30, not far from Land's End, so we decided to pay it a visit. The road that led to Minack was marked as the B3315, but - like many Cornish roads - it was often barely more than one car's width, and there were places where the steep banks and the hedges on top of them meant that you were driving blindly through a bendy green canyon with 15-20 foot sides!
Arriving at Minack Point we found that we were too late and the theatre, gardens and shop were all closed. We could still look at the view across the bay, though, at a long point which (looking at the Ordnance Survey map again) seems to have no clear name. It could be Treryn Dinas, Logan Rock, Great Goular or Horrace!
Even though nightfall was still a long time away, our location on the south Cornwall coast meant that the low sun was already becoming blocked by the hills between Land's End and Porthcurno.
The high ground was already drawing long evening shadows across Porth Curno beach - down a steep slope just below one side of the Minack Theatre precincts.
The Minack is a tiny ancient greek style open-air theatre, the seats of which were carved painstakingly out of the granite rock through the lifelong determination of one woman: Rowena Cade. Since we couldn't get in (there's a hefty £3.50 entry fee, just to see it) and since you can only really see the theatre from it's own grounds, I won't give much detail about the Minack here - other than to say that www.minack.com covers its history at length.
There was a rough path running down the south-western side of the wall bordering the grounds, and you could drop down this to see part of the theatre's stage area - although I didn't try to photograph it, since the area was sprouting lights and security cameras.
There were some interesting views from this path, however. This outcrop separates the path from the main Minack seating area, and it's unusually lush for the Cornish coastline. It's \a beautiful combination of rock and thick plants that could almost be a semi-tropical rockery.
Looking closer, you can see the basic flora is scrubby - as in other parts of Cornwall. It's the ivy and the spreading green succulents which give it a more amenable and feminine appearance. The succulents were also flowering, which added to the appeal.
Looking down the slope towards the sea, we could also see that the succulents had flowed down around the boulders and poured down the hillside like conquering green magma.
There are gardens around the Minack's tourist centre and entry kiosk at the top of the hill, which contain aloes and other non native species, so maybe the flowering succulents have escaped from those!
There were also some native flowers nestling agains the hillside, of course. This foxglove was looking like a home for pre-raphaelite fairies in the evening sun.
From Minack we drove further along the B3315, turning down through Raginnis to the old fishing village of Mousehole - pronounced "Mow-" (like "cow") "sul" = "Mowsul".
Mousehole's narrow streets must be traffic hell in the summer season, but it was pleasant enough on this May evening - although the sun was only just cutting the top of the stone quay when we arrived, making it was too late to photograph.
We didn't walk around much since Xue was getting tired and hungry and was ready to mutiny! Instead, we drove along the coast road - past the new commercial fishing harbour - to Penzance, where we disappeared into the womb of a fish restaurant for a well-deserved anniversary meal.
Even when we came out, the volcanic shape of St. Michael's Mount - two miles across the beach - still dominated the entire bay in the half-light. We added this and Mousehole to our "must explore" list and drove on home, to rest and to blog...
Boat,
Boulder,
Cliff,
Coast,
Cornwall,
Dik,
Flower,
Headland,
Land's End,
Minack,
Rocks,
Sky,
View,
Walk
No comments :
Post a Comment