Tintagel

Today was Grant’s birthday and it was great being able to Skype the kids before we went down to breakfast.  While it is tough being away from them, it is really pleasing to see how well they are faring without us.  Not that we really had too many doubts.  For Grant’s birthday the kids had photo-shopped five of the photos from earlier in our trip to include them in the photos too.  They had obviously spent hours on this and they are very creative.  They had even dressed up in the t-shirts that we had sent home for them.

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With our darlings too

 

It was also the day that we needed to say goodbye to our wonderful hosts at the Penrose B & B.  Chris and Heidi are such friendly, welcoming and generous hosts, and cooked us the yummiest breakfasts.  We have bookmarked their address, as we will certainly return to the little village of Lostwithiel should we travel back to Cornwall.

Our goal today was the castle of Tintagel, a familiar name to anyone interested in the legends of King Arthur; supposedly he was born there.  It was another drive along little lanes and narrow roads; while oncoming traffic can be a bit nerve-wracking, it is very pretty.  The village of Tintagel is clearly a tourist destination; plenty of car parking and numerous shops with names like Merlin’s Cave and Camelot Gifts (even though the rumoured site of Camelot is nowhere near Tintagel).  The most interesting building in the village itself is the old post office which is over 500 years old.

The ruins of the castle itself are quite a walk down from the village, and span from the very end of the mainland across to a craggy headland that is almost an island.  The remains of the walls are wonderful examples of the slate building material, while the stairways leading from one side to the other make the visit a real adventure.  We had another beautiful day, at least at the start of the visit, but even so it is easy to imagine the isolation that would have been felt by the castle’s occupants.  Later, as we explored the island part, the sea mist started to drift in – really the wrong geographical location to be the Mists of Avalon, but it certainly added to the atmosphere of ancient legend.















We had already had quite a work-out, going up and down some very steep (and quite scary) stairways, but we were now faced with a long steep hike back up the hill to Tintagel Village.  We decided to reward ourselves with a Cornish pasty for lunch – after all, we had not yet had one of these while actually in Cornwall, and our accommodation that night was in Somerset.  We felt very glad that we had had so much exercise as when the pasties were brought out they were enormous!  Luckily they were also delicious.

It was time to get back on the road.  We had booked another B & B in the coastal Somerset town of Minehead, and planned to detour through Barnstaple in search of the house where Siobhan lived for six months when she was 12.  While the detour was fun, and we must have got pretty close, in the end it seemed that 30 years is just too long.  None of the tiny country lanes around Loxhore threw out any clues, and we admitted defeat – for now!  Siobhan is going to do some more research and we will return to try again.

As we approached Minehead, we drove through a little village called Dunster.  This was very beautiful, with cottages built from a wonderful red stone that must be the local building material.  Arriving in Minehead was also quite stunning.  Mainly because the sun had come out to play and it was very warm.  We checked into another lovely B&B, and on their recommendation headed down to the Queen’s Head to celebrate Grant’s birthday with one of their local real ales.  I guess it bears out the observation that most people say that their birthday is just like any other day.  While at the pub planning our next move, we discovered that Dunster had a castle, and even better, it was a National Trust site.  Fresh in this knowledge, we decided we would have to return the next day to explore further – and so we did.

Tasting Notes:

At the Queens Head in Minehead  I had the St Austell's Tribute real ale following Rob's recommendation.  It is ok but these real ales don't seem to go in for big flavour like some of the beers we're getting used to at home.  I also had the Exmoor Gold.  It is another local ale, and a light ale. Not too bad, a good session ale.