Sunday 25 April 2010

Saturday walk, and a bit more history

We had a lovely walk yesterday up through Morwenstow a tiny cluster of buildings on the North Cornish Coast. It is almost as far North on the Cornish Coast as you can go before you move into Devon. There is a fabulous Church at Morwenstow and a beautiful old rectory. Close by at what is actually Crosstown but also considered by many as Morwenstow is the lovely old pub 'The Bush' which serves excellent food and good beer (sounds like an advert, but it is one of our favorite eating pubs).

The walk itself is circular and passes through open country, secluded glades and includes part of the South West Coastal path. This part of the Coastal path is not for the faint hearted, some is quite vertiginous (and I suffer from vertigo so had to 'cling on' for a few bits). There are also some very very steep bits. Sadly the weather was very misty yesterday but the views must be fantastic on a clear day. (I have added a link on my links to the website that has this walk on it). The walk also includes 'Hawkers Hut', this is a small Hut (I am sorry, completely forgot to take a picture, but we will go back there and I will take one then)built into the cliff by the eccentric 'Vicar of Morwenstow' Robert Stephen Hawker, who used to sit in the Hut and smoke opium and write poems. Some say he is the inspiration for Daphne du Maurier's Vicar of Alternun, but Hawker was not a naughty vicar, he was one of the only clergymen who would busy smugglers and pirates in the churchyard. He is also known as the person who gave us the Harvest festival as we know it and who wrote the words for the Cornish Anthem. He loved bright clothes, the only black items he wore were his socks (apparently). You can still find his writings in old book shops and the most well know of his biographers is Baring Gould, but it is difficult to find this book still in print anywhere.

The walk was well worth it and I would encourage anyone visiting this area to do it, stout walking boots are a must and a pole would be useful (wish I had not forgotten mine, might have made me feel less dizzy!). At the end of the walk there was a good pint of beer at the end in the garden of 'The Bush' or you can get teas at the church house down by the Church itself (St Morwenna).

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