Widening our scope - Delabole and Tintegal

Stairs to the upper level inside the building

For breakfast, Bob had porridge as he now knows that this is simlar to the oatmeal that he has at home. I decided to try eggs and kippers.

Kippers and eggs

I discovered that I don't like kippers. It might have been that they were too salty for me. After three or four bites, I decided to just eat the eggs. And I also had toast and marmalade. The toast was recently toasted and still warm which was a pleasant surprise because all the toast I've had in England previously was stone cold.

Kitchen door

There was a lobster exoskeleton (shell) on the ledge by our table

Lobster shell in the Slipway Hotel

so I took a photo of it. It's not lobster season so I didn't think I'd see any live ones. I also took photos of the lounge.

TV and book shelf next to the fireplace

Fireplace in the upstairs Lounge

In a historic inn such as this one is, one should not expect modern 'decor'. After breakfast, we went outside - we were early.

Daffodils outside the Slipway Hotel

Fish merchants van parked by the Slipway hotel

Bob reading the bulletin board of Fishermen Ltd

At 10, we met John Brown and got in his van. First he took us to the co-op

Coop

and I tried to use the ATM machine, but it wouldn't recognize the card - maybe because it doesn't have a chip. Then he showed us the closest place to get gas

Nearest gas station (on left)

and showed Bob how he could get out of here without twisting and turning in narrow lanes.

St Piran's flag

John pointed out this flag which he said was the Cornwall flag. Actually I was told that it was St. Piran's flag - St Piran is the patron saint of tinners. March 5th is St Piran's Day, and there are lots of parades and festivities in Cornwall.

We went by the school (about 12 miles from Port Isaac) that they use for the interior school scenes - because it is still used as a school, it has all the desks etc.

Schoolyard

Then we went to a Barclay's Bank in Delabole (which is a big slate mining area) to get pounds for dollars but they wouldn't change money unless we had an account there. I stayed in the van and this

Funeral Service in Delabole

was across the street from where we were parked. The bank sent Bob to the PO and he got some cash there.

Delabole - PO on left

I just have a quick picture of the Old Post Officetaken as we drove past. This is a National Trust building which they bought in 1903. It is the oldest Trust property in Cornwall.

The Old Post Office

Originally it was a 14th-century yeoman's farmhouse. It has a wavy slate roof. In the Victorian period,it briefly held a license to be the letter receiving station for the district. You obviously can't see it from the street, but the National Trust site says there is Victorian postal equipment, a selection of samplers and furniture dating back to the 16th century on display

Then he took us back to

Narrow Lanes

to three churches. The first one was

The Parish Church of St. Julitta Lanteglos-by-Camelford

We got out and Bob went up to the front and took a photo of the sign

and then worked his way back. I went on my scooter and took photos from the path.

St Julitta War Memorial

Cornwall's Living Churchyard's sign in St. Julitta

Then I went out on my scooter and took some photos of the narrow lanes

Narrow lane

We took 250 photos and from them we made over 500 entries. John took us

Leaving St. Julitta Lanteglos-by-Camelford

to Boscastle Minster: St Merteriana Cemetery which was not even on my list. This was down in the Valency Valley

Minster Saint Merteriana

Cemetery gate

and was accessed by a long set of steps among the trees,

Minster Church - Warning - This path is slippery

so Bob went down by himself and John Brown and I waited in the van. And watched passing traffic.

Traffic

It is an Anglican Church - part of the Truro Diocese.

Gravestone in Minster Saint Merteriana Cemetery

Bob took 85 photos plus some of the National Trust Minster Wood.

National Trust - Minster Wood

Public footpath

Path

Gold Path

No through road

Then John took us through Boscastle

Coming in to Boscastle

which was devastated in 2004 by flash floods

Boscastle

Cobweb Inn

and we went to Forrabury Churchyard.

Forrabury

Boot scraper

Forrabury

Daffodils

Entrance to the churchyard

Please leave churchyard by the gate

The two of us took 280 photos here which eventually resulted in over 430 entires.

I thought it would be interesting to see the ruins of Tintegal. When we came over the rise, I saw this castle type building, and not the ruins that I had expected. Our guide told us that this was a hotel built in Victorian times.

Approaching the hotel

Main hotel entrance Camelot Castle Hotel

Turrets

King Arthur's Castle Hotel (Castle Hotel) (more recently the Camelot Castle Hotel) was an enterprise of Sir Robert Harvey. It was built in 1899 by architect Silvanus Trevail - I guess it was the Victorian idea of what a medieval castle would look like. It stands alone on land previously known as Firebeacon. In 2010 an exposé of the hotel's business practices was broadcast by the BBC television programme Inside Out South West.

The hotel was of interest to us because it was where Doc Martin had his wedding reception (in the TV series Doc Martin) so Bob and John went in to see that. I waited in the car. The hotel is fully licensed and pet friendly.

Reception rooms

Part of the lobby area

They have four rooms available for weddings. It is often used for weddings or receptions (even by people who are not in a TV show).

Castle Hotel

Stairs from the lobby

The enormous granite hotel stands facing into the wind while waves crash relentlessly against the cliffs and seagulls fly round the forlorn ruins of another, older, castle further along the peninsula. The older castle ruins may be an actual medieval castle called Tintagel which is said to be the birth place of the legendary King Arthur.

View from the hotel area

The ruins of the castle stand partly on the mainland and partly on the headland.

Some people below the parking lot

Ruins across a valley

We were there in mid March before the site was open for the season, but apparently it is regularly visited and you can walk along the paths to the various ruins. There are over 100 steps. There is an admission charge (Adult £6.30) and also a charge for parking. We just stopped at the hotel that overlooks the ruins, and Bob went and took photos of them

Then we finished up with St Materiana Churchyard which had a sign warning about Adders (and I don't think they mean bookkeepers) . Our guide let us off at the back gate and we walked through to the front.

Back of the church and the churchyard

Adders warning

St Materiana is the best example of a small Norman parish church in Cornwall, due to the unparalleled survival of both Norman doorways and a high proportion of its original windows.

Church windows

The transepts are apparently 13th century, but the tower is 15th century, It is remote from the village, set in a very prominent promontory on the north coast, close to the medieval castle The church is built from local slate-stone, the stones of generally small size and tightly fitted together as is typical of early masonry. The tower is built from larger pieces of slate-stone that are laid as much as possible to continuous courses. It is listed Grade I.

15th century tower

Part of the churchyard

World War I war memorial in St. Materiana

The cemetery is unusually large for a churchyard in Cornwall though it has apparently been extended three times. To the east of the older part (which is approximately circular in shape) are areas which came into use probably in the early 19th and mid-20th centuries. The north-east part was previously part of the Trecarne Lands. We took 320 photos here.

Red light

We got back to the car park to pay for the next night with 7 minutes to spare.

We had lunch at the Chapel Cafe which we had seen yesterday. John let us off at the bottom of the hill.

Counter

Menu board

Bellows on the mantle

We sat by the stove - the warmth was welcome

Franklin type stove with a fire

and we each had Cornish crab sandwiches which were good.

Cornish crab sandwich £8.95

Salad with the sandwich

I ordered the lemonade which she said was Victorian lemonade.

Victorian lemonade £2.60

On a previous visit to England I was annoyed to find that when an English menu says LEMONADE, it does NOT mean a drink made with the juice of lemons and sugar. It means a clear soft drink like Sprite or Fresca. Always carbonated.

I do not drink alcohol, coffee or carbonated beverages. So it is extremely irritating to find that all things advertised as lemonade or fruit juice are really carbonated beverages. I keep thinking that the English SHOULD have something like real lemonade so I got this "Victorian lemonade", but this was fermented lemonade and was also awful. I just could not drink it. Bob drank both of them and he was OK with that, but he LIKES Sprite.

The Cafe was part of the Pottery, so there were also things for sale. Although I thought some of the things were beautiful, I was not prepared to take anything that breakable home with me, and shipping would have been prohibitively expensive.

We came back and charged the scooter and organized the photos so they were in the proper folders, and then we had dinner. This time I had

Chicken

and Bob had

Breen (fish)

Blood orange brulee

I had blood orange brulee for dessert and Bob had vanilla ice cream. He's in bed asleep already.

Tomorrow we fly to Manchester. It has been good weather - sunny and not too cold. But the news says smog is coming over from Europe.