Falmouth to Helford Passage

Quite a short walk today for various reasons - Komoot summary here.

For one thing, once over the Helford river it's a long way round to get back unless you return straight away on the ferry which seems a bit pointless. So I'd always planned to start tomorrow being dropped off at Helford (on the south side, the north is called Helford Passage) having relocated to a B&B on the Lizard peninsular. For another, as I said last night there didn't seem much point in walking around the town of Falmouth so the walk started today where the Falmouth part ended and that saved us a few miles. Also Crispin wanted to get back to London in reasonable time.

The weather was grey and blustery, threatening all morning to rain so it wasn't a very scenic send off but the rain held off all day.


Really blustery so not many land/seascape pictures as they'd all be grey. Good weather for walking though as no chance of over heating. Thankfully Crispin had his trousers on today. The picture is Gyllyngvase beach, it's an old Cornish word meaning the shallow inlet, and is very popular in summer. I've noticed more Cornish language in evidence than I remember from before. It would be nice to see it develop as well as Welsh for example.

Swanpool beach had some reasonable swell breaking -

The path follows the coast (no s**t Sherlock) round Penance point, along open fields with - hallelujah - almost no mud. I'm a happy bunny. Then to Maenporth (stones cove) on the eponymous estate. This was originally bought by the Fox family of Glendurgan (nearby) in the 1830s, and Julia and Hester Sterling (their friends and painters) commissioned a house from Alfred Waterhouse who designed the Natural History Museum. This was called The Crag. It burned down in 1981, the estate was eventually bought and developed by the Pilkingtons Glass business who sold it on completion in 2004.

Along now toward Rosemullion Head, through some peaceful and ancient-feeling woodland. The trees particularly looked very Tolkien. I think the flowers are wild garlic though they look a bit different from home.

Having convinced myself that the village in sight was Helford (it was actually Gillan, where I'll be passing through tomorrow so that's just a timing difference as we accountants say) we rounded Toll Point, after Parson's Beach, and realised where we were. There's always one more headland or one more hill than you thought on this trip! It was a gentle meander toward our destination now and we stopped briefly to talk to a dog walker whose labrador was diving for stones. I've only ever seen this once before. She (the dog) looked very carefully, deliberately chose a particular stone and then plunged in to get it. As you can just about see from only the back end out of the water....

I could't resist leaving a balanced stone for old times sake.

Just before dropping down to Durgan we passed by Bosloe House, an Arts and Crafts manor dating from the early 1900s and build for the Fox family (the Foxes have a considerable history in Cornwall). It looks to have had some not too pleasing extensions since its symmetrical beginnings but it is still a lovely building; Arts & Crafts is one of my favourite styles, with a lot of joinery :-)

It's a National Trust property now and there are a number of apartments you can stay in.

It's also right next to Trebah and Glendurgan gardens which a certain enthusiast (Crispin) was keen to make a future visit to explore, together with many others we've seen along the way.



Next down into Durgan (Cornish for Otters).

This is just a delightful hamlet on the river. It's owned mostly by the National Trust (so you can stay here too) but the volunteers there said there are a few residents left.

So secluded and peaceful and cars not allowed for non-residents (see narrow main road into it, below) so it probably stays that way even in the season.

Main road into Durgan

And so, finally into Helford Passage. This is where you find the famous Ferry Boat Inn, named of course after the small open boat passenger ferry to Helford which has been running since the Middle Ages. It operates on demand and when I was here may years ago it was summoned by opening a board on the wall to reveal a signal square that could be seen from the ferry's station in Helford. A quaint system of which sadly I could find no trace today.

Helford is my start point tomorrow but perhaps worth a few words now.

The river is heavily silted now, but the town used to be a significant port with duty on imported rum, lace and tobacco collected at the custom house. Daphne du Maurier honeymooned here and her novel Frenchman’s Creek tells of one of the trading ships of that time. I taught Karen to windsurf just up river from here.  

Gweek, just up river from Helford, was once the prime port of the area, exporting much of the locally mined tin, after Loe Bar (near Porthleven - I hope to be there on Monday) formed in the 13^th century, though some say it happened after the end of the Ice Age. It took over from Helston, of Wogan floral dance er, fame, which had been made inaccessible from the sea. Today Gweek is better known for the seal sanctuary, a rehab centre before returning them to the sea.

There are many posh houses hereabouts. There’s Trelowarren in particular which was owned by Earl Harold, killed at the battle of Hastings, and subsequently by Robert Mortain, half-brother to William, the Bastard.

Tomorrow I go solo and although I shall miss Crispin's company there's a very Zen quality to walking alone which I enjoy. Also with my propensity to chat with strangers I'm never short of company for long.

Big shout out to Crispin for his endurance and getting my adventure off to a cracking start. See you all tomorrow.

Peter