Castles and Cliffs

This entry is part 4 of 31 in the series 2017 UK and Europe

Saint Ives, England
We left the Abbey after breakfast and headed to Falmouth to visit Pendennis Castle.

Pendennis Castle

This was a large site with a castle built by Henry VIII, a large former barracks building with an interesting WWI and II display and a gun emplacement below the castle.

Protecting Falmouth

It also gave us a great viewpoint of the many yachts sailing in Falmouth Harbour.


This is the third largest harbour in the world behind Rio de Janeiro and Sydney. Next on the agenda was a trip to the National Maritime Museum of Cornwall.

Bligh’s 23 foot launch

There was a special Bligh display and a recreation of the ship’s launch . Bligh’s voyage in the launch was an amazing act of seamanship.  15 men and provisions for a 47 day trip to Timor, a voyage of 3618 nm had this ship down to the gunnels. All done with just a compass and quadrant – no charts or chronometer.  Only one man lost when they were attacked by hostile natives.

From here we drove back across Cornwall to North Cliffs which was rugged and COLD.

North Cliffs

By now the wind was up to about 30 knots and our stop was just long enough for a few pictures. On to St Ives then to find our accommodation at the Sloop Inn. Several attempts using the Sat Nav (car and Google) where we ended up in lanes so narrow we weren’t game to proceed and we resorted to calling the Inn.

Jane’s room at Sloop Inn

We eventually found it, unloaded our bags in drizzle and what now felt like 40 knots of wind in the laneways and enjoyed a sundowner. Not a popular term here as the sun doesn’t set until after 9pm.

Sloop Inn – We had to duck to get to our breakfast table.

Dinner at Alba restaurant overlooking the harbour was a treat. Jane had been given the tip to book early and request a table by the window. A nice end to the day.

Alba Restaurant
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