Hi, I'm Rick Steves, back with more of the best of Europe.
And this time, we're in the very southwest tip of Great Britain.
It's Land's End, and we're exploring England's Cornwall.
Thanks for joining us.
Set on a rocky peninsula, Cornwall is a fascinating land.
It's a pirate's punch of Celtic culture,
legends of smugglers, and mining heritage.
It has a rugged appeal
that makes it a favorite among English holiday goers.
We'll marvel at some staggering scenery,
follow a miner deep into a tin mine,
and then we'll eat his lunch.
We'll enjoy a sublime beach,
chase blennies in a Victorian rock pool,
and then dine on bigger fish.
In the vast and dramatic reaches of Dartmoor,
we'll chase wild ponies,
ponder our own private stone circle,
and summit a big rock.
The island of Great Britain is made of England
and the Celtic lands of Scotland and Wales.
In the Southwest is another historically Celtic land --
Cornwall.
After exploring Cornwall's Penwith Peninsula
from a home base in Penzance,
we'll venture north to Tintagel Castle
and finish in neighboring Dartmoor.
Along with its ethnic cousins
Brittany, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland,
Cornwall was part of the Celtic crescent
that nearly circles England.
The Cornish people spoke their own language,
which thrived for centuries.
Mining and fishing were long the dominant industries,
but today, tourism drives the economy.
Cornwall, with a half-million residents,
is a county of England,
unlike the more autonomous Wales and Scotland.
But many native-born locals consider themselves
Cornish first, British second.
The area is packed with ancient sites,
historic monuments,
and peaceful farm hamlets.
The Gulf Stream brings warm, subtropical weather to Cornwall,
making it perfect for gardens,
walking, and basking on the beach.
We'll visit the region's ultimate tourist trap first --
the very tip of England, Land's End.
Upon arrival, visitors pass
through a gauntlet of tourist shops.
It's a popular day out for families.
The goal -- a point where you really are
at the end of England.
This was once considered the end of the known world,
the last land to be seen by departing ships.
After gazing at the sea
and guessing how far away from home you are,
get the answer, for a price,
at the touristy signpost photo op.
A weather-beaten bluff just a couple miles away
provides the same Land's End thrill without the crowd.
It's Cape Cornwall.
##
To be sure we know about special places
like this and understand them,
I'm joined by my friend
and fellow tour guide Tim Uff.
Tim: Yes, so this little church goes back to the 6th century.
Just imagine a Celtic priest living in there with
just a little altar and a fireplace.
That's all he needed.
Rick: A short climb leads to the summit
of this connoisseur's Land's End.
Here you can sit with the sound of the wind
and the cry of the gulls.
Enjoying the meditative view,
I like to ponder how this small island
has had an impact far beyond its shores.
From the start, Cornwall's economy was based on tin.
As far back as the ancient times, Greek and Roman traders
traveled all the way to Cornwall for tin.
You see, an important step
in the evolution of civilization
was the ability to mix tin and copper to make bronze.
And when people entered the Bronze Age,
they could make better tools and stronger weapons.
Tin mining was the dominant
Cornwall industry well into modern times.
This evocative coast is dotted
with 19th-century Industrial Age ruins.
These desolate engine houses
once pumped water out of the shafts
so they could mine a half-mile down
and then, under the sea bed,
far out to sea.
The ground here is honeycombed with mine tunnels.
In its heyday,
there were hundreds of tin mines in Cornwall.
The industry peaked about 200 years ago
with the Industrial Revolution.
Back then, the demand for tin was huge,
and mines like these were booming,
making Cornwall one of England's wealthiest counties.
Ruins look almost ancient,
but it's easy to forget that less than 100 years ago,
thousands of workers spent most of their waking hours
in these crumbling buildings, supporting their families.
But Cornwall's glory days of tin passed.
The iconic smokestacks today
are the dramatic remnants of Cornwall's
now-dead tin-mining industry,
which just couldn't compete with cheap tin from abroad.
Along with these old buildings,
another reminder of the mining heritage
is the tin workers' simple lunch:
the Cornish pasty.
So, this would be the classic miner's lunch, you could say.
Tim: Yeah, the Cornish pasty. So you'd hold it
on the crimped edge right here like this.
And the idea was that if you did have arsenic on your hands,
then you would leave it on the crust.
Rick: It's 'cause there was no way to wash your hands
when you're mining. Tim: Exactly.
Rick: So you come out of the mine and you're gonna eat and you're hungry.
Tim: Yeah, absolutely.
Rick: So this is a "pasty"? How do you pronounce it?
Tim: "Pasty." Rick: Not "pastey?"
Tim: No, pasty. Rick: Pasty. Aright.
Tim: Yeah, so eat away. Rick: Mmm!
Generally, what do you put inside of a pasty?
Tim: You've got steak, onion, potato,
and turnip, or Swede, as we call it.
Rick: So any bakery around here would serve these.
It would be a great take-out meal for a traveler.
Tim: Yeah, absolutely.
There are thousands of these made every day.
Rick: God, the original take-out food in Cornwall.
I mean, 200 years ago for the miners
and today for the travelers.
The last tin mine to close
is now open to visitors,
dedicated to telling the miners' story.
The Geevor Mine closed in 1990.
It represents the last hurrah, not only of Cornish tin mining,
but in a sense, of Britain's Industrial Age.
Exploring it, you'll gain an appreciation for the simple,
yet noble, life of miners.
Though closed for decades, it feels as though the miners
could show up at any time to clock in.
The blasting schedule was a reminder
that punctuality in the mines was a matter of life and death.
The miners' lockers were left just the way
they were on the day the mine closed,
with the miners believing that somehow, they'd be back.
Photos humanize the plight of individuals
who lost their livelihoods.
They remind us that when economics change
and an industry dies,
it devastates families and entire communities.
In a huge structure nicknamed "The Mill,"
the stone was crushed to extract the tin.
The miners brought in tons and tons of raw ore,
which was put into big drums
like this, which would then tumble.
And with the help of metal balls like this,
it would break the ore into smaller and smaller pebbles.
The noise must have been deafening in here.
You'll see how a vast room full of shaking tables,
like giant machines panning for gold,
separated the tin from the waste.
Tin and other heavy metals,
are the dark material at the back,
while the lighter waste slowly shakes forward.
With 90 tables shaking each day, hundreds of tons of rock
gradually gave up a few tons of coveted tin.
For the finale of your visit, you slip on a coat,
don a hard hat,
and head both underground and back in time,
deep into one of the original 18th-century mines.
The shafts, narrow and low,
give you a sense of the difficult life of miners
and their perilous working conditions.
Former mine employees serve as guides,
and are happy to tell the story.
Guide: Here we are: we're in a section of tunnel
that's 250 years old, approximately.
This mine itself didn't work under the ocean,
but a lot of mines in this district,
the St. Just mining district, went under the ocean
for sometimes a distance of a mile-and-a-half.
Rick: Tin mining is hard-rock mining,
where you look for a lode,
and then follow veins of tin through the surrounding rock.
Guide: And once they establish where the tin is,
then they work upwards through the earth
and downwards through the earth,
extracting that vein from the rock.
Rick: Even under the sea if necessary. Guide: Even under the sea, yeah.
Rick: So if they took 100 tons of rock out of the mine,
how much tin would they hope to find?
Guide: Just one ton. Rick: One ton.
That's hard work. Guide: It is extremely hard work.
Rick: Cornish mining had a diaspora in the 1800s,
with large numbers of skilled miners emigrating.
Guide: The Cornish miner has moved all over the world
from Canada and North America
and Mexico, down into South America,
New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, even Cuba.
There's hundreds of thousands of people around the planet
now that are directly related to those Cornish miners
who took their skills with them.
And in fact, there was a definition,
and it still holds true today, really, largely,
that a mine is a hole in the ground
with a Cornishman at the bottom.
Rick: For me, the top charms of Cornwall
are gathered in its extreme western tip,
the Penwith Peninsula.
Touring this unforgettable 30-mile loop features rugged,
windblown scenery.
Content cows ignore the views.
Little hamlets with their stony barns
are just going through another century.
Skinny country lanes are lined by towering hedgerows.
I'm glad Tim's doing the driving.
You can hear the branches scraping both sides
of the car at the same time.
The winding hedgerows built
before motor traffic are an icon of Cornwall.
While they may look soft, they're hard as rock.
These date back to medieval times,
when farmers cleaned up their fields by stacking rocks
to make walls lining the lanes.
They have a stone frame, are filled with earth,
and then are overgrown with vegetation.
Those who get out of the car and hike are richly rewarded.
Walking all or even part of the Southwest Coast Path,
you'll enjoy memorable moments around every corner.
This coastline had more than its share of unscrupulous trade.
There were pirates, mostly state-sanctioned buccaneers
plundering the coast of France and French shipping.
And there were smugglers dealing in highly-taxed contraband
like spices and booze.
Tough little Lamorna Cove was a favorite for smugglers.
You can imagine them quietly
beaching their boats by moonlight.
Eventually the cove went legit with the granite trade.
Imagine the work involved in quarrying
and then shipping slabs of granite from this tiny bay.
The massive embankment of the river Thames
back in London didn't just happen.
It was made from huge stones quarried from places
like this and then shipped.
Nearby hides another coastal delight:
Penberth Cove, a tiny fishing port.
Its "capstan," or winch, still hauls a few tough
little boats up the cobbled landing.
The stones are scarred by grooves
worn by generations of hard fishing.
Rick: I find this so evocative with the capstan
and these old fishing boats.
When you see this port, what do you think of?
Tim: I mean, this is going back to the time
when pilchards were a very important part
of the Cornish economy.
I mean, all around the Cornish coast,
there were as many little pilchard coves
as they could squeeze in.
Rick: What's a pilchard?
Tim: Well, a pilchard's a large sardine.
Rick: And why are they important?
Tim: They were a huge part
of the diet of the Cornish people
and a big part of the economy of Cornwall for centuries.
Whether you were a farmer or a fisherman or a miner,
it was a big part of your diet.
It's how you survived the winter.
Rick: So what would it be like if you lived here back
when pilchards were the key to surviving the winter?
Tim: Well, you'd have a huer up on the cliff,
and his job was to really look to see if the sea turned purple.
If the sea turned purple, then the pilchards were coming in,
and he would call with his big trumpet,
shouting, "Hevva, hevva!"
which was the cry of the fish,
and then they would all come running down
and push the big seine boats out
and pull the mile-long net out.
And then everybody would come down and help out.
Five million fish in one net
was the most they ever caught in St. Ives once.
Rick: And it really helped them get through the winter.
Tim: Yeah, they needed to catch those fish.
If they missed it, they would possibly starve.
##
Rick: Hiking the Penwith Peninsula
can be like exploring an open-air archeological museum.
It's dotted with stony souvenirs from around 2,000 B.C.
Stone circles hosted ritual gatherings
and functioned as celestial calendars.
These stones were covered with turf,
likely a burial mound or tomb of some local chief.
And weathered crosses helped guide Irish pilgrims
traversing Cornwall on their trek to Spain.
A hidden surprise on this otherwise-rugged coast
is the delightful beach at Porthcurno.
With its graceful arc and golden sand,
it seems to have been imported from some faraway tropical paradise.
In fact, if you try hard to forget
you're at such a northern latitude
and pretend the water isn't so cold,
you could swear you're in the French Riviera.
It's a hit with both parents savoring a hard-earned break
and their frolicking children enjoying the surf.
But running below the sand,
unnoticed by these holiday makers,
is a historic cable.
It leads to a fascinating museum all about the telegraph.
Porthcurno was strategic for its telegraph station,
the largest in the world back in the 1920s.
The British ruled a global empire
and needed a way to communicate with its far-flung colonies.
It developed a way to send Morse code messages
through cables across the seas.
Exhibits of early teletype machines
explain these significant technological strides
in what's nicknamed the "Victorian Internet."
This was really important.
In 1869, it took six weeks
to get a message from here to India,
then after they laid the cables in 1870,
it took nine minutes.
Eventually, 180,000 miles of cable
like this was laid on ocean floors across the planet.
And this little port was its hub.
But today Porthcurno's big draw is a dramatic open-air theater.
The Minack Theatre is carved out of a rocky cliff
and gorgeously landscaped.
Built in the 1930s
by the visionary theater lover Rowena Cade,
its stage is perched hundreds of feet over the sea.
A visit by day lets you relax in the garden-like setting
with its exotic plants
thriving in the subtropical climate.
If the weather's fine, grab a grassy seat
and go English. Enjoy a cream tea, picnic-style.
Tim: Well, you've also got your jam on first
and you've got to put the cream on the top when you're in Cornwall.
Rick: That's a lot of cream. Tim: Oh, yeah.
Just a little dollop on the top like that,
and that's exactly how you're supposed to have it.
Rick: That's how you do it? Tim: Yeah.
Rick: You are one of my favorite guides.
Tim: I'm gonna finish this one off. Rick: Mmm!
You can watch the seabirds.
Gannets glide looking for a fresh fish lunch.
When they spot one, they dive for it
and hit the water at 60 miles/hour.
I'm staying for tonight's performance.
Throughout the season, theatre lovers enjoy inexpensive
plays in this unforgettable setting.
Actor: Now I'm perfect. Actress: What are you doing?!
Rick: The adorable little port of Mousehole is famous
for smuggling and for fishing.
Its cute harbor is protected from the wild sea
with an entrance narrow as a mouse hole.
Due to the dramatic tides,
the boats here are designed to be stranded in the mud
and stay upright until the water returns with the next high tide.
Modern beach fun today,
but I get a sense this has been
a protected harbor for centuries.
Tim: Yeah, we're stood on a harbor wall here
which dates back to the 14th century.
And much of the village is the same.
A lot of it was destroyed then by the Spanish Armada in 1595.
Rick: So it was the Spanish Armada out there lobbing cannonballs --
1595?
Tim: Yeah, they rebuilt in the 17th century,
but you can still find cannonballs
in some of the houses now.
Rick: These days, the town handles
its flood of summer tourists and day-trippers beautifully.
It's a hit with visitors,
and hardy English holiday goers gather along the embankment
to avoid the wind and catch the sun.
Nearby is a rock pool
built a century ago for Victorian kids
to enjoy the sea life stranded there
with each low tide.
Chasing fast crabs and darting blennies delights children
to this day.
The South West Coast Path laces
together the entire coastline of the Penwith Peninsula,
often becoming an easy seaside stroll.
Standing dramatically just off the coast
is St. Michael's Mount.
This rock island
has been inhabited for over 1,500 years.
Once a Benedictine monastery, it was later a fortified castle
and eventually a stately home.
And through the centuries, people have minded the tides,
just as tourists do today,
as they venture across this causeway.
The seaside trail broadens to a promenade
as it passes Penzance,
long the leading port of the peninsula.
Today's Penzance is
a blue-collared transportation hub
with a hardscrabble edge.
Its facades, while impressive back in the Victorian age,
are a bit shabby now.
Rough and real Penzance is my favorite home base in the area.
Entire streets are lined with small guest houses
and B&Bs.
It's an enjoyable place to come home to
at the end of a busy sightseeing day.
Tonight we're dining out,
and around here, seafood's a good bet.
Throughout England these days, young restaurateurs and creative chefs
are putting Britain's reputation for boring food to rest.
The service is friendly...
and the atmosphere is casual and fun.
We're enjoying a sampler plate of today's catch.
And for our main course, it's hake, lobster,
and haddock -- all locally caught.
An hour's drive north is Tintagel Castle,
the legendary home of King Arthur.
Rocky, remote, and romantic,
the ruins, while scant, are strikingly situated.
As you explore, appreciate the naturally fortified,
easily defensible position of this rock-top castle.
The real King Arthur, if he actually existed,
was supposedly born here
and ruled his lands from this desolate outpost.
Recent digs do indicate that this place
was a curiously important center
of trade back in early medieval times.
##
While the popular tales of Camelot are pure fantasy,
they may have been based on a real person.
While there's no physical record of a King Arthur,
experts have reason to believe that a ruler
by that name probably lived in this area
back in the 6th century.
A short drive further north takes us out of Cornwall
and into the neighboring county of Devon,
where we venture into remote and windswept Dartmoor.
Perched on the edge of the moor, the tiny town of Chagford
is an easy home base for exploring Dartmoor.
The small-town atmosphere here makes you feel
like you've stepped into a time warp.
It has a classic English-village feel
with a picturesque church and cemetery
and cozy pubs that double
as inns for hikers to spend the night.
One of England's most popular national parks,
Dartmoor is one of the few truly
wild places left in this densely populated country.
A moor is characterized by open land with scrubby vegetation.
England's moors are vast medieval commons,
rare places where all can pass,
anyone can graze their livestock,
and, in the case of Dartmoor, ponies run wild.
Dartmoor sits on a granite plateau,
and occasionally bare granite peaks
called "tors" break through the heather.
Rising like lonesome watch towers,
these distinctive landmarks
are the goal of popular hikes.
Haytor is the most famous of these rocks.
For the tenderfoot, the climb to its summit
can be a challenge.
It's not El Capitan, but it's hard to beat
that king-of-the-mountain feeling
and the rewarding views that come with it.
A well-planned walk through the moors rewards day hikers
with vivid memories.
Stone-slab clapper bridges, some medieval,
and some even ancient,
remind hikers that for thousands of years,
humans have trod these same paths
and forded these same streams.
Tall stones guided early travelers.
This one, erected by pagans
long before Christianity arrived,
was later carved into a cross.
The iconic ponies of Dartmoor run wild.
Their ancestors were the working horses
of the local miners.
Living in the harsh conditions of the moor,
these ponies are a hardy breed known for their stamina.
Today they're beloved among hikers
for the romance they bring to the otherwise stark terrain.
Of the hundreds of neolithic
ruins that dot the Dartmoor landscape,
the Scorhill Stone Circle is my favorite.
Tranquil and nearly forgotten,
erected some 4,000 years ago
by mysterious people for mysterious reasons,
it's yours alone,
the way a stone circle should be.
It's just you and your imagination.
Enjoy the quiet.
Ponder the 40 centuries of people who've made this
enchanting landscape their home
and the wisdom of today's English to protect it
and keep it pristine.
From Land's End to the wild wonders of Dartmoor,
I hope you've enjoyed our swing through Cornwall
and the southwest of England.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Rick Steves.
Until next time, keep on travelin'.
You can see a gannet with two black eyes.
[ Both laugh ]
Simon, will you eat this, please?
Simon: The things I do for you.
[ Laughs ]
Simon: A little less arm swing, yeah.
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