27/10/23 - The Cadgwith Cove Inn

Picture perfect Cornish Fishing Village for a new entry in the 2024 Good Beer Guide

Final walk of the week and we are heading to a couple of tiny coves, related to the pilchard fishing industry.

Cadgwith is that isolated, the signs tell you not to drive into the village. A car park available about 1/2 mile up the hill.

By God, it's pretty.

Could be an Hovis Advert

This walk becomes an ecumenical matter but starts off with a natural feature. A puff and pant onto the high cliffs to look at the Devil's Frying Pan - a collapsed sea cave - from above.

Staring at the Sun

Inland to unlocked churches - first Grade and then Ruan Minor - with a Pilgrimage place, St Ruan's Well inbetween.

Guide Dog in Training gone off with the Zoomies

St Ruan's Well

Ruan Minor Church

A drop down to the sea, to discover a ruined pilchard processing "factory" at Poltesco and then back over the cliffs for lunch.

The Cadgwith Cove Inn easy to spot on approach. We tick all the boxes to be allowed entrance.

Our Destination

To be fair, warm enough to sit outside

We start with the front snug to ourselves. A chat with the owner, the first he new of making the bible was an email to say they had been selected. The local Camra branch appear to follow the full mystery shopper modus operandi and he was unaware of their visit. He says they were probably impressed by how far the beer line has to run for the cellar to the tap room.

For the first time on this trip, I find Betty Stoggs. I am provided with the history of Skinner's recent closure and reopening by another brewery. Yet he says its not what it was and he often has to send barrels back.

And he was right - it wasn't a great pint.  

But still - a fine place for meal of the week and a day when I can proclaim myself truly middle class. We managed to spend £82 on lunch.

Monkfish and sea bream Thai curry racking up the dollar.

Our final walk of the week, so we'll put it down to a celebration feast.

Our place in the snug

Walk Details

Distance - 4.5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - AA 1001 Walks, Walk 22

26/10/23 - The Blue Anchor, Helston

 Celebrating an absolute classic with Spingo Middle

A wet Thursday afternoon on the Lizard peninsula. I've got a designated driver. Only one place to go.

The Blue Anchor,  Helston.

In we go!

This is a completely unmodernised brew-pub - famous for their Spingo beer. The building, a C15th Monk's retreat. A narrow corridor leads to a couple of snugs on the left, two rooms on the right (one with an impressive fireplace), a skittle alley and a separate brewery room.

Time to make a choice

Laughter and life is coming from the front bar on the right. A collection of old boys, clearly in for the afternoon, superbly marshalled by the landlady. Whenever the story telling and micky taking extends to profanity, they are swifty admonished and threatened with the swear jar and/or expulsion.

All of guide dog in training Ivy's previous hard work goes out the window. One of the old boys notices her on her lead and demands that all dogs in this room are free dogs. Mrs M's resolve eventually goes and the dog is allowed loose to make her own friends. Dogs playing in a confined space would alarm some but not in here. I always abide by the unwritten pub rules of following the local customs.

Onto the beer - only two on cask today - a 5% Spingo Middle and a Jubilee IPA. 

Spingo Middle

I vow to try both. The Spingo Middle met with approval and went down rather too quickly. My return visit to ask for an IPA was met with scorn. The old boys said I should stick with the Middle. Even the landlady suggested that the IPA was far inferior. Made me wonder why they brewered it, if they are talking people out of buying it :-)

Before things get out of hand dog-wise, Ivy is rounded back up, falls asleep on her settle mat and we soak up the atmosphere - frequently engaged in conversation with whoever next makes their exit to use the facilities.

Plenty of nick nacks and artworks on the wall. My interest focused on the list of public executions in Cornwall, including a couple for battering a previous landlord of this pub.

Punishment for many crimes, harsh.  Except William Hocking.  He's a wrong 'un

Three rounds and its time to head out for normality of life outside the pleasure palace. Not often I have to leave a premises by providing handshakes with new friends and I don't think they noticed the slight tear in my eye. Three pints of Middle and afternoon bonhomie can do that to a man.

In an attempt to recreate the experience later in the year, I've exported some of the magic to the West Midlands. I doubt it will work in front of Jools Holland's Hootenanny, but I am prepared to give it a go.

New Year's Eve sorted

26/10/23 - Mermaids and Marconi at Mullion

Coves, cliffs, legends and two pubs

Mullion - the largest settlement on the Lizard Peninsula and we follow our guide books advice that this makes an ideal base for exploring the area.

A walk from our front door. Through the town, finding all the amenities. Is it a coincidence that Mrs M used AirBnB to find digs next to a chocolate factory?

Our first special place is Mullion Cove, a still working harbour supporting pilchard fishing.

From Ghost Hill to Mullion Cove

Another special place

You could while away the time by playing "Guess the name of the Island" - Mullion a given, but Tregwyn, the Var (Boo, say all football lovers) and Scovarn taking more time.

It's then up onto the cliffs to be rewarded by two perfect sandy coves. Polurrian first and larger of the two. Guide dog in training Ivy getting a well earned free run with the other canines.

Many would have just stopped here

Back on the cliffs - for legends, true and probably false. Angrouse Cliff has the Marconi Monument, celebrating the first transatlantic communication in 1901. And what did he send?  The letter S in Morse repeated three times and received in Newfoundland.  The radiowaves bending across the globe, a feat the naysayers said impossible.

120 years later and Sunday morning politics TV has a genuine feature about AI causing the end of civilisation. We all know it will be the 27th named storm of a particularly terrible Autumn. 

Understated Monument to Transatlantic Communication

Mrs M had the big white building down as a hotel, offering skinny flat whites. Disappointment that its now a care home tempered by the realisation that she can be plonked there in her later years. Certainly quite the spot.

The cafe is on Poldhu Beach - another doggy playground but this time with a fable.  Magical Britain tells of an Old Smuggler Lutey who returned a stranded mermaid, Morwenna, back to the water. Granted three wishes, he made the mistake of not asking for unlimited wishes. Instead, he asked to be able to charm away illness, restore stolen goods (odd request for a Smuggler) and the power to break evil spirits. Lutey and his descendents became famous Pellars, Cornish expellers of evil. Happy ending? Nah, nine years later Morwenna dragged Lutey back into the waves and he was never seen again.

Guide Dog Ivy with a glint in her eye....

Enough folklore Mappiman, I hear you cry.  What about the pubs of Mullion?

Our AirBnb host waxed lyrical about the Old Inn. Her face changed when discussing the Mount Bay Inn. She stated it used to be a nice place but was now being run as a hostel.

Takes more than that to put us off - so we tried it out and found a large holiday pub, setup for Sunday Carveries. Closed Monday and Tuesday and a 3pm opener on other weekdays. Our first visit was Saturday night and we can confirm that this is where the youth of Mullion head to for "prinks" before taxiing to the bright lights of Helston. Proper Job was available, but after my Johnny Depp (pirate) lookalike bar man had to ask the single old bar hanging boy whether anyone had one today, I quickly changed to keg Korev. 

The locals were friendly but were the enough of them to keep the place going?  I'd be surprised if Mullion is still a two pub town on future visits.

The Mount Bay Inn

The AirBnb host was of course, totally correct about the Old Inn.  A charming, thatched C16th building originally hosting the workers constructing the church over the road. Packed out on both visits and impossible not to get into conversation with tourists and locals alike.

The Old Inn

The community centre - it hosts several dining rooms, a pool room and even the community library. A proper one, council endorsed and everything.  

Drinkers are catered for, with a perfect front bar. A battle to get through the local bar hangers and enquiries need to be made as to their gold loyalty cards. I joke with the barman that I intend to be that loyal, I will have one by the end of the week. He scoffs that I need a TR postcode before I would be bestowed the golden ticket?

Could this be the first pub I have been to with a two-tier pricing system? Should I have been angry that I was paying more for my St Austell beers than the locals?

Maybe... I was more disappointed in today's cashless society, I didn't have 50p for the pool table.

Hicks sampled, but the Proper Job was the "go to" pint

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - 40 Walks in Cornwall, Walk 14

25/10/23 - Loe Bar, a GBG Tick at Gunwalloe and into Porthleven

 In a week of pretty walks, the prettiest

Rather a special walk this.

We start at Penrose - a National Trust House and Gardens and follow excellent paths alongside Cornwall's largest freshwater lake to the sea.

Heading to Loe Bar

Loe Bar is a slender strip of land separating the freshwater Loe Pool from the  Atlantic Ocean. This remarkable barrier beach, approximately one mile long, is composed of a mixture of sand and shingle, and it's the largest of its kind in the county. Legend has it that the Bar was formed when a colossal storm in the 13th century breached the sand dunes that once separated the freshwater Loe Pool from the sea. It certainly stopped Helston from being a sea port.

Ivy, impressed by the natural wonder

And then hitting the bar

We actually have a choice of walks now. Head South for a Good Beer Guide Tick or head North for the previously unexplored town of Porthleven. The sun is shining, we are on holiday so the correct decision has to be to do both.

This enthusiasm is rewarded by the drinking gods. It's 11:15 when we arrive at the tiny fishing port of Gunwalloe. Mrs M thinks I am lying twice. Once, when I say the Halzephron is an 11am opener and twice when I say its just a quarter mile further up the lane.

An honour to be the first patrons of the day at this ancient smugglers pub. If you want to read about tunnels and attempts to recover Spanish fortunes, head here.

Freehouse, serving mainly Sharps

As you would expect

Good Beer Guide 2024 Entry

A straightforward coast walk, crossing the Loe Bar for a 2nd time and into Porthleven. A picture perfect Cornish fishing village, with tourist throngs taking advantage of the chippy and the pasty shop.

Coast path to Porthleven - Monument to the lost HMS Anson

Into Porthleven

Boats across the harbour

An Adventure Lab Cache takes us to 5 interesting locations. Saving the best till last, the final stop is the C17th Ship Inn. Right on the harbour, a perfect place to sit and watch the world go by.

Eponymous beer - Skinners Porthleven

Walk Details

Distance - 8.25 miles

Walk Inspiration - 40 Walks in Cornwall (Walk 15) and Pub Walks in South West Cornwall 9 (Walk 13)

Geocaches - 3 and 7 Adventure Lab Caches