LAND OF MYTHS & LEGENDS
Full of legend and history, delicious local food, photogenic views and spooky stories, this Cornwall holiday was packed with adventure
Words & pictures ❚ Vivienne Crow
Witches, black magic, King Arthur’s sorcerer, Merlin – all those things that float around on the murky, sometimes dark edges of myth and mystery. I wouldn’t have expected them to be filling my head while the sun was shining down on my clifftop path, and the blue of the calm sea below was almost matching the blue of the sky above.
But this is Cornwall, a place where the lines between legend and history become muddled. Not only that, but I’d just emerged from Boscastle’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magic…
This lovely little village, known for its unusual curving harbour safely cradled between two natural headlands, has been home to a museum dedicated to witchcraft since 1960. Originally run by a folk magician called Cecil Williamson, it now houses one of the largest collections of its type in Europe.
A sign outside offers a place for visiting witches to park their broomsticks, and this is where my partner, Heleyne, waited with our terrier, Jess, while I had a nosey inside. I saw fascinating exhibits devoted to witch trials, alchemy and Freemasonry, and a chalice owned by the controversial early twentieth century occultist, Aleister Crowley.
The visit reminded me of a childhood trip to the Hellfire Caves at West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. Stories of how eighteenth and nineteenth-century gentlemen met in these caverns underground to indulge in activities that would otherwise have been frowned upon, possibly including Satanic rites, had left me spooked at the time. It was this that sent a surprising shiver of memory down my spine while walking the coast path later in the day.
We’d come down to Cornwall in the ’van to explore the eastern side of the county. We’d made many previous trips to the western tip, and we’d backpacked all of the north coast back in the days when we’d been capable of carrying camping gear for two weeks, but we’d never really had a chance to get to know the areas east of the River Camel. The trip started from a base near Bude before heading southwest to Padstow, then crossing to the south coast and, later, paying a visit to the Tamar Valley.
After Boscastle, we spent the next day walking near Tintagel. Long associated with the legend of King Arthur, this is another place where the mind can’t help but linger on myst
