We woke early’ish to a bright sunny day, had breakfast at 7:50am and were on the road a little before 8:30am.
It was a big day! And as enjoyable as it was different.
Our first stop was The Hurling Stone Circles at Minions. The Hurling Stone Circles were excavated in the 1930’s and archaeologists restored them to their original positions as much as possible. There are three circles of stones, the northern circle has 15 of its original 30 stones, the middle has 14 of 28 original stones (with 14 marker stones to show where the missing stones should have been) and the southern circle has only 9 original stones, 7 of which have fallen. To the west of the circles are 2 upright stones standing together, these are known as The Pipers. Legend has it that The Hurlers were men who were turned to stone for playing the ancient game of Hurling on a Sunday, and that The Pipers were 2 men who played tunes on a Sunday and suffered the same fate.
Archaeology tells us that the stones are fine examples of late Neolithic or early Bronze Age stone circles arranged uniquely in a line (between 5000 & 2000 BC). The circles line up directly with several other significant sites of the time, including a large burial mound. The circles would have had significant importance in the culture of the people at that time.
To walk amongst them and touch them is special, to me it feels like you are in connection with that past time. Calming is a feeling that comes to mind. I love walking around and interacting with ancient sites like this, I feel a connection.
As we were leaving the area a herd of about 30 wild horses ran passed in front of us. It was an amazing sight. Mothers with foals, heavily pregnant mares and a stallion bringing up the rear and looking after the stragglers. It was such an unexpected delight. They were with us for about 5 minutes.
From there we drove to The Eden Project. The project’s purpose is to demonstrate the importance of plants to people and to promote sustainable use of plant resources. The project began in 1996, converting an exhausted kaolin (clay) quarry into Eden. To do this they have built 2 enormous biodomes that cover an area of about 13 hectares. The biodomes are made up of about 8 or 9 geodesic domes of various sizes joined together to make 2 separate environmental enclosures. The “smaller” dome houses a collection of Mediterranean plants from around the world. The larger dome houses a tropical rainforest, again representing all tropical rainforests from around the world. Both domes demonstrate the plants in natural settings and also the valuable agricultural plants of each zone. The environments created are spectacular, from dry desert landscapes to lush tropical rainforest including a waterfall. Full mature size trees are housed in both environs. It is truly amazing. A third complex called The Core has also been built. It houses the secrets of the unseen world, the microbes, and all things very small that make our world tick.
Surrounding these three amazing buildings is an equally amazing garden. There are paths that meander their way through the tiered slopes of Eden taking you through all kinds of gardens imaginable. Perfume gardens to rock gardens and everything in between. You could spend days in Eden exploring all it has to offer.
Our next adventure for the day was to discover, “The Lost Gardens of Heligan”. The 200 hectare Heligan Estate and gardens were owned by the Tremayne family for over 400 years and were very grand. Heligan House was rented out just after WWI, and the gardens were left unmaintained. The big family home was subdivided off the estate and converted into flats. It wasn’t until 1990 that the gardens were rediscovered. A descendant of the Tremayne family introduced an archaeologist, Tim Smit, to the site and work commenced resurrecting the gardens to their former glory. Decades of overgrowth and brambles had to be peeled away taking care to preserve all of the past they could, including respecting the momentos left behind by the people who worked the gardens 70+ years before. They have done an amazing job, from areas of unique sculptures that “live” in the landscape, to a jungle complete with a rope bridge, a huge working vegetable garden, many different livestock enclosures and fields, flower gardens and fields of wild flowers set aside for the pollinators. An enjoyable and memorable visit.
We then drove onto Falmouth and our BnB. Once we had settled in we went down to the waterfront and had dinner at the Chain Locker Pub, right on the water. The meal was very tasty. After dinner we went for a walk around the marina area and down to the main beach area before heading “home” to put our feet up. A very long day, but so worth it.
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