The Lizard Peninsula is unique. Stunningly beautiful at any time of the year, there is nowhere quite like it anywhere else in Britain. It is for this reason that the Lizard has been a continuing source of inspiration for artists and writers. Almost surrounded by the sea, the peninsula stands alone, in a very real sense, from the rest of the county. In a line from London to Land’s End, the backbone of Cornwall is a route to somewhere (all this according to Wikipedia of course).
It is an ancient place, where history is indelibly inscribed on the landscape. For these reasons, the Lizard Peninsula has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is recognised as being of international botanical importance - and here you can find 15 of Britain’s rarest plants!
After such a promising start it was a little disappointing to find our next destination, the National Trust run Glendurgan, closed. Our own fault really for not reading the fine print but where else but England would an attraction be closed not only on the first weekend of a school break but the middle day of a long weekend!! Not to be deterred we reset our trusty Susie for St Michael’s Mount (after checking the fineprint!)
Around two thousand years ago trading ships sailed into the Mount’s harbour and exported Cornish tin to the rest of Europe. Religion followed the traders: an apparition of the Archangel St Michael is said to have been witnessed by fisherman in 495 and by the sixth century AD it is thought that the Mount was a thriving religious centre. After the Norman Conquest, the abbey was granted to the Benedictine monks of Mont St Michel in France. The church on the island’s summit was built by the French Abbot, Bernard le Bec, and through the Middle Ages the Mount became a major pilgrimage destination. Four miracles, said to have happened here between 1262 and 1263 would have only added to its religious magnetism and is a pretty impressive return for a two year period.
Despite being a place of prayer, from time to time the Mount felt the steel of combat and has survived sieges and battles throughout the ages. In 1193, it was seized by Henry La Pomeray, who disguised his men as pilgrims. In 1473, during the War of the Roses, the Earl of Oxford held the island under siege for six months. In 1588, it was on St Michael’s Mount that the first beacon was lit to warn of the arrival of the Spanish Armada. And during the Civil War, between 1642 and 1646, Royalists valiantly held the Mount against the forces of Oliver Cromwell.
Today the castle is the family home of James and Mary St Aubyn; descendants of the family who have resided in the castle since the 17th Century. The St Aubyns came to St Michael’s Mount in 1647, when Colonel John St Aubyn was appointed Governor of the Mount following its surrender of the Mount to Parliamentarian forces. Twelve years later he purchased it from the Bassett family and it became his private home. In 1954, Francis St Aubyn – father of the fourth baron – gave St Michael’s Mount to the National Trust, retaining a 999-year lease for the family to live in the castle.
As it was a low tide we were able to walk across the causeway where a legendary giant once walked to reach the island and castle. We stood on the heart-shaped cobblestone and felt the heartbeat of the mythical giant of the mount. Legend says the giant used to wade ashore and steal cattle, until one night he was lured into a pit and slain – thus the legend of Jack the Giant Killer!
Despite the crowds (as it was later in the day) it was a fascinating place to explore and best of all, in Abbey’s mind, there was a park on the main land that she got to play in twice! I am not sure if I would chose to live out there, not only as it is regularly overrun by tourists but also due to the rather harsh weather – all this talk of sub-tropical vegetation and the like and we were still to see any evidence of real lasting sunshine.
We still had enough time left in the day to travel into the heart of all things touristy and tacky, Land’s End the extreme westerly point of England (not Great Britain). Land's End has a particular resonance because it is often used to suggest distance. Land's End to John O'Groats in Scotland is a distance of 838 miles (1,349 km) by road (about the distance from Melbourne to Coffs Harbour by the inland route) and defines the length of races, walks or charitable events. Once you got past the shops and ‘great value family entertainment’ to the actual coastline it was truly beautiful. It was just a shame they had not left nature to speak for itself like at Lizard Peninsula but there you go. The kids did enjoy the playground with its flying fox and rescue boat to clamber around on. 
The rain had now set in and to top it off I managed to brush up against some nettles retrieving Susie from the boot and with no dokleaf to be found had hours of annoying pain to look forward to (all English school children know how to find it as its juice is an antidote for the stinging nettles but its something I missed in my upbringing!) On returning to Penzance we took a detour via St Ives and found it wet, busy and difficult to navigate and were rather glad, despite its renown, we had not chosen to stay there. We had dinner in the Dolphin Inn in peaceful Penzance before calling it a day. Awash with yet more history, as long ago as 1585 Sir John Hawkins used the pub as his headquarters when recruiting Cornishmen to fight against the Armada and Sir Walter Raleigh is reported to have smoked the first pipe of tobacco in England there too.
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