Travel

Tall stories and tall ships in delightfully offbeat Cornwall

THE thing about Cornwall is its offbeat options.

It doesn’t take long to find secluded beaches, hidden coves and remote cliffs.

Legends too — and from the very top drawer of mythology. Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor is the home of Excalibur – although one has to qualify the word legend here.

The Bodmin story is all about magical powers being transferred to King Arthur. Legend has now been downgraded to unexpectedly arriving at the office with custard doughnuts for everybody.

But laidback Cornwall is happy enough with that.

Tall stories and tall ships form a wonderful alchemy, along with history, geological happenstance, popular culture, and cuisine. They seem to have thought of everything. And that includes the ancient port of Falmouth.

Most British towns today come with a motto: ‘York; so good they named it once’, type of thing. Falmouth’s kicker is: ‘The spirit of the sea’. Although succinct and accurate, it’s not the whole story. There’s a boho buzz going on here too, and a burgeoning culinary scene.

Falmouth in Cornwall has been at the centre of maritime affairs for centuries

The sea, of course, is an ever-present backdrop — the town has been at the centre of maritime affairs since navigation began.

Its deep natural harbour made it strategically important, particularly from the 17th century onwards.

The town grew rapidly after the construction of Pendennis Castle by Henry VIII in the 1540s, which defended the estuary. By the 1680s, Falmouth had become a key packet station handling mail ships between Britain and its empire.

The town flourished during the Napoleonic Wars — which helped reshape not just Falmouth, but the whole of Europe, toppling monarchies, and spurring nationalism.

And in an 1805 newsfeed, the latest goings-on at Trafalgar arrived via the schooner Pickle. The good news? “England won”. The bad? “Nelson’s as dead as the proverbial dodo”.

You can visit the precise spot where this news was imparted.

Pendennis Castle in Falmouth

Ship happens, if you get my drift

CHARLES Darwin’s boat HMS Beagle docked here on the Fal River. Before landing at Falmouth, Darwin spent five years on board, puzzling over wildlife and fossils.

The theory of natural selection was on its way. Darwin got paid just £180 for the publication of On The Origin of Species, but was lucky enough.

A respected editor read it and urged Darwin to write a book about pigeons instead. “Everyone is interested in pigeons,” he observed helpfully. Editors, eh?

Our voyage round the harbour was on board Jonik, a 1930s motor cruiser with just room for eight passengers; a ticket for the boat also gets you inside the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Eclectic is way too small a word for this place.

Tucked away in Cornwall’s charming harbour town, the museum is a delight for landlubbers and sea dogs alike. With boats hanging from the rafters — there’s even a periscope poking above the roof — it’s part museum, part nautical playground. Kids can hoist sails or climb aboard rescue craft, grown-ups can daydream about owning a yacht, and everyone learns something without even realising it.

From voyages of exploration to tales to Cornish smugglers, it’s a journey through seafaring history that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Spanning five floors and housing 15 galleries, the museum also has its Tidal Zone for underwater views of the harbour and a 100-foot Look Out Tower for panoramic views of the harbour.

The museum is currently hosting an exhibition on surfing.

SURF! exhibition explores the history and cultural impact of surfing in Cornwall

From vintage wave-chasers to modern-day surf heroes, an epic new exhibition SURF! surveys the last 100 years of the sport in Cornwall.

Set against the backdrop of 422 miles of Atlantic-washed coastline, this, ahem, immersive journey uncovers how surfing shaped the region – and how Cornwall shaped global surf culture in return.

From the 1920s pioneers paddling out on wooden bellyboards, to today’s world-class athletes carving clean lines at Fistral, SURF! has the complete lowdown.

Of course, you don’t need a museum to appreciate matters nautical in Falmouth. Any stroll through the town will give you glimpses of the water through the opes – passageways with stone steps between buildings leading down to the water’s edge.

You’ll see just about every type of craft here – yawls, ketches, sloops, gigs, pleasure cruises and working boats dredging for wild Fal oysters.

This year sailing week is from Friday, August 8th - Sunday, August 17th. All manner of nautical matters will be taking place both on the water and the quayside, as well as a carnival on Saturday, August 9th.

We wandered through the town on a spring day. The streets had a jaunty seaside air, with Falmouth’s trademark fluttering bunting and a few murmurations of tourists here and there.

Star quality shelter

OUR destination and shelter for two days was the Star and Garter, a gastropub within a historic town house on Falmouth’s high street. Outside, it looks like a classic smuggler’s inn; inside are a handful of beautifully appointed apartments looking out across the Fal River.

Here, I said to myself, is a place I’d like to relax in once in a while, maybe three or four times a week.

There’s a seriously good restaurant at the back of the ground-floor pub. The predictable nautical décor route of bits of boats everywhere has been eschewed in favour of leathery chairs, dark wood, candlelight, and mesmerising views across the harbour.

If you have the great good fortune to be staying there, you only have to stumble up the stairs, after a memorably good dinner and cocktails, to your quarters – either the first-floor Starboard rooms, the second-floor Penthouse or the Crow’s Nest in the attic. All have a kitchen, sofas and armchairs, views of the harbour and binoculars.

There are also flat-screen tellies — I’m not sure if another type of television is available these days. But I suppose if you wanted one of those old televisions — huge box affairs with buttons saying odd things like ‘vertical hold’, the staff here are so helpful they’d probably see if they could get you one.

The Star and Garter is a microcosm of Falmouth itself. It’s a great place for dining, drinking, gazing at the sea, being happy. We’d go there as soon as possible, if we were you.