Home: Botallack, Cornwall

“I am rooted but I flow” –– Virginia Woolf

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of returning home and repeating a route you have traversed more times than you can count. The juxtaposition of the comforting familiarity against the experience of seeing things differently as a result of new life learnings never fails to take one’s breath away. A recent indulgence in a brief trip home to Cornwall allowed such an experience.

The juxtaposition of the comforting familiarity against the experience of seeing things differently as a result of new life learnings never fails to take one’s breath away.

The day was a rarely bright, cloudless one in an otherwise dark and dreary mid-January week, and the route took me from St Just in Penwith across rough coastal tracks past the old mining relics that haunt Kenijack – ever overlooking my beloved Cape Cornwall – and through Botallack to a cosy pub lunch at The Queen’s Arms to warm up.

Aside from jaw-dropping scenic treats, the route has much to offer history and Poldark enthusiasts alike, being the site of Wheel Owles (Poldark’s Wheal Leisure Mine in the most recent BBC adaption) and the Crown Mines among others.

A steaming plate of traditional fish and chips washed down with a cool pint was the perfect antidote to a blustery but beautiful walk.

–– Rosie Pentreath, February 2018.