Boscastle

Having visited Padstow and Polzeath, Brian and Mary drove us to Boscastle. Before August 2004, not many people had even heard of Boscastle,but thanks to a devastating flood on the afternoon of 16th, it suddenly became very famous indeed. I had often thought it would be nice to visit this charming little village, but until now, we never had.

We started off by having a light lunch in the Riverside Restaurant (seen in the above picture, behind the bridge), then Malcolm and I had a walk through the village and along the river towards the harbour and the mouth of the river.

A little further along from the visitor's centre, we passed the delightful riverside Tea Room, with its crooked roof. Once the Harbour Light, the building had to be completely rebuilt after the flood.

Just beyond the Tea Room, we had our first sight of the harbour with its two walls, originally built in 1584 by Sir Richard Grenville.

From there, we got some nice views looking back up the river towards the village.

A little further and we left the harbour and climbed up onto the promontory known as Penally Point which forms a natural protection to the inlet. The wind at this point was blowing wildly and we seemed to be in danger of being blown off the rocks.

Despite this, the views were splendid. The rocks here are of fine grained Mud-stone and Silt-stone of the Lower Carboniferous period and were deposited at the edge of the Rheic Ocean.

By now the wind was getting to us, so we turned our steps back to the village a rejoined Brian and Mary. Just time for a quick pic of Malcolm looking wind-swept and interesting!

Then it was back to the car and the return to Newquay.  It was a wonderful day, all thanks to Brian and Mary and one which we hadn't expected. "Thank you so much Brian and Mary."