St Ives to Zennor Treen, 14km, 525 metres of climbing

‘If you can’t figure out where you stand with someone, it might be time to stop standing and start walking’

There were no settlements on the section today so its character was lonely and remote. It was supposed to be tough going with rocky scrambles and boggy lengths. It was described as a magnificent length with stark cliffs, rock pinnacles, tiny scenic coves with translucent water, rugged exposed headlands, ruins, inland views over empty moorland.

It was very good but we didn’t see it at its very best. St Ives was surrounded in mist as we left this morning and the mist hung around all day. Clearing occasionally but rolling in from the sea again. This made the temperature a bit cooler so it was excellent for walking without having the sun beating down on you.

Early in the day we came across a stone circle, similar to the many we had seen in Ireland. Cornwall does have an ancient history. Mesolithic nomadic hunters and gatherers settled after the Ice Age. Neolithic man arrived about 3500BC and they had the skills to rear crops and raise flocks and the art of building ’quiots’ – stone chambers used for communal burials. In 2000BC the Beaker Folk arrived and many believe it was they who erected the stone circles and standing stones in southwest England.

Despite the prevalence of ancient monuments and standing stones in the area the one we saw is a more recent addition. Fable has it that these stones were once 13 old farmers, and one beautiful 19 years old virgin from St Ives (it is said that she was extremely difficult to find!) They were all caught dancing an ancient harvest fertility rite Morris Dance, on feast Sunday, by the local Magistrate, and were immediately turned into stone forever! They say this was about 1947.

The path hugged the contours, sending us on an endless series of ups and downs but these were not as severe as those we did around Port Isaac. You had to keep your eyes on the ground all the time as it crossed boggy fields and rough and rocky terrain. This made for very slow walking.

When the mist cleared the coast and off shore island were quite dramatic and there were some amazing granite rocky outcrops. When the mist closed in these looked as though we were being pursued by giants. There were seals far below hauled out on the rocks near River Cove and off shore we could see The Carracks, islands where the tour boats from St Ives go to see the seal colony.

Macs Adventures had made some complicated arrangements for us today. They had us walking about 11km from St Ives then going inland 1 km to Zennor where a taxi was booked for 5.30pm (???) to drive us about 3 km to The Gurnard’s Head Hotel at Treen. A return taxi was booked for 9.30 am tomorrow morning. But by continuing to walk on the coast path for another half hour there was a turn off and about a 1km walk inland to Treen. This is what we did and at the hotel rang up and cancelled both taxis.

Treen has the hotel, a bus stop, a mail box and a stone farmhouse with a lovely stone barn. What a contrast to last night in St Ives!