Things To Do In Cornwall

Lizard Cider Barn and Porthallow Vineyard is an apple orchard and vineyard open to the public. It is located on the Lizard Penninsula at St. Keverne, near Porthallow (TR12 6QH), in a 4 acre valley. Visitors are invited on a tour of the growing vines and the orchards. The grapes are native to Germany and France (particularly Alsace) where the climate is vaguely similar to the South of England. Edward the vigneron tells me that the German varieties have not been successful due, he explains, to the mildness of the Cornish winter, which does not toughen up the vines. Some of these vines have been taken out and replaced with Cornish apple trees. You can see them on the East slope of the vineyard.

The French vines make a pleasing white wine from the Madeleine grape and a robust red wine from the Triomphe d’Alsace grape. The red wine reminds me very much of a Cote du Rhone, slightly acidic but with a good fruit flavour, which will probably improve with aging in the bottle.

The orchards produce several varieties including Comish Gillyflower, Manaccan Primrose, Comish Aromatic and Pig’s Snout. These are made into scrumpy (farm cider), a completely natural product, made by leaving the apple juice to ferment on its own with wild yeasts that live on the apple skins. After fermentation the must is left to clear naturally, so retaining the full flavour.

They also produce a fine apple wine. Edward tells me that the distinction between apple wine and cider is that the apple wine ferments without the skins and pips, just pure apple juice. Also their bottle fermented wine makes an effervescent drink similar to champagne. They also produce country wines and liqueurs with fruit from the hedgerows. Damsons, blackberries and elderberries grow wild and are used in a variety of wines, sweet to dry, using old country recipes.

The tour ends with a visit to the old cider making machinery in the Cider Press Barn. After the tour of the vineyard, comes the tasting, where you can taste some of the products, or all of them if you are not driving! You can also buy wines and ciders which we tried later and found to be very good quality and reasonably priced.

The Monkey Sanctuary is a home for rescued monkeys, victims of the illegal pet trade and their descendants. They are mostly woolly monkeys but there are a few capuchin monkeys, Barbary macaques and Patas monkeys. Also, there is a colony of rare lesser horseshoe bats living in the cellar of the visitors’ centre (the bat cave). You will find The Monkey Sanctuary near to St Martins, Looe (PL13 1NZ). It was founded in 1964 as a charitable trust to promote the welfare, conservation and survival of primates. The Trust campaigns to end the primate trade and to stop abuse of primates in captivity. They educate the public and raise awareness of the plight of primates in captivity. You can see the monkeys in large enclosures in the Sanctuary’s gardens. Keepers are on hand to explain all about the various species and how they come to be there. You can get close up and inspect the work that goes into caring for them on a daily basis.

In the cellar of the Monkey Sanctuary house is a roost site of a colony of the rare lesser horseshoe bat. The bats are attracted to the warm atmosphere created by the oil boiler. This warmth is very important in the summer months when females gather to give birth to their single offspring. At night, the colony emerges to feed on insects. One of the keepers tells me that they particularly like the monkey kitchen, which attracts hoards of fruit flies. This particular species is indigenous to South West England and Wales, and is in danger due to loss of roosting sites and intensive farming.

The bat room has a pan and tilt camera and infra-red lights, which enables visitors to search for the bats and zoom in for a close up. You can watch them grooming themselves as they hang from the ceiling. I was surprised to discover that they hang by one leg! You can also see the Wildlife Room with a display of the vast array of plants, insects, birds, mammals and amphibians that live on the site. After that, you can see the gardens which are surrounded by beech and sycamore woodland, overlooking Looe bay.

Displays around the gardens explain about the plants in the different areas and the native animals. Also in the Spring and Summer Meadows, you will find many local wildflower species. They are mown at specific intervals to encourage a variety of flowers. In the pond, you can see frogs, toads and newts, and in summer the dazzling dragonflies which feed on the insects about the pond. I was told that 10 different species of dragonfly visit in summer. At “The Woodland Edge”, you find a cluster of densely-packed native shrubs, small trees and weeds, with banks of nettles and thistles, with buttercups and daisies smothering the grass. These native plants, hated by gardeners, support hundreds species of insects, such as Peacock butterflies which lay their eggs on them. There is also a formal garden, “The Victorian Border” which hosts some exotic species, such as Azalea and Rhododendron, which were planted when the house was built. After you have seen all this, there is a rest area and a children’s play area and the Tree Top Café with a section of vegetarian dishes.

The Royal Cornwall Museum is the oldest museum in Cornwall and the leading museum of Cornish culture. You can find it in River Street in the centre of Truro (TR1 2SJ). The Grade II building was built in 1845 by local architect Philip Sambell as the Truro Savings Bank, and subsequently became a school and then a chapel. The substantial granite façade hides a richly decorated interior. The collections include objects of Cornish and European archaeology and social history. The fine art collections hold work by Cornish artists, designers and makers and some national and international works. There is a collection of pieces of flora and fauna of the South West of England and a substantial coin collection.

I particularly liked the coin collection. There are several Roman coin hoards and a collection of Spanish gold coins from Praa Sands, which is likely to have come from Le Kateryn Van Arnude, a ship of the Spanish Armada which sank in Mount’s Bay in 1478.

The Courtney Library and Archive holds books and written material relating to Cornwall and there is a wide-ranging photographic collection which records the history of Cornwall from 1845.

Trengwainton Garden is a lavish exotic garden situated in Madron, near Penzance (TR20 8RZ). The house was bought in 1844 by Rose Price, the son of a Jamaican sugar plantation owner, who designed the original gardens. He planted trees and built the walled gardens, which are said to be based on the dimensions of Noah’s Ark! After the end of slavery and the consequent loss of profits, he was obliged to sell the property to the Bolitho family. In 1925, Sir Edward Bolitho and his head gardener Alfred Creek continued the development of the garden, which was opened to the public in 1931. Sir Edward received The Victoria Medal of Honour for Horticulture in 1961, but strangely no honour was given to Creek the gardener who, it is said, hybridised many seeds and created exotic plants that were hardy enough to sustain the British climate.

The garden stretches for a full 25 acres, with plants from around the globe scattered about. You will see outsized magnolias and vibrant rhododendrons among lush banana plants and trees that you’ve never seen before. A jungle stream leads down to a shady pond and sunny terrace, with an outstanding view across Mount’s Bay to The Lizard.

There are giant tree fern glades reminiscent of dinosaur movies and exotic trees and shrubs called styrax, eucryphia, stewartia, which I am told originated in Assam and Burma. The “Noah’s Ark” kitchen garden brings the visitors back to reality with a variety of “normal” plants and varieties of fruit and vegetables.

Trelissick Garden is a garden owned by the National Trust and situated at the head of the estuary of the Fal, in Feock, near Truro (TR3 6QL). The garden is the creation of Ronald and Ida Copeland, who extended the gardens of Trelissick house after Mrs Copeland inherited the estate in 1937. In 1955, Mrs Copeland gave the gardens to the Trust in memory of her son Geoffrey. If you visit the church in Feock, you can see a stained glass memorial to Geoffrey. The garden is planted with exotic species which flourish in the mild Cornish air, including hydrangeas, camellias and flowering cherries. There are several species of palm trees and rhododendrons and azaleas. Many of these plants feature on Spode china, a business owned by Mr Copeland.

The huge holm oaks and conifers at the edge of the garden were planted in the nineteenth century but the trees in the centre date from the Copelands’ era and are now coming into maturity. Along the woodland walks, you get views over the estuary of the River Fal and Falmouth, and see wooded slopes leading down to the water with oaks and beeches overhanging the mudflats of the tidal creeks. As you walk round the garden, you will encounter four individually designed summerhouses dotted around. At the centre of the garden is the main lawn, shaded by a fine Japanese cedar and surrounded by borders of exotic shrubs. Nearby is the garden’s best attraction, “The Dell”, with its tree ferns, large-leaved rhododendrons, banana tree and other jungle type exotic plants. There is plenty to see at Trelissick and it makes a refreshing change from some formal gardens which can be rather stuffy.