Oops! Eden Sculpture

I should have followed the Eden post with this, on the variety

of sculpture at Eden Project, one of its major and most

impressive features; above, Woman, in the Cornwall biome

Giant bee, pollinator, on the terraces

Bacchinalia, the Mediterranean biome

Depiction of all the electronic waste each

person creates

The Seed--a 70 ton Cornish granite monolith,
in the Core

World's largest refrigerator magnet board

Us

Archeology 101

Half a mile down the road, once you found the marker on

the unnamed road

Intrepid megalith-hunter, hot on the trail...

Of course, most of the megaliths are now in fences, barns,

houses, etc.

Or scratching posts

Tin Age structure

At last! The very famous and very enigmatic Men-am-Tol,

or "101" site

Me, pondering whether to engage in one of the silly rituals

associated with this site

Of course, I did; but Vicki declined being passed through,

naked, nine times, etc.; at least on camera

This is someone else's photo off the web; I really don't think

there's much of an enigma here; sort of a group site, so to

speak...

Lanyon Quoit

Cornwall has scores of megalithic sites; we visited just a major few. Many have been destroyed or re-cycled into fences, fence-posts, houses, barns, scratching posts, etc. Lanyon Quoit is the largest of Cornwall's dolmens, but it is really out there, on an unnamed road between two hamlets, in or very near Bodmin Moor. We finished up so late we wound up "camping" at the intersection (the wide part of a "Y") of two unnamed roads. Fortunately, there is not much traffic in these places, and the morning view of St. Michael's was great.

Lanyon Quoit (dolmen's are called "quoits" here); tall

enough (for me) to walk under

Another view; originally buried, of course

The National Trust is everywhere; but where was the gift

shop and the membership station? and the cafe and the 
garden store? and who gifted Lanyon Quoit to the Trust?
and where's the folly?

Land's End

We were not the only people there; there were perhaps a dozen others. Land's End is much larger than John O' Groats, but much more cheesy-touristy. Fortunately, almost all the attractions and shops were closed for the season. Unfortunately, and much to our surprise and disappointment, there was no Land's End outlet store. Perhaps we can finally catch the London Fog outlet in London.

Cliffs at Land's End

A rough, wild, but beautiful coastline

The usual sign; took me a long time to figure out what

D ARTFORD was...someplace in France?

Longships lighthouse, a mile and a half out from the

mainland, as a squall approaches

Merry Maidens and Tregriffian

After St. Michael's Mount, we continued on

west and stopped at Cornwall's largest stone

circle, the Merry Maidens, and then at a

dolmen, Tregriffian, just down the road.

Well, actually, under the road; above, a very

old-looking cross

The Merry Maidens

Huge stones in nearby fences...wonder where they came

from...?

Vicki in the gorse

Tregriffian

They built the road right over it!

Deep cup-marks on a stone at Tregriffian

Look closely, maybe use your own viewer-

apparatus, but the figure cut in here is not a

cross, I think, but just a human figure

St. Michael's Mount

Cornwall's St. Michael's Mount; yes, England has one too,
not as large, not as well known, but there it is, on the south

Cornish coast, and we saw it on a cloudy November 3;

from the mainland; legend, as well as medieval chroniclers,

hold that the sea did not encroach until the 11th or 12th

centuries, AD; global warming

Up closer

Village of Marazion, linked to the island by a man-made

causeway, passable only at low tide

People on the causeway

Kite-surfing nearby

Monetized version; two nights later we were parked on a

high ridge and awoke to this scene in the distance

Eden

The Eden Project is a huge non-profit botanical theme park--

hundreds of acres, thousands of specimens from around the

world, several "biomes" including the largest conservatory

ever built, great contemporary architecture, art and scultpure,

all with an educational and social agenda. Green. We spent

most of the day at Eden, which is west of Fowey, in a

former china clay open-pit mine...talk about reclamation!

It is an incredible display and impressive educational

undertaking. Above, in 2000, the china clay open pit mine,

"England at its rapacious and destructive worst, ripping

both land and people apart, all for the creation of wealth,"

as the project founder said

More recently--since this photo was taken, several new

buildings have gone up and the terraces are entirely

planted-in, with paths, exhibits, etc.

In the rain forest biome, the world's largest conservatory

Lunch, locally-grown pasty and sausages and potatoes, and

cauliflower, and carrots

In the Mediterranean biome, probably the only rhododendrons
I'll see in bloom on this trip

Ice-skating rink; its rationale is a little unclear; the other on-

site sport is rock-climbing on the old mine's walls

In one of the outside biomes, bananas growing in Cornwall,

in November!

From the "core" building, looking back up the mine/canyon

toward the two interior biomes

One of the better and larger gift shops around

Castle Dore



Monday morning we worked our way on down to the

southern Cornish coast, intending to drive out to Land's End,

and then back the north coast. Near the harbor village of

Fowey we stopped at the Iron Age hill fort known as Castle

Dore. All that remains are the bank and ditch and some sense

of size. Castle Dore traditionally is associated with King

Mark and thus with the Tristan and Isolde legend. Given the

Wagnerian associations, I had to see it. Now we have to

look for Tristan's castle in Brittany!

Historical marker

Ditch and bank

Looking across the interior