A short visit to Charlestown

Midway through the holiday we agreed to have a rest day, that is a day where we wouldn’t be trekking. From the sunny 27 degrees of the previous few days, this day was rainy however Chris and I decided to drive for an hour across Cornwall to visit the small seaside port village of Charlestown.

Charlestown is located on the south coast of Cornwall, a short distance from St Austell. In spite of the rain we had difficulty in parking and had to park about half a mile from the harbour. We trudged to towards the port looking for a coffee shop and came across a well-stocked coffee kiosk situated right on the harbour walls. We sat outside under a shelter while drinking tasty coffee and eating a delicious cake.

We decided to visit Charlestown as we had heard about its historic harbour which is used as a filming location having recently been the main quayside in the Poldark series. While it was rainy, we enjoyed sitting outside in the heart of the harbour, appreciating the history and imagining what it would have been like 200 years ago.

The historic port is home to several tall ships and and a small amount of china clay is still exported each year.

As we explored the harbour we learned that during the Napoleonic war, the government required every port on the south coast to have defence artillery.

We finished our time in Charlestown in the Rashleigh Arms pub which was named after a local landowner called Charles Rashleigh who designed the development of the port between 1790 and 1810 for the export of copper and china clay.

From Charlestown Chris and I drove back towards the holiday house and decided to visit Boscastle where we had a tasty late afternoon dinner in The Wellington Hotel. By now the weather had improved and along with the sun, out came the tourists! We had difficulty parking in Boscastle and had to queue for about 20 minutes before finding a space in the large car park. All of the cafes and coffee shops were full but thankfully the Wellington wasn’t too busy and we enjoyed some peace and quiet away from the crowds… anyway… more on Boscastle in the next post…