Hi, I'm Rick Steves, back
with more of the best of Europe. And this time, we're in the very
southwest tip of Great Britain. It's Land's End, and we're
exploring England's Cornwall. Thanks for joining us. Set on a rocky peninsula,
Cornwall is a fascinating land. It's a pirate's punch
of Celtic culture, legends of smugglers,
and mining heritage. It has a rugged appeal that makes it a favorite among
English holiday goers. We'll marvel at some
staggering scenery, follow a miner
deep into a tin mine, and then we'll eat his lunch. We'll enjoy a sublime beach, chase blennies
in a Victorian rock pool, and then dine
on bigger fish. In the vast and dramatic
reaches of Dartmoor, we'll chase wild ponies, ponder our own private
stone circle, and summit a big rock. The island of Great Britain
is made of England and the Celtic lands
of Scotland and Wales. In the Southwest is another
historically Celtic land -- Cornwall. After exploring Cornwall's
Penwith Peninsula from a home base in Penzance, we'll venture north
to Tintagel Castle and finish
in neighboring Dartmoor. Along with its ethnic cousins Brittany, Ireland, Wales,
and Scotland, Cornwall was part
of the Celtic crescent that nearly circles England. The Cornish people spoke
their own language, which thrived for centuries. Mining and fishing were
long the dominant industries, but today, tourism drives
the economy. Cornwall,
with a half-million residents, is a county of England, unlike the more autonomous
Wales and Scotland. But many native-born locals
consider themselves Cornish first,
British second. The area is packed
with ancient sites, historic monuments, and peaceful farm hamlets. The Gulf Stream brings warm,
subtropical weather to Cornwall, making it perfect for gardens, walking, and basking
on the beach. We'll visit the region's
ultimate tourist trap first -- the very tip of England,
Land's End. Upon arrival, visitors pass through a gauntlet
of tourist shops. It's a popular day
out for families. The goal -- a point
where you really are at the end of England. This was once considered
the end of the known world, the last land to be seen
by departing ships. After gazing at the sea and guessing how far away
from home you are, get the answer, for a price, at the touristy
signpost photo op. A weather-beaten bluff
just a couple miles away provides the same Land's End
thrill without the crowd. It's Cape Cornwall. ## To be sure we know
about special places like this and understand them, I'm joined by my friend and fellow tour guide Tim Uff. Tim: Yes, so this little church
goes back to the 6th century. Just imagine a Celtic priest
living in there with just a little altar
and a fireplace. That's all he needed. Rick: A short climb leads
to the summit of this
connoisseur's Land's End. Here you can sit
with the sound of the wind and the cry of the gulls. Enjoying the meditative view, I like to ponder
how this small island has had an impact
far beyond its shores. From the start, Cornwall's
economy was based on tin. As far back as the ancient
times, Greek and Roman traders traveled all the way
to Cornwall for tin. You see, an important step in the evolution of civilization was the ability to mix tin
and copper to make bronze. And when people entered
the Bronze Age, they could make better tools
and stronger weapons. Tin mining was
the dominant Cornwall industry well
into modern times. This evocative coast is dotted with 19th-century
Industrial Age ruins. These desolate engine houses once pumped water
out of the shafts so they could mine
a half-mile down and then, under the sea bed, far out to sea. The ground here is honeycombed
with mine tunnels. In its heyday, there were hundreds
of tin mines in Cornwall. The industry peaked
about 200 years ago with the Industrial Revolution. Back then, the demand
for tin was huge, and mines like
these were booming, making Cornwall one of England's
wealthiest counties. Ruins look almost ancient, but it's easy to forget
that less than 100 years ago, thousands of workers spent
most of their waking hours in these crumbling buildings,
supporting their families. But Cornwall's glory
days of tin passed. The iconic smokestacks today are the dramatic
remnants of Cornwall's now-dead tin-mining industry, which just couldn't compete
with cheap tin from abroad. Along with these old buildings, another reminder
of the mining heritage is the tin workers'
simple lunch: the Cornish pasty. So, this would be the classic
miner's lunch, you could say. Tim: Yeah, the Cornish pasty.
So you'd hold it on the crimped edge
right here like this. And the idea was that if you did
have arsenic on your hands, then you would leave it
on the crust. Rick: It's 'cause there was no way
to wash your hands when you're mining.
Tim: Exactly. Rick: So you come out of the mine
and you're gonna eat and you're
hungry. Tim: Yeah, absolutely. Rick: So this is a "pasty"?
How do you pronounce it? Tim: "Pasty."
Rick: Not "pastey?" Tim: No, pasty.
Rick: Pasty. Aright. Tim: Yeah, so eat away.
Rick: Mmm! Generally, what do you
put inside of a pasty? Tim: You've got steak, onion,
potato, and turnip, or Swede,
as we call it. Rick: So any bakery around here
would serve these. It would be a great
take-out meal for a traveler. Tim: Yeah, absolutely. There are thousands
of these made every day. Rick: God, the original
take-out food in Cornwall. I mean, 200 years ago
for the miners and today for the travelers. The last tin mine to close is now open to visitors, dedicated to telling
the miners' story. The Geevor Mine closed in 1990. It represents the last hurrah,
not only of Cornish tin mining, but in a sense,
of Britain's Industrial Age. Exploring it, you'll gain
an appreciation for the simple, yet noble, life of miners. Though closed for decades,
it feels as though the miners could show up
at any time to clock in. The blasting schedule
was a reminder that punctuality in the mines
was a matter of life and death. The miners' lockers
were left just the way they were on the day
the mine closed, with the miners believing
that somehow, they'd be back. Photos humanize the plight
of individuals who lost their livelihoods. They remind us that
when economics change and an industry dies, it devastates families
and entire communities. In a huge structure
nicknamed "The Mill," the stone was crushed
to extract the tin. The miners brought in tons
and tons of raw ore, which was put into big drums like this,
which would then tumble. And with the help
of metal balls like this, it would break the ore into
smaller and smaller pebbles. The noise must have
been deafening in here. You'll see how a vast room full
of shaking tables, like giant machines
panning for gold, separated the tin
from the waste. Tin and other heavy metals, are the dark material
at the back, while the lighter waste
slowly shakes forward. With 90 tables shaking each day,
hundreds of tons of rock gradually gave up
a few tons of coveted tin. For the finale of your visit,
you slip on a coat, don a hard hat, and head both underground
and back in time, deep into one of the
original 18th-century mines. The shafts, narrow and low, give you a sense
of the difficult life of miners and their perilous
working conditions. Former mine employees
serve as guides, and are happy
to tell the story. Guide: Here we are:
we're in a section of tunnel that's 250 years old,
approximately. This mine itself didn't work
under the ocean, but a lot of mines
in this district, the St. Just mining district,
went under the ocean for sometimes a distance
of a mile-and-a-half. Rick: Tin mining is
hard-rock mining, where you look for a lode, and then follow veins of tin
through the surrounding rock. Guide: And once they establish
where the tin is, then they work upwards
through the earth and downwards through the earth, extracting that vein
from the rock. Rick: Even under the sea if necessary.
Guide: Even under the sea, yeah. Rick: So if they took 100 tons
of rock out of the mine, how much tin
would they hope to find? Guide: Just one ton.
Rick: One ton. That's hard work. Guide:
It is extremely hard work. Rick: Cornish mining had
a diaspora in the 1800s, with large numbers
of skilled miners emigrating. Guide: The Cornish miner has
moved all over the world from Canada and North America and Mexico, down into
South America, New Zealand, Australia,
South Africa, even Cuba. There's hundreds of thousands
of people around the planet now that are directly related
to those Cornish miners who took their skills with them. And in fact,
there was a definition, and it still holds true today,
really, largely, that a mine is a hole
in the ground with a Cornishman at the bottom. Rick: For me, the top charms
of Cornwall are gathered in its extreme
western tip, the Penwith Peninsula. Touring this unforgettable
30-mile loop features rugged, windblown scenery. Content cows ignore the views. Little hamlets
with their stony barns are just going through
another century. Skinny country lanes are lined
by towering hedgerows. I'm glad Tim's
doing the driving. You can hear the branches
scraping both sides of the car at the same time. The winding hedgerows built before motor traffic
are an icon of Cornwall. While they may look soft,
they're hard as rock. These date back
to medieval times, when farmers cleaned up
their fields by stacking rocks to make walls lining the lanes. They have a stone frame,
are filled with earth, and then are overgrown
with vegetation. Those who get out of the car
and hike are richly rewarded. Walking all or even part
of the Southwest Coast Path, you'll enjoy memorable moments
around every corner. This coastline had more than
its share of unscrupulous trade. There were pirates, mostly
state-sanctioned buccaneers plundering the coast of France
and French shipping. And there were smugglers dealing
in highly-taxed contraband like spices and booze. Tough little Lamorna Cove
was a favorite for smugglers. You can imagine them quietly beaching their boats
by moonlight. Eventually the cove went legit
with the granite trade. Imagine the work involved
in quarrying and then shipping slabs
of granite from this tiny bay. The massive embankment
of the river Thames back in London
didn't just happen. It was made from huge stones
quarried from places like this and then shipped. Nearby hides another
coastal delight: Penberth Cove,
a tiny fishing port. Its "capstan," or winch,
still hauls a few tough little boats up
the cobbled landing. The stones are scarred
by grooves worn by generations
of hard fishing. Rick: I find this so evocative
with the capstan and these old fishing boats. When you see this port,
what do you think of? Tim: I mean, this is
going back to the time when pilchards were
a very important part of the Cornish economy. I mean, all around
the Cornish coast, there were as many
little pilchard coves as they could squeeze in. Rick: What's a pilchard? Tim: Well, a pilchard's
a large sardine. Rick: And why are they
important? Tim: They were a huge
part of the diet
of the Cornish people and a big part of the economy
of Cornwall for centuries. Whether you were a farmer
or a fisherman or a miner, it was a big part of your diet. It's how you survived
the winter. Rick: So what would it be like
if you lived here back when pilchards were the key
to surviving the winter? Tim: Well, you'd have a huer up
on the cliff, and his job was to really look
to see if the sea turned purple. If the sea turned purple, then
the pilchards were coming in, and he would call
with his big trumpet, shouting, "Hevva, hevva!" which was the cry of the fish, and then they would
all come running down and push the big seine boats out and pull the mile-long net out. And then everybody
would come down and help out. Five million fish in one net was the most they ever caught
in St. Ives once. Rick: And it really helped them
get through the winter. Tim: Yeah, they needed
to catch those fish. If they missed it,
they would possibly starve. ## Rick: Hiking the
Penwith Peninsula can be like exploring an
open-air archeological museum. It's dotted with stony souvenirs
from around 2,000 B.C. Stone circles hosted
ritual gatherings and functioned
as celestial calendars. These stones
were covered with turf, likely a burial mound
or tomb of some local chief. And weathered crosses
helped guide Irish pilgrims traversing Cornwall
on their trek to Spain. A hidden surprise on this
otherwise-rugged coast is the delightful beach
at Porthcurno. With its graceful arc
and golden sand, it seems to have been imported
from some faraway tropical
paradise. In fact, if you try
hard to forget you're at such
a northern latitude and pretend the water
isn't so cold, you could swear
you're in the French Riviera. It's a hit with both parents
savoring a hard-earned break and their frolicking children
enjoying the surf. But running below the sand, unnoticed
by these holiday makers, is a historic cable. It leads to a fascinating museum
all about the telegraph. Porthcurno was strategic
for its telegraph station, the largest in the world
back in the 1920s. The British ruled
a global empire and needed a way to communicate
with its far-flung colonies. It developed a way
to send Morse code messages through cables
across the seas. Exhibits of early
teletype machines explain these significant
technological strides in what's nicknamed
the "Victorian Internet." This was really important. In 1869, it took six weeks to get a message
from here to India, then after they laid
the cables in 1870, it took nine minutes. Eventually,
180,000 miles of cable like this was laid on ocean
floors across the planet. And this little
port was its hub. But today Porthcurno's big draw
is a dramatic open-air theater. The Minack Theatre is
carved out of a rocky cliff and gorgeously landscaped. Built in the 1930s by the visionary theater
lover Rowena Cade, its stage is perched
hundreds of feet over the sea. A visit by day lets you relax
in the garden-like setting with its exotic plants thriving in
the subtropical climate. If the weather's fine,
grab a grassy seat and go English. Enjoy
a cream tea, picnic-style. Tim: Well, you've also got
your jam on first and you've got to put the cream
on the top when you're in
Cornwall. Rick: That's a lot of cream.
Tim: Oh, yeah. Just a little dollop
on the top like that, and that's exactly
how you're supposed to have it. Rick: That's how you do it?
Tim: Yeah. Rick: You are one
of my favorite guides. Tim: I'm gonna finish
this one off. Rick: Mmm! You can watch the seabirds. Gannets glide looking
for a fresh fish lunch. When they spot one,
they dive for it and hit the water
at 60 miles/hour. I'm staying for tonight's
performance. Throughout the season,
theatre lovers enjoy inexpensive plays in this
unforgettable setting. Actor: Now I'm perfect.
Actress: What are you doing?! Rick: The adorable little port
of Mousehole is famous for smuggling and for fishing. Its cute harbor
is protected from the wild sea with an entrance narrow
as a mouse hole. Due to the dramatic tides, the boats here are designed
to be stranded in the mud and stay upright until the water
returns with the next high tide. Modern beach fun today, but I get a sense this has been a protected harbor
for centuries. Tim: Yeah, we're stood
on a harbor wall here which dates back
to the 14th century. And much of the village
is the same. A lot of it was destroyed then
by the Spanish Armada in 1595. Rick: So it was the Spanish
Armada out there lobbing
cannonballs -- 1595? Tim: Yeah, they rebuilt
in the 17th century, but you can still
find cannonballs in some of the houses now. Rick: These days,
the town handles its flood of summer tourists
and day-trippers beautifully. It's a hit with visitors, and hardy English holiday goers
gather along the embankment to avoid the wind
and catch the sun. Nearby is a rock pool built a century ago
for Victorian kids to enjoy the sea life
stranded there with each low tide. Chasing fast crabs and darting
blennies delights children to this day. The South West Coast Path laces together the entire coastline
of the Penwith Peninsula, often becoming
an easy seaside stroll. Standing dramatically
just off the coast is St. Michael's Mount. This rock island has been inhabited
for over 1,500 years. Once a Benedictine monastery,
it was later a fortified castle and eventually
a stately home. And through the centuries,
people have minded the tides, just as tourists do today, as they venture
across this causeway. The seaside trail broadens
to a promenade as it passes Penzance, long the leading port
of the peninsula. Today's Penzance is a blue-collared
transportation hub with a hardscrabble edge. Its facades, while impressive
back in the Victorian age, are a bit shabby now. Rough and real Penzance is my
favorite home base in the area. Entire streets are lined
with small guest houses and B&Bs. It's an enjoyable place
to come home to at the end of a busy
sightseeing day. Tonight we're dining out, and around here,
seafood's a good bet. Throughout England these days,
young restaurateurs and creative
chefs are putting Britain's reputation
for boring food to rest. The service is friendly... and the atmosphere is
casual and fun. We're enjoying a sampler
plate of today's catch. And for our main course,
it's hake, lobster, and haddock --
all locally caught. An hour's drive north
is Tintagel Castle, the legendary home
of King Arthur. Rocky, remote, and romantic, the ruins, while scant,
are strikingly situated. As you explore, appreciate
the naturally fortified, easily defensible position
of this rock-top castle. The real King Arthur,
if he actually existed, was supposedly born here and ruled his lands
from this desolate outpost. Recent digs do indicate
that this place was a curiously important center of trade back
in early medieval times. ## While the popular tales
of Camelot are pure fantasy, they may have been based
on a real person. While there's no physical record
of a King Arthur, experts have reason
to believe that a ruler by that name probably
lived in this area back in the 6th century. A short drive further
north takes us out of Cornwall and into the neighboring
county of Devon, where we venture into remote
and windswept Dartmoor. Perched on the edge of the moor,
the tiny town of Chagford is an easy home base
for exploring Dartmoor. The small-town atmosphere
here makes you feel like you've stepped
into a time warp. It has a classic
English-village feel with a picturesque church
and cemetery and cozy pubs that double as inns for hikers
to spend the night. One of England's most
popular national parks, Dartmoor is one
of the few truly wild places left in this densely
populated country. A moor is characterized by open
land with scrubby vegetation. England's moors are
vast medieval commons, rare places where all can pass, anyone can graze
their livestock, and, in the case of Dartmoor,
ponies run wild. Dartmoor sits on
a granite plateau, and occasionally
bare granite peaks called "tors" break
through the heather. Rising like lonesome
watch towers, these distinctive landmarks are the goal of popular hikes. Haytor is the most famous
of these rocks. For the tenderfoot,
the climb to its summit can be a challenge. It's not El Capitan,
but it's hard to beat that king-of-the-mountain
feeling and the rewarding views
that come with it. A well-planned walk through
the moors rewards day hikers with vivid memories. Stone-slab clapper bridges,
some medieval, and some even ancient, remind hikers that
for thousands of years, humans have trod
these same paths and forded these same streams. Tall stones guided
early travelers. This one, erected by pagans long before
Christianity arrived, was later carved
into a cross. The iconic ponies
of Dartmoor run wild. Their ancestors
were the working horses of the local miners. Living in the harsh
conditions of the moor, these ponies are a hardy
breed known for their stamina. Today they're beloved
among hikers for the romance they bring to
the otherwise stark terrain. Of the hundreds of neolithic ruins that dot
the Dartmoor landscape, the Scorhill Stone Circle
is my favorite. Tranquil and nearly forgotten, erected some 4,000 years ago by mysterious people
for mysterious reasons, it's yours alone, the way a stone
circle should be. It's just you
and your imagination. Enjoy the quiet. Ponder the 40 centuries
of people who've made this enchanting landscape their home and the wisdom of today's
English to protect it and keep it pristine. From Land's End to
the wild wonders of Dartmoor, I hope you've enjoyed
our swing through Cornwall and the southwest of England. Thanks for joining us.
I'm Rick Steves. Until next time,
keep on travelin'. You can see a gannet
with two black eyes. [ Both laugh ] Simon, will you
eat this, please? Simon: The things I do for you. [ Laughs ] Simon: A little less
arm swing, yeah.
