Monday in Mousehole

Monday morning was spent exploring the lanes and shops of Penzance.  I walked up more steep paths and steps than I’ve done for a long time.  At lunchtime we had Cornish pasties, sitting in Penlee Park watching young people play tennis.

Later we took a bus to Mousehole (pronounced Mowzel).  This is absolutely the quintessential Cornish fishing village – unbelievably picturesque.  We did part of the Mousehole Trail.  All the roads and alleyways are incredibly narrow and cars and buses edge slowly along with bare inches to spare.  The origin of the town’s name is uncertain but it can be interpreted as mowse hal, which means women’s stream or marsh in Cornish.

There is a lovely sandy beach and many families were swimming or playing there.  Apparently the harbour isn’t naturally sandy, so sand is imported every spring.

Cornwall is the nearest point of England to Spain and in 1595 the village was invaded by the Spanish, sacked and set alight.  One house that survived, Keigwin House, can still be seen, and opposite it is a plaque marking the home of Dolly Pentreath who died in 1777 aged 102.  She was the last person to speak Cornish as her native tongue.

We dined at the Ship Inn where Dylan Thomas spent his honeymoon in the 1930s.  He described Mousehole as ‘the loveliest village in England’ and it is said that his time here inspired ‘Under Milk Wood’.

I had a Cornish Haddock and Crab Stew, which was not as thick as a chowder, but delicious with chunks of fish, small potatoes, and sugar snap peas.  I couldn’t actually detect any crab.

 

At 7.30pm the Mousehole Male Voice Choir began a concert on the harbourside and we heard them sing a couple of hymns before catching the bus back to Penzance.

‘Stone cottages, lanes up and down

Make Mousehole such a pretty town.’