As there are so many places you can walk to from The Captain’s House you really don’t need to go near your car once you are here. Two of our favourite walks are just across the water and you start both of them in the village of St Mawes which you can see from your bedroom. From the house it’s just a few minutes’ walk down to Customer House Quay and the St Mawes Ferry: it takes no more than 20 minutes to complete the journey to St Mawes, slipping between the moored yachts and passing close to the ships tied fast to the dockyard jetty as you go. You can also see St Mawes Castle from your bedroom; you soon pass it and can see why it is reputed to be the finest preserved of all Henry VIII’s fortifications. If you are here at the right time of year you’ll also get to see the wonderful hydrangeas that decorate the slopes: they are my favourite flowers.
It’s February but there are still some hydrangeas on show and camellias everywhere; it’s hard to believe its winter still, and that we have had such bad weather, as today is a beautiful sunny day and perfectly still. I’m not sure why this side of the Carrick Roads is called Roseland, perhaps it’s because there are always flowers blooming here. On the water there is just the hint of a swell; an echo of the recent storms still reverberating around the coast. The sun is so bright I‘m wearing sunglasses.
From the harbour jetty you just need to turn left and walk up through the town and past the Hotel Tresanton, owned by Olga Polizzi (The Hotel Inspector from TV) and then you get to the castle. It is well worth a visit but you can take in the view and get a feel for the place and its strategic location without going inside. The coastal path to St Just passes behind the castle and the rather posh homes soon fade out and you are on a lovely path heading north on the eastern bank of the Carrick Roads.
Even though it is such a lovely day it is a bit muddy so as it is low water we head down to the beach and walk much of the way along the seashore watching the Shags, Herons and Oyster catchers as we go. There is a huge jack-up exploration rig with its attendant tugs anchored a hundred metres off shore in hiding from the recent storms and waiting for a weather window to move on again. The beach is rocky in places, jagged metamorphic and grey, cut through with white quartz veins; at the top of the beach we watch small waterfalls as springs overflow and there is even a hammock strung between two trees. We see a fine glacial unconformity too, where the terminal moraines cut down into the flaky country rock.
After about an hour we get to a narrow gap in the beach that winds its way inland. St Just is hidden away up a narrow creek which gives the church there its immense charm, sitting on the waters edge and garlanded with semi-tropical plants. There seem to be flowers everywhere, as if we had wandered into a secret kingdom in another clime. It is said that Joseph of Arimathea brought Jesus here once, so perhaps that explains it. There is a Celtic cross on the waters edge and fascinating tomb stones all around; there are many memorials to sailors like so many local churches.
St Just church is lovely and it seems hardly surprising that Sir John Betjeman, once Poet Laureate, described the 13th Century church in St Just in Roseland as the most beautiful church in the world.
Great walk – you must try it when you are staying at The Captain’s House.
Mark
