Incredibly, and somewhat annoyingly for this trip, in the county of Cornwall there is just one solitary coastal pier. Yep, despite all their beautiful beaches, seaside resorts, coastal towns and villages the Cornish have only constructed one pier. Or at least there's only one left standing.
And where is this said pier? Right down the bottom of the County in Falmouth.
Now don't get me wrong. We as a family have holidayed in Cornwall on many occasions and we love it - Cornish pasties, clotted cream, golden sands, Poldark, Doc Martin....what's not to like? But for this particular adventure the thought of a 200 mile detour to see just one pier was, to say the least, a little annoying.
But we want to see all 55 piers in one trip not 54 so off we went down the A39 and just kept going....and going.....and going. If you've ever been to Cornwall then you'll know that once you get off the main roads it's a seemingly never ending succession of roundabouts and a mile seems to magically lengthen in distance. When the sign says 'Falmouth 4 miles' you can bet your last pound that it's still going to take you half an hour to get there even if you travel at a constant 40mph.
But eventually we made it to Falmouth, parked up and headed to the town centre.
It didn't take long to locate the pier but I have to say the term has been applied in the very loosest sense. With a couple of benches, a few fishermen and some landing stages for the pleasure boats and ferries the actual 'pier' itself looks more like a jetty to my untrained eye. It also looked a lot shorter than Burnham On Sea's pier but as I didn't have my tape measure with me I'll have to let that one slide too.
Still debating what the difference between a pier and a jetty was we took our selfie, walked to the end of the 'pier' and back (30 seconds) and ticked it off the list. Job done. Time for some lunch.
We found a lovely pub overlooking the harbour and sat down to decide the rest of the day.
Pendennis Castle was the decision so off we went. Managed by English Heritage, Pendennis Castle was built on the orders of Henry VIII to protect us from the pesky French and Spanish Catholics who didn't appreciate him setting up the Church of England. It sits on a hill above Falmouth guarding the entrance to the river Fal and extremely pretty it is too with stunning views offered over the town and the Fal estuary. In fact the views alone would be worth the entrance fee. We had a tour of the keep, the underground tunnels and saw the WWI exhibition and after one last admiring look at the view set off for Plymouth to stay the night with my brother and sister in law.
Falmouth gets the thumbs up from us and our large detour proved very enjoyable.
Distance travelled so far: 352 Piers visited so far: 6
And where is this said pier? Right down the bottom of the County in Falmouth.
Now don't get me wrong. We as a family have holidayed in Cornwall on many occasions and we love it - Cornish pasties, clotted cream, golden sands, Poldark, Doc Martin....what's not to like? But for this particular adventure the thought of a 200 mile detour to see just one pier was, to say the least, a little annoying.
But we want to see all 55 piers in one trip not 54 so off we went down the A39 and just kept going....and going.....and going. If you've ever been to Cornwall then you'll know that once you get off the main roads it's a seemingly never ending succession of roundabouts and a mile seems to magically lengthen in distance. When the sign says 'Falmouth 4 miles' you can bet your last pound that it's still going to take you half an hour to get there even if you travel at a constant 40mph.
But eventually we made it to Falmouth, parked up and headed to the town centre.
It didn't take long to locate the pier but I have to say the term has been applied in the very loosest sense. With a couple of benches, a few fishermen and some landing stages for the pleasure boats and ferries the actual 'pier' itself looks more like a jetty to my untrained eye. It also looked a lot shorter than Burnham On Sea's pier but as I didn't have my tape measure with me I'll have to let that one slide too.
#6 Falmouth Pier (Built 1905)
Still debating what the difference between a pier and a jetty was we took our selfie, walked to the end of the 'pier' and back (30 seconds) and ticked it off the list. Job done. Time for some lunch.
We found a lovely pub overlooking the harbour and sat down to decide the rest of the day.
Pendennis Castle was the decision so off we went. Managed by English Heritage, Pendennis Castle was built on the orders of Henry VIII to protect us from the pesky French and Spanish Catholics who didn't appreciate him setting up the Church of England. It sits on a hill above Falmouth guarding the entrance to the river Fal and extremely pretty it is too with stunning views offered over the town and the Fal estuary. In fact the views alone would be worth the entrance fee. We had a tour of the keep, the underground tunnels and saw the WWI exhibition and after one last admiring look at the view set off for Plymouth to stay the night with my brother and sister in law.
Falmouth gets the thumbs up from us and our large detour proved very enjoyable.
Distance travelled so far: 352 Piers visited so far: 6
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