The Beyond Series and Mancunian Crime Tales: A Year in a Motorhome Travelling the UK Coastline - St Michaels Mount - Minack Theatre - Lands End - Cornwall

Tuesday, 9 June 2015 Week 42

This week, we have done a lot of sightseeing and cultural activities. We headed to St Michael's Mount, the most amazing castle tour in the UK (in my personal opinion, next to Arundel Castle and a night-time ghost tour of Trerice in Cornwall). We visited this place last May, but I had some experiences that I wanted to revisit to see if they had happened again or if they were just a figment of my imagination.

As it was a gorgeous day, the views over the Cornish coast were absolutely stunning. This is a view from the top of the castle looking down on the Mount's unique harbour and little hamlet. It's so quaint, I wish I could describe...

In fact, I already have! In my fourth book in The Beyond Series, called Lycan Lamia I've based Penhallow Castle (obviously an imaginary place) on St Michael's Mount, with its own village and harbour and resident ghost.

I have recently returned to St Michael's Mount to film a VLOG on YouTube... Link below! The whole place just oozes atmosphere and creepy ambience, which I just love! Some beautiful terrace gardens here too, although the walk up and down the steep hill is not for the faint-hearted. I did feel very good about the amount of exercise I did.

Now this was one of the parts of the castle I wanted to revisit! Last time I came here, I got the heebie jeebies as I walked from the map room to this staircase. Heebie Jeebies generally means for me, hair standing up on end and a feeling of someone tickling my head or blowing on my neck! I was really excited because I got the same feeling when I came back to exactly the same place on my latest visit and felt the same feeling. I asked a member of staff if this part of the castle was haunted, and they confirmed that the paintings swing on the walls quite regularly! So, I asked a member of staff about the ghosts and parts of the castle I thought were haunted. Once I’d got to the bottom of the mount, back near the harbour.

This gentleman in Stewart dress was in the above corridor where the paintings swing. I was drawn to this picture more than all the others and took just this and one other photo of a painting in a long corridor of magnificent paintings. If you look closely at the man's right hand, there is a very large orb! I say large because this painting is actually very big and hanging on the left side of the above staircase! Ooh! Oh, and before anyone says the lens is dirty, this photo was taken straight after the above staircase photo!

This photo is of a secret doorway with a winding stone staircase, which I assumed was a monk’s hiding place during the Dissolution of the Monasteries (thanks to King Henry VIII). It was in the Castle's chapel, and I noticed most people didn't seem to pay much attention to it, but my Spidey senses were on fire when I came up to it. Just like last time, my head was tickling and my spine shivering (just like it is now, I'm writing this blog). And also, just like last year, it took about six or seven attempts to take a clear photo of this tiny stone hole! In fact, this was the clearest photo I could get.

When I asked a guide about this doorway, she told us they found a 7-foot skeleton! Yes, a seven-foot human skeleton was down in the staircase, which seemed to have been left there with a leather jug (possibly filled with water). So the poor guy had starved to death in this hidden stone stairwell and was left there. How long ago, I don't know, but it's no surprise there is a presence here. I didn't feel scared, BTW, I just felt a presence or feeling. Here is a beautiful view of the battlements and bay from the Northern Terrace, which apparently is the other haunted area of the Castle!

Later we went to visit the Minack Theatre, a homemade theatre built by Rowena Cade over her entire. She bought some land in the 1930s by the sea, with lots of rocks and dramatic coastal views at the bottom of her garden. As she came from a life of privilege, she was able to spend most of her time creating this stunning outdoor theatre... More climbing up and down steep steps, but the views and gardens were spectacular.

This beach was at the bottom of the Minack Theatre. A secret cove, and we went down there to sunbathe for a while as the weather was so gorgeous!
This is part of the evening show we went to see called The Seagull. Which was quite apt as a Seagull kept landing on the props throughout the play, which made me chuckle.

It's a Victorian play about the Bohemians wanting to make it big as actors or writers and those who had sold their souls and already had made it. Everyone was in love with someone else, and no one seemed to be in love with the same person. The innocent become corrupted, and the corrupted are sad and cynical. I still loved the play, though. The only thing I was disappointed in was I sat for three hours on grass and stone, my back froze with the freezing evening and I missed the final line spoken in the play because someone coughed close to me. I ended up clapping at the end and not actually knowing what had happened until we'd got back to the car and I asked Del what the punchline had been!

From a cultural disappointment to a major stop off at a tourist point... Lands End - the furthest point in the UK. As we've already been to John O'Groats, I wanted to document this point of the trip too. We even had official photos taken, which hopefully will arrive back home by the time we get back, but look at this, our tour blog name on The Sign Post! Cool or What?

We went wildlife spotting. I was hoping to see a seal or dolphin, but all I got to see was a shag! It's a coastal bird, by the way. Rude people who are sniggering at the back! A lovely view of the end of the UK and the First and Last Cafe!