Cornish Chronicles: Porthcurno
Porthcurno is yet another beautiful (and steep) Cornish village. We spent a whole day there, first at the Minack Theatre, then taking a coastal walk, and finally visiting the Telegraph Museum.
Minack Theatre
Minack is an outdoor theatre set into the cliffside – if you suffer from vertigo, you would probably not enjoy a performance here. It was planned, financed and built (more or less by hand) by local woman Rowena Cade and just a few helpers. The first performance, in 1932, was lit by car headlights! Today, it’s a commercial operation – plays were over for the season, but the shop, café and visitor centre were still open and you could wander around most of the theatre. All the seats have the names of previous performances carved into them – you can just see Romeo and Juliet peeking out from behind my right knee.
Minack to Logan Rock
We decided to walk off the rather heavy Cornish pasty lunch we had at Minack and must have expended a fair few calories. The panorama below shows the entire walk – from Minack, it’s a steep climb down to Porthcurno beach and then back up again and along the clifftop to the rocky outcrop on the right. And back of course.
Telegraph Museum
Amazingly, this tiny place has been a hub of global communications since the first undersea cables were laid here in 1870. Part of the museum is housed in a modern building, and part was in tunnels where the equipment was moved during the Second World War. This obviously appealed to the engineer – especially as he knew two of the experts in the museum’s video!
Just one more Cornish Chronicle to come!
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
That water is so blue! I want to go there!
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Isn’t it just! Hope you get there some day.
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Such a beautiful location. That beach is so beautiful and would be such a spectacular background for a performance. I have no idea how I’d make it down there but it would definitely be an experience one would never forget.
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Yes, I would like to go back in the summer to actually see a play, but Cornwall gets so busy then I’m not sure I’d like it as much. A dilemma!
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That is quite the walk and I would be tempted to do it despite my joints (maybe that is what I need after the walk-lol) I saw this theatre on Lonely Planet or something like that and NOPE I could not do that. It makes me scared just seeing it here:) I always like museums and think it would be interesting to take this in
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One of my friends has been to a play there – she says it is not as uncomfortable as it looks – they give you cushions to sit on and for your back. But yes, it is steep and you have to be really careful going down the steps. I think it would be a really romantic setting for A Midsummer Night’s Dream for example.
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The cliff-side is such beauty. Museum, too.
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An all-round beautiful place!
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Gorgeous pics of one of my favourite spots on the planet. I went at Christmas and the museum was closed – did I miss out on much?
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It depends how keen you are on old telegraph machines! To be fair, there was a lot of human interest too – I looked mostly at that, he looked mostly at the machinery.
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