Some great attractions in Cornwall and something a little . . . different.

Attractions make Cornwall a place of very obvious and different interests but also some very special and unusual ones too.

We all know that when you come to Kernow you can have great food, wonderful places, fabulous beaches, cream teas, real Cornish dairy ice cream and so on. But I don't think we can ever tire of reminding ourselves jusy what a fabulous diversity of attractions Cornwall has to offer.

For a start, there is Goonhilly, a fabulous scientific attraction. Never heard of it? Well that's not surprising and yet Goonhilly was once the world's largest earth station (for tracking space and communications) with a massive array of dishes (no, not plates, the satelite type!)

These days it is home to 'Futureworld' and if you click on the Goonhilly image, below, you will be transported to their website where you can learn more. Go on, do it. Just remember to come back here when you have finished becauase there is more . . .

So, if you just went to have a look at Goonhilly, I hope you enjoyed it and discovered that it is a place well worth seeing as well as being very different. And another place that is well worth a look at is, what has probably become one of Cornwall's most famous and well known attractions: The Eden Project.

Who would have thought it? When I was just a lad, growing up in Cornwall, where the Eden Project now is was just a wasteland, left over from the china clay production. Now look at it! A world famous science and nature centre. Crikey!

Once again, if you click on the picture below, the link will take you there and then, once you have had a good look around, you can come back here again.

Spectacular, isn't it!

Now then, those two wonderful and genuinely world famous, but diffeent attractions are both about the future and the technology of the future (which goes to show that Cornwall isn't all yokels and rustic charm!) but what about Cornwall's past?

I grew up in a little village called Trethowel, which is situated on the A30 Bodmin road one mile outside St Austell and the next village up from us is called Carthew and when I was a boy, it was one of many sites that were home to disused old ruins of the original china clay factories. Those were the places were the china clay was taken to in its wet, raw form after it had been washed from the ground and then, processed, before being shipped all over the world, from places like Par, to be used in a vast range of processes from paper production to pharmecuticals.

Anyway, today, Carthew is very different and is home to the most wonderful Cornish attractions and a living example of history that you can imagine.

It is a centre that recreates what the old clay factories were like back in the 19th and 20th centuries and for my money, it is one of the best places to visit anywhere, not just in Cornwall.

So (yes, you've guessed it) click on the picture link below and . . .well, you know the rest by now!

If you should do the sensible thing and visit the museum, when you have finished, head towards St Austell and after about 2 miles you will drive through a lovely wooded road. Those woods are called Menacuddle Woods. It is a beautiful drive and inside the wood is one of the loveliest places and what surely ranks as one of the simplest and yet most unique attractions anywhere, not just in Cornwall

Just at the end of the wooded part of the road is an access way (a little tarmac track) on your right and if you drive, walk or cycle down there it brings you to a tiny car park at the bottom and there is a truly magical place where we used to play, as children.

There is a big stream running through it and over the stream there is a lovely and very ancient stone built wishing well called a holy well. It is different from anything you will have seen before!

Do me a favour . . . pop by and drop a few pennies in. I suspect that every once in a while they go to a good cause. And the view is simple spectacular. It is really like going back in time to the sort of image portrayed on the BBC in the series 'Merlin'. Take this link to a different BBC history site featuring St Austell and the holy well at Menacuddle:

Speaking of Attractions . . . . .

Throughout Welcome to Cornwall you will find a familiar theme that keeps on appearing and that theme is the range of fabulous places that are in Cornwall and which are at the heart of the attractions in Cornwall.

Padstow, Port Isaac, Mevagissey, Boscastle, St Ives, The Lizard, Lands End, Bude, Tintagel, Fowey, Truro, St Austell

When you look at the Cornwall Map you will see all these places dotted around both coastlines and some inland and the one thing they have in common is that they are at the heart of what makes Cornwall a special place that is full of special places!