Cornwall Part 1 - St Mawes Castle & Polperro Village

Can you believe I'd never been to Cornwall? Me either, so me, the fiance and the pooch booked a week in a lovely cottage in Wadebridge (you know you're getting older when centuries old cottages excite you) and we had such a fun but hectic week.

We already planned a trip to St Mawes Castle before we left so we made sure it was the first place to visit. Before I go any further, I need to point out that the castle is dog friendly! For the whole of the break we refused to do anything or go anywhere without the pooch which is surprisingly easy to do compared to the good ol' Midlands.
Ok let's get back on track (insert mini history lesson as I'm a bit of a geek and I'm fascinated with English history). St Mawes Castle is a beautiful English Heritage site and is one of the best preserved forts from the times of Henry VIII. It's purpose was to protect and guard against invasions from France and Spain along with Pendennis Castle on the opposite side of the estuary.

You have to go through the shop to pay your entrance fee before being given the option to listen to an audio tour. I did try to listen to it as it had some interesting history about each room but with an excitable pooch it's a little difficult to pay attention so I did give up on it in the end (insert sad face here).

Some of the spectacular views from the top of the castle:

Harvey wanted to get a look in on the views!

We had a slow walk around with Harv exploring all of the rooms inside the castle and the grounds outside. Be warned the stairs are a little steep; we had great fun navigating an excited pooch around steep spiraling staircases!

After our stroll around we stopped and sat on the grass outside of the castle, mainly to give Harvey a drink and some food. 

Despite taking a lot of pictures of Harvey it's actually very difficult to get him to stay still, he's really not a fan of the camera! 

After our little trip around the castle we decided to take a walk down to the village (aka we wanted an ice cream).

 Such a lovely beach that we couldn't go on because dogs aren't allowed! This annoyed me greatly, may have to do a blog post/rant post about it!

We found palm trees in St Mawes Village! Who knew they existed in the UK? I was so excited I just had to take a picture as proof!

I finally got my ice cream, my first ice cream cone in years! Funny thing is I don't actually like the cone... logic?

The photos of the views around the castle really don't do it justice, honestly one of the most beautiful places we visited on our holiday. I love that my furry boy was welcome and offered water and tons of fuss (he anyone's for a cuddle).

Day 2 was another planned trip to Polperro Village. It was a little cool so I ended up throwing on my body warmer which I later regretted as I got too hot! Anyway enough about me. Polperro Village is a pretty little fishing village with streets full of cute little seaside shops which trail down to the harbour. Once you get to the harbour there are so many pretty houses, most of them white with quirky windows and doors, nothing like the houses back home obviously.

See what i meant about the houses? How pretty are they! Couldn't say i'd like to live in one of them in winter though...
If you walk to the end of the harbour the path trails off on to a quiet little beach, surrounded by a cliff face and rock pools. Luckily Harvey was allowed on this one but must be kept on his lead, to which he objected greatly as he adores the beach and just wants to play in the water.

To start with i was slightly concerned that Harvey would slip on the rocks, I shouldn't have been worried as he was fine, it was me that managed to slip and fall on my bum. Que the wet patch.
After exploring the little beach we headed back and stopped for a coffee (or rather water for me as i don't like coffee) and indulged in some fish and chips, how could we not?! Following this we thought it would be a great idea to venture up past the town to see where it went. the result was unfortunately a dead end but the view was worth it.

After the day in Polperro it's safe to say the pooch was more than a little tired! It's well worth a visit to this lovely village if you're ever in the area, it's a great place to spend your afternoon (and cheap too, the food was surprisingly inexpensive).

Have you ever visited St Mawes or Polperro Village? What did you think of it?