The Castle at St Mawes

After a hearty breakfast, we walked up to Pendeniss Castle which sits on a headland above Falmouth.

The original castle was built by Henry VIII (not personally, of course) as part of the defence against French & Spanish invasion. Various bits have been added since and it saw various forms of active service over the next 400 years, up until the end of World War II. It has excellent views all round and made for an interesting visit. This image was taken looking east towards its partner castle at St Mawes, guarding the other side of the estuary. A view of Pendeniss from near our hotel is in extras.

From here we walked down to Falmouth and, after a stroll round town to the piers, had a pint and a bowl of mussels in a local pub, before walking back to the hotel and along the coast path as far as Swanpool. We must have walked a fair few miles in the 5 or so hours we were out. Fortunately, as you can see, the weather has been sunny and relatively warm after yesterday.

We've enjoyed another excellent meal (Cajun spiced sardine, steak and ginger cake with stem ginger ice cream in my case) at the hotel, so much so that we've had to take another brisk and bracing walk along the coast path to walk some of it off.

It's been a most enjoyable birthday.