Day 4 - Rame Head to Tregantle Fort - Regrets
- Paul Juckett
- Jun 9, 2020
- 3 min read
South coast again today, starting at Rame Head.
The ponies that inhabit the headland here caused early traffic problems as they all seemed to be coming towards me on the narrowest bits of the cliff path. I didn't like to risk an argument with them, so I was the one who kept going back to suitable passing points!
Early on during today's walk, the magnitude of the task I have set myself became clear. To walk the 574 miles that walking around the Cornish coast path twice entails, before August was going to be harder than I imagined.
The 336 miles I undertook across France and Belgium in November 2018 was over predominantly flat ground and, I was the right side of 50! I am already beginning to get grumbles from my knees, whilst my hips and back are occasionally chirping up to. I am going to have to re-draw plans, either to reduce the daily mileage and decrease the numbers of days complete rest, or extend the time this is going to take. Not an easy decision to make as failure is not an option (extending the time would be seen, by me, as failure), but taking less days rest might kill me altogether!
Nestled into the cliff side on the North-western side of Rame head you can see Polhawn Fort, one of many imposing forts along this part of the southern coast that were built to defend against invasion by France. Built between 1862 and 1867 it has eight feet thick walls and used to house a cannon battery to act as a defence against landings on the long beaches between here and Looe by Napoleon III armies.
This fort was used right up until the end of World War 1, although not as a battery. It is now an exclusive wedding venue, meaning you can't visit this historic building (unless you have a wedding there, but this seems a bit of an extreme way to visit!)
Read all about it here:
The path soon follows Whitsand bay and Tregantle beach, winding it's way amongst small 'shacks' placed precariously on the cliff side alongside the trail. These appear to be hliday lets, but as most have no vehicular access, I wonder if this can be the case. Perhaps they are in fact owned by people as holiday homes?
Research undertaken after my days walk reveals these buildings to be a mixture of private and holiday let cabins. The whole area is maintained and managed by TCCOA (Tregonhawke Cliff Chalet Owners Association Ltd.) an association that seems to have existed since the area of Tregonhawke cliff was bought by them from the Tregonhawke Trust.
Once you are halfway along Tregonhawke cliff, the path is along the road almost the entire way to Tregantle Fort. Passing through the village of Freathy (no distinguishing features other than the view from the few houses there!)
Eventually I arrived at Tregantle Fort, built around the same time as Polhawn, this magnificent building and it's surrounds are still in use by the MOD today as a firing range. When it is in use by the MOD the path is diverted along the road almost all the way to Portwrinkle, but when no firing is undertaken, you can walk through the firing ranges and get a close up look at the fort walls and read some of the history on the information boards.
Originally I had planned to walk on to Portwrinkle today, but knackered as I was, I turned back to Rame head, completing a mere 8.6 miles today (yet more proof of my status as an old man!).
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