Cornwall

Cornwall is a land apart, one which has had a strong sense of its separate identity throughout history. Here are some of the richest and best preserved prehistoric and medieval landscapes in Britain, medieval castles and later coastal defences, and a land of inscribed stones, holy wells, wayside crosses and small churchtowns, scattered throughout its diverse countryside and along its beautiful coastline. Its medieval churches show monumental Norman fonts, accomplished C14 sculpture, striking C15 west towers and generously proportioned C15 and C16 aisles, with a wealth of medieval and Renaissance bench ends. Major houses can be found from all periods ranging from the spectacular mansions of the mining magnates like Tregothnan and Lanhydrock, through the supremely picturesque as at St Michael's Mount, to the exquisite Elizabethan of Trerice. The smaller houses of the Cornish gentry survive in significant numbers from the medieval period, many refashioned in the C18 and C19. Threaded through almost every landscape is evidence of Cornwall's distinguished mining history, and its towns, remarkably well preserved, offer fine public buildings of the C18 and C19, and at Truro the greatest English cathedral of the Victorian age. Among the architectural highlights of the last century are Lutyen's dramatic extension to Penheale, Modernist seaside houses, Barbara Hepworth's sculpture garden and the vast biomes of the Eden Project.f