A few times a year, at particularly low spring tides, the remains of a prehistoric forest emerge from the sea at Mount’s Bay in Penwith, the farthest tip of Cornwall. These sunken tree trunks date from a time around 4000 years ago when sea levels were much lower than they are today and the island of St Michael’s Mount was just a rocky outcrop surrounded by woodland.
The Cornish name for the Mount, ‘Carrek Los yn Cos’ meaning ‘grey rock in the woods’, is a vivid etymological reminder of that forgotten age; an age that some believe saw not only this forest submerged, but also Lyonesse, the ancient kingdom of Arthurian legend, disappear beneath the waves just off Land’s End.
In Cornwall as a whole, but in Penwith in particular, ‘history’ can be a heady mix of fact and folktale, but this intoxicating witch’s brew makes exploring this
