'Golden mist lingers over the frozen marshes': eight great winter walks in the UK
Art walk in Penzance, Cornwall
Heads into the sunset on a November afternoon and St Michael's Mount glistens in the horizon, reflected in the tidal heights that surrounds this Cornish island. As I set off along the coastal path from Penzance to Marazion, it's a surreal sight. The mount, with its gold-speckled water collar, seems to levitate. The podcast I listen to tells me that the mount is also surrounded by submerged forest. This blue space was once green.
There's a clue in the island's Cornish name: Karrek Loos Yn Koos means "gray rock in the wood". Believed to have existed 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, before disappearing with rising sea levels, this wood - today a petrified heap of tree stumps and a Tolkien-like tangle of roots - can sometimes be seen at very low spring tides.
At other times, visitors are invited to conjure up the forest using Gwelen, a new course of 85 sculptures that line the path along Mount's Bay Designed by artist Emma Smith, with input from local residents, gwelen is a Cornish word that can mean sticks, rods or wands The trail's oak 'sticks' bring it all into play, providing resting places to lean on or sit, but also a visual prompt to imagine the flooded forest.
I start from behind Penzance station and the first installation is revealed just past the signal box - a trident of poles that look like staves carved by Poseidon himself. Rooted in the landscape but separated from it, like other good sculpture trails, this one offers a deeper connection to the landscape, a perspective that a walk alone cannot provide.
The accompanying podcast encourages listeners to follow in the footsteps of local poets, scientists and folklore experts, while a downloadable booklet suggests ways to draw, cook, carve and forage. food inspired by the forest. Until they appear on additional signs along the trail in the spring, both can be found on the Newlyn Art Gallery website.
None is essential to the enjoyment of the ride, although both add meaning. I discover that before this land was cultivated, the forest would have been a rich feeding ground for birch sap, plantains and blackberries (a nugget I remember the next morning as I sipped a smoothie with blackberries in the city's bustling Artist Residence hotel (doubles from £125 rooms only) all these millennia later.
Following the trail, I listen to my journey through the landscape hearing about its marine biodiversity, sea level rise (again), Cornish language history and piracy.
Art walk in Penzance, Cornwall
Heads into the sunset on a November afternoon and St Michael's Mount glistens in the horizon, reflected in the tidal heights that surrounds this Cornish island. As I set off along the coastal path from Penzance to Marazion, it's a surreal sight. The mount, with its gold-speckled water collar, seems to levitate. The podcast I listen to tells me that the mount is also surrounded by submerged forest. This blue space was once green.
There's a clue in the island's Cornish name: Karrek Loos Yn Koos means "gray rock in the wood". Believed to have existed 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, before disappearing with rising sea levels, this wood - today a petrified heap of tree stumps and a Tolkien-like tangle of roots - can sometimes be seen at very low spring tides.
At other times, visitors are invited to conjure up the forest using Gwelen, a new course of 85 sculptures that line the path along Mount's Bay Designed by artist Emma Smith, with input from local residents, gwelen is a Cornish word that can mean sticks, rods or wands The trail's oak 'sticks' bring it all into play, providing resting places to lean on or sit, but also a visual prompt to imagine the flooded forest.
I start from behind Penzance station and the first installation is revealed just past the signal box - a trident of poles that look like staves carved by Poseidon himself. Rooted in the landscape but separated from it, like other good sculpture trails, this one offers a deeper connection to the landscape, a perspective that a walk alone cannot provide.
The accompanying podcast encourages listeners to follow in the footsteps of local poets, scientists and folklore experts, while a downloadable booklet suggests ways to draw, cook, carve and forage. food inspired by the forest. Until they appear on additional signs along the trail in the spring, both can be found on the Newlyn Art Gallery website.
None is essential to the enjoyment of the ride, although both add meaning. I discover that before this land was cultivated, the forest would have been a rich feeding ground for birch sap, plantains and blackberries (a nugget I remember the next morning as I sipped a smoothie with blackberries in the city's bustling Artist Residence hotel (doubles from £125 rooms only) all these millennia later.
Following the trail, I listen to my journey through the landscape hearing about its marine biodiversity, sea level rise (again), Cornish language history and piracy.
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