The Woman in Piper’s Hole: The Crantock Carving and the Story That Grew Around It
The woman, the horse and the verse at Piper’s Hole look like one tragic story. Their chronology tells a more complicated—and rather revealing—one.
WRITING
What I’m thinking about while I’m actually making things.
Browse by topic
The Gannel Crake: The Ghost That Was Supposed to Save Your Life
A strange cry on the Gannel acquired a surprisingly useful ghost story. Its real setting was a crossing where the tide decided when the journey ended.
Langarrow: The Lost City Under the Dunes — and the Real History Inside the Legend
Seven churches, a corrupt city and three days of divine weather: Langarrow is a magnificent legend, rooted in a landscape that really did disappear beneath sand.
The Holy Well the Cliff Buried: What Was Inside Holywell Cave Before the 2026 Collapse
The August 2026 rockfall hid Holywell’s cave. Its pools, healing traditions and rival inland well tell a history which survives the loss of access.
Seven Churches Under the Sand? The Crantock Story That Keeps Changing
Seven churches, seven churchyards and a real religious community: how much of Crantock’s most persistent story can we put back on the ground?
St Piran: The Saint Who Floated to Cornwall — and the History Beneath the Legend
A floating millstone is an excellent entrance. The harder question is how much we can recover of the man behind Cornwall’s most enduring saint story.
I Picked the Cursed Leaf at St Newlyn East — and I’m Still Here
A childhood warning about St Newlyn East’s fig tree leads into a saint’s staff, newspaper scepticism and the surprisingly difficult question of how a local curse becomes ancient.
The Ancient Circle That Isn’t — and the Ancient Circle That Is
St Newlyn East’s Preaching Pit looks ancient. Hay Close really is. Their different histories reveal how the same landscape kept finding new reasons to gather people together.
Porth Island Before Newquay: Furnaces, Roundhouses and a Chieftain’s Grave
Porth Island held a defended settlement and an ironworking industry long before Newquay grew around it. Later storytellers supplied a Danish chieftain.
Seven Bridges, the Smugglers’ Den and the Railway in the Valley
A pub with a tunnel story sits beside a landscape of old mineral routes. The interesting part is working out which connections belong together.
I Went Looking for Cornwall's Smugglers' Tunnels
I remembered a smugglers’ tunnel under a Cornish pub. The records confirmed the building, not the smuggling—and that became the more interesting story.