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In this walk we followed the route of one of the largest battles of the English Civil War, and certainly the largest victory for the Royalist cause of the entire war. We also followed the fascinating story of Tristan and Isolde which, although a work of fiction, very much has its roots in actual history along this particular Fowey valley no less. But in addition to the history, it is a beautiful walk from start to finish. Cornwall rarely disappoints, and this walk is a case in point.
We started off in Lostwithiel, which is fast becoming one of our favourite launchpads for interesting walks in southern Cornwall. It is just slightly off the main tourist beaten track and away from the beaches and coastline, but it and the surrounding area are a fantastic place to explore. For today’s walk we headed south following the River Fowey and then joined the Saints’ Way path. Along the way we bumped into a father and two kids walking our way (we were both hesitant about a route — OS Maps can lie at times, and today was a case in point). They were from Truro and had taken the train to Lostwithiel and were walking back to Par. The young boy could talk for England, but it was lovely seeing them all talk about their history and love of Cornwall. They were excellent company. They carried on along the Saints’ Way path, but Rupert and I veered up the hill in order to head to Castle Dore and walk over some of the immense English Civil War battlefield that stretched all along this valley, but focussed very much on the old Iron Age hillfort at Castle Dore which had been occupied by Parliamentarian soldiers as they withdrew from Lostwithiel to Fowey before the King’s army.
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In the summer of 1644 the Earl of Essex had rather overestimated his own strength and underestimated that of his enemy. He marched to Fowey in the belief that he had bottled the King up, not realising that there were not one but two Royalist armies lying in wait for him. Ten thousand Parliamentarians would be cut off by the Royalists capturing Polruan and the entire east bank of the Fowey and, most critically of all, Restormel Castle above Lostwithiel with its commanding views over the town. Realising that he was cut off, he made plans for his cavalry to try and save themselves in a midnight dash whilst he abandoned Lostwithiel and headed to Fowey with the idea of being rescued by the Earl of Warwick’s Parliamentarian navy, although the unseasonably windy weather was not helping make this an easy prospect. Castle Dore was to be Essex’s new focal point where he deployed his artillery and gunpowder. Interestingly, just a few weeks ago when we visited St Andrew’s Church in Halberton we came across the tomb of Colonel John Were, who fell out bitterly with Essex in the aftermath of this battle. John Were was in charge of one of the two infantry regiments defending the approaches to Castle Dore. There was a hard‑fought battle that lasted all day and evening, but eventually Were’s troops began to desert their posts en masse as the sun set, which led to the entire defensive line collapsing and the loss of Castle Dore and its artillery train. Essex fumed and blamed Colonel Were for their defeat. He went so far as to have Colonel Were arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where Colonel Were wrote a detailed defence of his actions. He was later cleared of the accusations and resumed his army career with Fairfax and Cromwell as they reinvaded the Westcountry in 1645. Essex did not help his own cause when, rather than standing with the remains of his army in and around Fowey, he jumped onto a fishing boat in the creek and sailed back to Plymouth with a number of close companions, leaving Major General Skippon to havethe dubious honour of surrendering to the King.
King Charles I was probably at his happiest during the war in this campaign. He camped with his men under canvas and acted very much like a soldier rather than a remote king. It helped that they won, making it the most important and most complete Royalist victory of the war. Having said that, the Parliamentarian cavalry did indeed manage to escape, so it could have been even worse. The King, flush from his victory, was magnanimous to the defeated Parliamentarian soldiers, who were allowed to lay down their arms and march back to Parliamentarian‑controlled Southampton (but definitely not allowed to march back to besieged Plymouth). Had the King been a little more ruthless this could have been an even more significant victory, but as it was, this triumph would be overshadowed by news of defeat at Marston Moor. The Parliamentarians realised after this setback that they had to transform their leadership and professionalise their soldiers. An ambitious training regime was combined with the self‑denying ordinances, which stripped command from well‑meaning if not always able aristocrats like the Earl of Essex (and the Earl of Manchester) and placed it in the hands of professional soldiers who had proved themselves on the field. This was to be the foundation of the New Model Army which in time would provide the nucleus for the British Army as we know it — including the famous redcoats. In many ways the British Army was born in the Fowey Valley.
There was a low cloud base on the day we were walking, with a fine mist. It wasn’t in the slightest bit cold — perfect walking conditions. The farmers were very busy, somewhat complicating some of our footpath requirements along what was the Lostwithiel battlefield. In fact, quite a few of the footpaths were not where they should be according to the map — a lot of latitude was required to get to the castle, and not a little bit of road walking on the quite busy B3269 route to Fowey in order to reach Castle Dore. In fact, the only entrance to the ancient monument is from that road itself. You really would think that Cornwall Council would try to provide better footpaths to and from this very important Cornish monument.
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As mentioned above, Castle Dore also has another claim to fame in addition to its role in the English Civil War — one far older and far more romantic. There has probably been a fortification here for at least two and a half thousand years, from well before Roman times. It has been claimed (a claim much disputed it must be said) that in the 6th century this was the home of Mark of Cornwall, one of the major characters in the Tristan and Isolde story which is very much tied into the Arthurian legends as set forth by Norman writers in the medieval period. Mark was the uncle of Tristan and sent his nephew to Ireland to pick up the beautiful Princess Isolde (sometimes spelt Iseult) and bring her back to Cornwall for a royal marriage. On the boat back to Cornwall, Isolde tried out a magical love potion given to her by her mother to ensure that she would fall in love with her new, much older husband, Mark. Unfortunately, the first person she clapped eyes on after testing it was Tristan — and the two fell madly in love with one another. Uncle Mark was less than impressed, and thus began a whole series of hardships and difficulties for the young couple as their uncle made their lives a misery. He married his reluctant bride, but the love of Tristan and Isolde for one another could not be broken. (There are multiple versions of the story.) Let’s just say that there are banishments, rapes, murders and travails galore — each troubadour might add their own new verse of adversity for the hapless young couple.
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Lest we think this fable is complete fiction, just a couple of miles south of Castle Dore is a standing stone called the Tristan Stone, which was a Christian cross from the 6th century and which mentions both Tristan and his uncle Mark (sadly it is hard to pick out the words now, but they were clear once upon a time). In fact this stone was discovered far closer to Castle Dore than where it is placed now! Although stories like King Arthur and Tristan and Isolde were largely Norman creations, they really did have their basis in actual places, people and history, often from Celtic origins. It is quite interesting how the Normans laid claim to some of these Celtic stories in order to differentiate themselves from their Saxon predecessors and to hint that they themselves might have been returning to the lands from which they were once banished. It is no surprise at all that the story of King Arthur was the most popular of all such legends for the Normans.
After having a look around Castle Dore with its magnificent views up and down the Fowey valley, we walked down the B3269 to reach the Tristan Stone (again, this was not exactly the nicest walk, with pretty fast cars on narrow roads, but definitely the most direct route — and the one with the least change in elevation; our civil engineers know what they are doing when they build these roads). The Tristan Stone was written at least six centuries before the medieval stories of Tristan and Isolde gained currency and also illustrates how Christianity had persevered in Cornwall even after the Romans left England and independently of the Saxon variety of the religion spreading from Kent. There is lots of history along this valley indeed.
We were pretty much in Fowey at this point and so headed back north to find the Saints’ Way and follow that back up the Fowey valley. We had a lovely chat with a local when asking for directions, who had the thickest Cornish accent and could explain how all the old routes had changed and what the area looked like when he was a child. Always lovely to get some primary eyewitness account of the land you are walking through. There was a lovely dog stop for Rupert to enjoy some fresh water and snacks by the old railway line at Hillhay. Rupert was very impressed indeed.
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It was a delightful walk up to Golant, although with some pretty steep valleys to overcome — although in return for this hard work we were rewarded with beautiful views out across the River Fowey and up Penpoll Creek. Now, Golant has a beautiful church called St Sampson’s at the top of another valley (the Golant villagers must have been fit to walk up there every Sunday). There is a lovely Tristan and Isolde inscription on the entrance gates hinting at its importance to the story. It is thought that if Isolde was married to Mark anywhere, it would have been in the church that stood on this spot before the Norman castle was expanded upon it. There is a holy well that is still attached to the church to this day.
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The 13th‑century church is beautifully light and airy with lovely views along the valley. Supposedly its twin‑basilica design shows Iberian influences, which is perhaps not too surprising when you consider that this part of Cornwall traded with Spain and Portugal for centuries. St Sampson is named after a saint who apparently killed a serpent just down by the river next to Golant before sailing to Brittany to convert the heathens there. It is no accident that he found the serpent here, as he was following the very well‑worn Saints’ Route that landed Christian missionaries at Padstow to walk down to Fowey and avoid having to take a ship around the perilous shores of Land’s End and the Scilly Isles. Sampson was one such missionary on his way to Europe to reintroduce Christianity from the Celtic fringes, where it had held on as various barbarians rampaged through the Roman Empire in its dying days.
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St Sampson’s proudly displays the Lord’s Prayer in Cornish, which of course would be more recent than you might realise. Before the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 the entire service would have been in Latin. After this it tended to be in English — unless you lived in the Celtic fringes like Wales or here in Cornwall. There is also a Royal Coat of Arms dedicated to King James II and erected in 1685. This was almost certainly in the aftermath of the Duke of Monmouth’s unsuccessful rebellion, where the Westcountry supplied far too many of the rebels for the King’s liking. Hanging this particular coat of arms might have been Golant’s way of trying to avoid the retribution of the authorities and their ‘Bloody Assize’.
After exploring the beautiful church, we rejoined the Saints’ Way and carried on our journey northwards back to Lostwithiel. The sun had been threatening to break through all day, but now it was bursting through with regularity. All in all, another beautiful walk from Lostwithiel. One of the nice things about the Westcountry is just how much history and how many extensive public footpaths we have. We barely saw anyone along our routes all day, and this is Half Term in one of the most touristic areas of the country. If you leave the beaten track it is very easy to find solitude, beauty and history. And it was delightful to see the foundational bases for one of the oldest pieces of literature in England with some of the most iconic characters. Romeo and Juliet eat your heart out — Cornwall has Tristan and Isolde!
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