One day on St Marys Isles of Scilly | Bike ride to Porth Hellick, Pelistry Beach + Peninnis Head
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2024
- Today would be the only day from our week long Isles of Scilly holiday where we wouldn't use the St Mary's Boatmens Association as we'd stay put and explore by cycling St Marys Isles of Scilly. Whilst there is golf cart hire on St Mary's we decided to go to St Mary's Bike Hire and explore the island on a set of 2 wheels each, mostly because St. Mary's is the largest island in the archipelago and getting around it all on foot in 1 day would prove difficult. On this day we cycled to the St Marys Nature Trail where we had to stash our bikes (unlocked might I add as it's THAT safe) and did a little Isles of Scilly walking to the Porth Hellick bird hide, along to Porth Hellick and swung back around to our bikes via the Holy Vale vineyard. Our St Marys Bike Ride continued out to Pelistry Beach where we had a chilled packed lunch of crab sandwiches on the beach and had a big kid moment on the empty tree swing. We were told over and over that Pelistry Beach is the most popular beach on St. Mary's and whilst it is beautiful, I personally prefer Porthcressa Beach on the edge of Hugh Town (but then that's just 1 person's opinion). To round off the day, we raced out to Peninnis Head Lighthouse and marvelled at the crazy shaped rocks and rugged coastline. On the way back, we had a perfect view out onto the Isles of Scilly Airport where we got to watch on as an Isles of Scilly Skybus took off. If you are visiting for an Isles of Scilly Day Trip, this video could prove helpful for how to get the most out of your day. I understand that St Marys Bike Hire can also deliver bikes to the airport if you fly onto the island too.
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0:00 Intro
0:16 Just like riding a bike
1:50 St Marys Nature Trail
3:54 Porth Hellick Bird Hide
7:16 Honesty Shop
8:52 Holy Vale
10:02 So many eels!
11:41 Pelistry Beach
15:30 Back on the bikes
16:57 Peninnis Head
19:32 Plane taking off
19:58 Cycle tour of Hugh Town
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Really enjoying seeing places I will be visiting during the summer.
It's always so lovely to read comments like these, I hope your trip this summer is just as enjoyable as ours was!
Wish I discovered these islands when I was younger 🤣
I feel the same. When people have replied to these videos with comments about what they got up to as children there, the adventures they had - I'd have loved to go as a kid!
Nice to get the bicycles out, especially when the roads are so quiet and the weather is so good. Vloggers curse is when you hit record to talk about it and a car passes by and a plane flies over. It's nice how you can leave your bikes parked up and not have them stolen, sound like a very trustworthy population, what a shame everywhere isn't like that! Cool shot of the eels. Loved the tree swing at Porthcressa Beach, it sounds like you're all beached out - you've seen so many phenomenal ones recently! Interesting to hear about the lighthouse, I guess those islands have seen there fair share of shipwrecks over the centuries!
Oh wow, how beautiful. No surprise as I have walked and visited all these places myself, but it is such a joy to watch them here too in your great video. I have walked the circular path if St. Mary's twice and also walked a bit "inland" on the island, visiting the bird hides and walked the nature trails. But next time I guess I'll also rent a bike 😄 Thank you for sharing. Always enjoyable.
We loved renting the bikes as it allowed us to see a lot more in the short amount of time we had there. I love that you've done all of the things we did as I too enjoy watching other people's videos from places I've been to go down memory lane!
Wow Caroline, if you told me you were in the Azores, I would have believed you, not the UK. The bikes looked like a fun way to see the island. If I was rich and retired and lived in the UK I would live on one of the Scilly Islands. Thanks for sharing an other cool video. Cheers ☕☕🧔
Ooooh the Azores, now that's somewhere I'd love to go. We've recently been to Madeira (spoiler alert - that's the next series) and I loved it so much, the Azores are firmly on my radar, but I think due to it being multiple islands unlike Madeira, it's going to take a good amount of logistical planning! I loved riding the bikes around this island. I've toyed with the idea of living over there in my mind as there's a secondary school on St. Mary's, but I fear the difficulty of getting to airports to travel the globe would begin to wear me down after a while!
Hi Caroline, another fantastic video. St Marys is my favourite of the islands, it doesn't have the amazing beaches that St Martins or Tresco have, nor the wild and bleak craggy moorland like Bryher or the north of Tresco, but it does have so many things to see. It's well worth walking around the island if you have a whole day and are feeling energetic. Inland is beautiful too, with Holy Vale & Carreg Dhu gardens (well worth a visit - free, beautiful & maintained by volunteers). I think the Holy Vale nature trail is particularly beautiful, I'm glad you went there. Even on a wet day Hugh Town has its museum, which is very good.
Crime is extremely rare on Scilly, but I remember my friends who lived on St Marys telling me one time I visited that the islanders had been shocked by the recent theft of a bike - someone who came out of a pub very drunk "borrowed" it to get himself home.
Having said that, it's hard to imagine it, but there was a rather notorious murder at Holy Vale in 1976!
As kids we used to stay at Lunnon Farm, close to Porth Hellick, and our other close beach was Pelistry Bay, so I am very fond of both these places. I'm not sure how true that story is of the woman murdering Sir Cloudesley Shovell for his emerald ring, it's become a bit of a legend, and is doubted by some historians, it's a good story though!. Those lovely flowers on the beach there are Hottentot figs, native to S Africa; they're naturalised in several parts of Scilly. They're not so common on the mainland, but can be found on parts of the Lizard. When I was a kid we used to love going to Porth Hellick Down, just up from the beach, at night. On a clear night you could see all the lighthouses on the mainland, from the Lizard round to Pendeen, and also the Seven Stones light ship. It was quite spooky, with the Porth Hellick burial chamber, the most impressive burial chamber on the islands, bats flying around, and we would go looking for the "arch-druid's chair", a rock formation in the form of a seat; you could imagine the ghost of the arch-druid sitting there looking out to sea! Sometimes when there was a low tide, we'd get up really early, at 4 or 5 am, and go down to Porth Hellick beach and see all the waders: godwits, curlews, whimbrels, oystercatchers, etc.
Pelistry is probably my favourite beach on St Marys. It used to be a fantastic beach for finding shells (a childhood passion) and it has Toll Island, which makes it interesting and a bit different. Old Town beach is lovely too (there was a brief shot of the beach in your video - I love the church at Old Town too and the graveyard is beautiful). Many thanks again for the lovely video.
I've loved reading your comment - thank you, and my apologies for a delay in response as I've been away over my October half term break. Your trips to St. Mary's as a child sound wonderful and your description has left me with a great idea of what it would have been like if I'd also been taken there as a kid. I can see myself equally getting a little spooked by the lighthouses and burial chambers in the dark. I had no idea there had been a murder on the island in 1976, it seems almost impossible to believe given how safe and welcoming it always felt during our visit. I'd missed the gentleman at the bike hire saying it, but Andy told me later that he'd been told the reason they give bike locks if you rent for more than just a day rental is because it's drunk people who most often are likely to take off with them. I remember just before visiting the islands - maybe 2 or so weeks, On the Quay posted on the Facebook Group that someone had taken their Sonos Speaker from a window sill and they said they knew who it was due to CCTV and if they could just return it, they'd have no further questions - and it was quickly followed by an update of it having been returned. I'd be willing to put money on that being someone intoxicated too! 🤣 Your comment about the hottentot figs really struck a memory I struggled for a moment to pin point... then I remembered, it was Will Wagstaff over in Bryher who pointed these out to us! 🤣 Thank you again for such a lovely comment
17:52 Pulpit rock. So named because it resembles a.....................pulpit? Down to the sea from this rock is the Logan stone, named after a ship-wrecked sailor who was washed up exhausted, & leant against this massive rock which promptly moved!
The Toaster / Toast rack is aptly named. Nowadays of course it would be The CD holder. Hmm.....
At least you don't have to wear cycle helmets while cruising around St Mary's!
Thank you for sharing the names of some more of the rocks. I especially like the story behind the Logan Stone and you got a chuckle out of me with the CD holder. Though I fear most of my teenage students would be more familiar with a toaster than a CD rack these days! I LOVED how safe it was cycling around St. Mary's. We were offered bike helmets but declined the offer and didn't feel like we needed them at any time. The thought of cycling here in London however scares me senseless!!
The group of islands are in the Celtic sea a couple of miles of the Atlantic Ocean
Oh noes - I hate it when I get these things wrong as unlike a blog, you can't just go back and edit it! I honestly thought they were in the Atlantic Ocean!
Many thanks for the info about Sir Cloudesley Shovel. I knew the name, but nothing else. 1707! Before Captain Cook & Nelson. Imagine having risen to the rank of Admiral, sailed the 7 seas, (or nearly), been ship wrecked in a storm approaching Scilly, been washed up half-drowned onto a beach, & some miserable covetous island women, who should have been your guardian angel, comes along & suffocates you! He was probably wearing a nice gold pocket watch, which she fancied. Huh.
it was supposedly an emerald ring. The wreck was caused by navigational errors (Dead reckoning was the only method) if interested read up on the wreck of the" Association "one really good thing to come from the tragedy, was the competition to calculate Longitude.
@@ruthhunt2970 Thanks for the info. Interesting. I'll look into the Association wreck.
Emeralds are a girl's best friend. (On Scilly at least). I wonder what happened to it?
She probably sold it on e-bay.
I'm going to write a story: The Admiral & the Avaricatrix. (is that even a word???. avarice. Hmm).
@@missasinenomine According to Wikipedia, the ring had been a gift to Shovell by a friend and fellow captain James Lord Dursley, and when the woman confessed to stealing it, she produced the ring and it was supposedly sent back to Dursley. The fact that there is no record of of Dursley receiving it is one reason historians doubt the woman-murdering-Shovell-to steal-his-ring story. Another legend which has appeared re this disaster is that a sailor from Scilly who was on the Association and knew the waters around the islands tried to warn Sir Cloudesley they were heading for disaster and was hanged for impertinence. Again no actual proof it happened.
@@cebusapella9125 Many thanks for further info re CS. I must say that the story is rather mean, & it's not too surprising that some question its authenticity.
I feel like you've retold the Sir Cloudesley Shovell story far better than I did in the video! 'some miserable covetous island woman' - genious! But it's so true, he acomplished so much yet had a bitter sweet end. Nice to know he's been buried somewhere more prominent as I've learnt since that I was correct to think it was in Westminster Abbey.
To hire the golf cart they are £40 a day 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (2021 prices) well worth the money 💷
Whoa, that's excellent value considering how much more ground you could cover in a day, and the novelty of whizzing around in one. Thank you for sharing this, hopefully it will be helpful for others watching this video
10 days ago we visited all the same areas on foot in a howling gale..it was fabulous, Seals bobbing off Pellistry ,barely able to stand upright to watch them..and shelter from the wind in Holy vale.Thankyou for another nice film. (But I noticed your " chapter heading" for the beach section says porthcressa instead of pellistry..dont know if you can change it?)
Ooooh, I love the idea of spotting seals bobbing around off Pellistry beach, but I'm afraid I'd take the calm weather and sun over the howling gales. That said, I'd take howling gales on the Isles of Scilly over calmer weather back home here!!! Thank you for letting me know about my error with the Porthcressa vs Pellistry Beach naming. This is something I manually do so have obviously messed up on this one, I'll fix it in a moment.
How are you doing mrs Caroline thank you for sharing your trips with us as always iam gathering main information about places you visited briefly here it’s port helick Cornish means willow cove is tidal inlet on south coast of st Mary largest island in Isles of Scilly known as giant castle Iron Age cliff fort port helick down stream rises in holy bales flows south site of scientific interest there are several rare notable plants species high moors port helick pool is one of three main fresh water .holy vale is minor valley small settlement on island of St Mary name come from 1301 comes from Norman French lowlying at foot settlement higher was scene of murder 18 years old Stephen menhenhiott by his father in 1976 commercial vineyard st Mary located smallfled in area . There are several attractions such as sliver street gallery, island gin , garrison wall tresco abbey. Pelistry means cove for ship is small settlement situated east of May pole north Normandy east of island of st Mary
Hi Khatoon, I am well thank you, I hope you are too. Been very busy with both travel and then work after returning home so trying to catch up with comments on here. I can't get over that there was a murder 18 years ago on the island. Its such a quiet place with the friendliest of locals, I imagine it shook the community a lot! The Silver Street gallery you mentioned was next door to the apartment we stayed in.