Du Maurier’s Cornwall Cliffs, coves and creeping dread
The lurid imagination of the 20th century’s greatest gothic novelist was fed the equally dramatic landscapes of Cornwall...
GOTHIC FICTION THRIVES on the wonderful and the terrible, and measures its success by the hairs it manages to raise on the back of your neck. In those ways it’s a wonderful match for the extravagantly lovely – and breathtakingly hazardous – coastline of Cornwall. It’s a place where the views frequently threaten to pitch into the vertiginous, and everywhere the huge forces of weather and waves remind us of our true scale – ‘as flies to wanton boys’. No wonder it nurtured the splendidly macabre imagination of Daphne du Maurier, the 20th century heir to the gothic timbershiverers Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and Edgar Allen Poe. Her 30-million-selling blockbuster of 1938, Rebecca, draws atmospherically on the landscape of the southwest coast; the situation of the house at its centre – and subject of one of the most famous opening lines in literary history (‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’) – is the same as the house in which Du Maurier lived.
It’s called Menabilly, and it occupies an isolated headland (cliff-clipped and cove-nibbled) near Fowey. Du Maurier adored this place, having discovered it during one of her long exploratory walks from the town. Derelict for 20 years, she was enchanted by its ivy-covered, abandoned grandeur and insisted it was hers ‘by right of love’. (She would fix it up and rent it from its owners the Rashleigh family from 1943-1969.) You can’t walk right to the house, but as the author herself said of the much bigger fictional hall, ‘Manderley is as much an atmosphere as a tangible erection of stones and mortar’ – and the paths which lap the headland, burst into coves and skirt furtive creeks are full of the atmosphere of the sultry, sinister story. These are perfect places for boats to sink, storms to rage and sinister housekeepers to stalk.
You can continue your tour of Du Maurier destinations by visiting the Jamaica Inn, a 40-minute drive away high on Bodmin Moor at Bolventor. It was a stay here in 1930 that inspired her dark tale of a group of murderous wreckers, led by an unholy vicar, who run ships aground, kill the sailors and steal the cargo. From the pub (a still brooding and supposedly haunted hostelry) paths lead into what in turbulent weather is splendidly foreboding moorland, toward Brown Willy, Rough Tor and Bray Down. It’s the perfect country in which to be harried by ghostly highwaymen, stumble on cached pirate gold or feel hunted by a hell-hound.
It certainly inspired the author.
Of her Cornish home Du Maurier said: “I walked this land with a dreamer’s freedom and a waking man’s perception – places, houses, whispered to me their secrets and shared with me their sorrows and their joys.
And in return, I gave them something of myself, a few of my novels passing into the folk-lore of this ancient place.”
WALK HERE:
Fowey walk1000miles. co.uk/bonusroutes
WALKING THE CAMINO de Santiago, or the Way of St James, is a cherished dream for many walkers. It’s the world’s most famous pilgrimage; a chance to connect with spirituality, an escape from the pressures of the modern world. And the friendships you form with your fellow pilgrims, or peregrinos, may just last a lifetime.
Although the main aim is to cross northern Spain to reach the city of Santiago de Compostela, there are many established routes to choose from. But very few of those routes can offer the spectacular blend of scenery, heritage and natural history of the Camino Primitivo (Original Way) and the Camino de la Costa (Way of the Coast).
Both of these age-old paths have wonderful sights and warm welcomes, because they both pass through the region of Asturias – hailed as Spain’s Natural Paradise.
Lying in the lush, fertile landscapes of north west Spain, with the city of Oviedo/Uviéu at its heart, Asturias has an immense variety of landscapes, stretching from the mountainous Picos de Europa National Park to the verdant valleys of Fuentes del Narcea, Somiedo and Redes.
The region boasts seven UNESCO biosphere reserves and a near-infinite variety of protected wildlife species. And winding through these landscapes are these two extraordinary Camino trails, each rich in history. The Primitivo is the oldest of the known Camino routes, and it has a special place in the story of Asturias because it honours the ninth-century
Asturian king Alphonso II, who is reputed to be the first person ever to have made the pilgrimage. He trod the path after hearing that the tomb of the apostle St James had been discovered in a place that would become the city of Santiago de Compostela. By walking to see it for himself, he established a tradition that countless pilgrims have followed in the centuries since.
The route begins at the cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo/Uviéu and heads west, passing charming little villages packed with their own legends and traditions, over the course of seven days. After that, the trail leaves Asturias to continue on its way towards Santiago.
While the Primitivo route explores the interior beauty of Asturias, the Camino de la Costa (also known as the Camino del Norte or Northern Way) hugs tightly to the northern coast, offering sensational views as you crest clifftops and explore the hidden coves and bays between Ribadedeva in