Zennor love story

As part of a New Year’s day adventure, we loaded up Joshua’s car Womble and went out on a trip. Mum and Dad had no idea where we were going and we didn’t tell them until the first stop which was a nice beach walk along Gwithian and Godrevy to the coffee shop ‘Sunset Surf’. Many wet and excited dogs were found and more than a few ‘Christmas puppies’.
Once coffee was on board we meandered our way back to the car via St. Gothian sands behind the beach dunes.

From there we attempted to find a parking spot in St. Ives to no avail, everyone had the same idea we did, and skipped ahead to Zennor where this picture was taken. Zennor was my choice. A tiny hamlet with one road in and out and only one pub, Zennor’s claim to fame is St. Senara’s church and a beach not far from it, both of which are the setting for a fairly well known(?) Cornish folk tale about the Zennor mermaid.

There are many variations out there due to the nature of folklore, but my favourite is the variation where a beautiful and richly dressed woman came every Sunday to hear the son of a Churchwarden sing - Mathey Trewella was ‘the best singer in the parish’. One day, he heard the mermaid sing and they were both so smitten with each other they ran into the sea to live together.

There’s a pew as part of this tale, carved with a mermaid on one side and considered to be at the very least 400 years old. Whether the mermaid carving or the legend came first, nobody is quite sure. Regardless, it’s set in a gorgeously wild countryside and it’s easy to get curious if not just swept up in the area.