55 Penzance to Prussia Cove
St Michael's Mount dominates the walk - approaching from Penzance, from the causeway at Marazion, and looking back from Prussia Cove, a place associated with two remarkable stories: of the legendary smuggler John Carter, aka "King of Prussia", and a famous battleship that came to grief on this shore.
Der Blick of St Michael's Mount prägt diesen Abschnitt - von Penzance aus gesehen, vom Damm in Marazion sowie im Rückblick von Prussia Cove - die "Preußenbucht", die mit zwei bemerkenswerten Geschichten in Zusammenhang steht. Zum einen die Lebensgeschichte des Schmugglerkönigs John Carter, zum anderen ein berühmtes Kriegsschiff, das hier ein unrühmliches Ende fand.
The route, day 55
Following the Southwest Coast Path around the curve of Mount's Bay to Marazion and beyond. 10.5 miles/16.8 km and 383 metres ascent
Am Küstenpfad um Mount's Bay herum nach Marazion und weiter. 16,8 km, 382 Höhenmeter.
St Michael's Mount
Three early-morning views across the rooftops of Penzance and the bay
Sculpture Trail
The path along Mount’s Bay is also a sculpture trail, created to connect to the ancient landscape. Up to 4,000 years ago, the bay was forested dry land. At the lowest tides, tree stumps and roots can still be seen. The trail by the artist Emma Smith is called Gwelen, the Cornish word for a stick or pole. “Gweles” means “to see”. The sculptures are described as “seeing sticks”, places where passers-by can rest against a post and imagine the lost forest.
Am Ufer der Bucht Mount’s Bay verläuft ein Skulpturpfad. Bis vor 4.000 Jahren war Mount’s Bay ein Waldgebiet, dessen Reste – Baumstümpfe und Wurzeln – bei Niedrigwasser gelegentlich zum Vorschein kommen. Die Installation der Künstlerin Emma Smith stellt eine Verbindung zur Landschaft vorgeschichtlicher Zeit her und heißt Gwelen, ein cornisches Wort für „Rute, Stock“. „Gweles“ bedeutet „sehen“. Somit funktionieren die Skulpturen als „Seh-Stöcke“. Hier können sich Spaziergänger an einen Pfosten lehnen und den verlorenen Wald vorstellen.
St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount may have been the site of a monastery as early as the 8th century. In the 11th century, King Edward the Confessor gave it to the Benedictine monks of Mont-Saint-Michel. Later the island with its castle passed through the hands of several different owners, until in 1659 it was sold to the St Aubyn family, who are still in possession. In 1954 they gave most of the tidal island to the National Trust, but have a 999-year lease allowing them to live in the castle.
Das Kloster am St Michael’s Mount bestand möglicherweise bereits im 8. Jh. und wurde im 11. Jh. von König Eduard den Benediktinermönchen von Mont-Saint-Michel übereignet. Die Insel und ihre Burg hatten später verschiedene Besitzer und kamen schließlich 1659 in die Hände der Familie St Aubyn, die bis heute dort ansäßig ist. 1954 schenkte die Familie einen Großteil der Insel dem National Trust, darf aber weiterhin dort wohnen.
Saint Michael – Rocky Islands, High Places
The archangel Michael is named in Jewish scriptures and is regarded by Christian churches as Saint Michael, the warrior archangel who defeated Satan. Many churches and chapels in high places are dedicated to him. The famous ones are St Michael's Mount in Cornwall and Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, but two other islands on the south coast of England, Looe Island (day 64) and Burgh Island (it will be day 66 when I get there) were also once called St Michael’s Island. The ruined chapel on Rame Head at the eastern tip of Cornwall is dedicated to St Michael, as is the ruin on Glastonbury Tor. And off the west coast of Ireland is the rocky Skellig Michael.
St. Michael – felsige Inseln und Anhöhen
Der in jüdischen Schriften erwähnte Erzengel Michael ist für die christlichen Kirchen ein Heiliger: St. Michael, Kriegerengel und Satansbezwinger. Ihm sind viele Kirchen und Kapellen an erhöhter Stelle gewidmet. Zu den bekannteren Orten zählen St Michael's Mount in Cornwall und Mont-Saint-Michel in der Normandie, aber zwei weitere Inseln an der englischen Südküste trugen einst den Namen St Michael’s Island. Heute heißen sie Looe Island (Tag 64) und Burgh Island (Tag 66, im Plan für 2026).
South-east from Marazion
Boat Cove
Perran Sands
Stackhouse Cove and Acton Castle, with a view of Cudden Point
What a Story!
In 1947 heavy seas swept HMS Warspite, one of the most famous battleships of the Royal Navy, onto a rock ledge at Cudden Point. The chronicle of this ship’s wartime engagements and her destruction on the Cornish coast is told in detail at www.submerged.co.uk/hms-warspite-3/.
HMS Warspite saw service in two world wars. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the ship was holed 150 times and 14 crew members killed. Returning to Britain for repair, she evaded three torpedoes from a German U-boat. From 1919 to 1939 she served in the Atlantic fleet and the Mediterranean, survived accidental ramming by a passenger ship off Portugal, and was extensively reconstructed between 1934 and 1937. In the Second World War she was involved in many naval engagements: two battles of Narvik against the German navy, later off Calabria against the Italian navy. During the German invasion of Crete, she was hit by a huge bomb, with the loss of 38 crew members. After repair she served in the Far East, then returned to the Mediterranean to support Allied landings on Sicily and the Italian mainland, when an early guided missile blasted a large hole in the hull and killed nine crew members.
Repaired once again, Warspite was the first ship to open fire on German positions in Normandy on D-Day, and played a large part in the Battle of the Scheldt, firing on German defences on Walcheren to open access to the port of Antwerp. This was her last engagement. In 1947 Warspite’s last voyage, from Portsmouth to a scrapyard on the River Clyde, ended in a storm on Mount’s Bay. Efforts to refloat her failed, and the Penlee lifeboat saved the crew.
In 1950 another attempt at refloating was unsuccessful, and it was decided to scrap HMS Warspite where she lay. She was dragged a short distance to the shore near St Michael’s Mount. The work of breaking her up lasted five years. A post made of wood from the ship stands on Cudden Point, and on St Michael’s Mount there is a teak bench made from the ship’s timbers. The personal memories in the comments section at the bottom of the internet page mentioned above are well worth reading.
The photos show HMS Warspite in the Indian Ocean in 1942, the memorial post on Cudden Head, a model of the ship in a museum within a wartime German bunker in the dunes at Zoutelande (Walcheren, Netherlands), and the memorial stone next to the lifeguard hut in Marazion.
Das Schiff HMS Warspite, das nach Einsätzen im Ersten sowie im Zweiten Weltkrieg auf dem Weg zur Verschrottung in Schottland nahe St Michael’s Mount havarierte und an Ort und Stelle auseinandermontiert wurde. Diese Bilder: 1942 im Indischen Ozean; eine Gedenkstele an der Küste; ein Modell der Warspite in Bunkermuseum Zouteland, Zeeland; Gedenkstein bei der Küstenwache in Marazion.
Prussia Cove
The King of Prussia
John Carter, an honest smuggler
Western Cornwall is ideal terrain for secret activities. In the eighteenth century it was thinly populated and remote, with almost no roads. Smugglers could land with their goods in tiny bays hidden between rocky headlands. As they had the support of local people, government officers were often powerless against them. In 1767, smugglers sailed from Penzance in nine heavily armed ships – in broad daylight! Five years later they attacked and sank a customs boat.
The most famous Cornish smuggler, John Carter, was born in 1738. He had a farmhouse at a place that is called Prussia Cove today, because Carter’s nickname was “the king of Prussia”. Some say he looked like Frederick the Great. An alternative explanation is that he took the role of the king of Prussia when playing games as a boy.
Carter and his gang bought luxury goods in France and brought them back across the sea, usually under cover of darkness. Customs duties on tea, tobacco, brandy and silk were so high that many people could not afford to buy them legally. For Cornishmen this was an opportunity to earn money by smuggling. Many of them were fishermen and miners, so danger was a normal part of their lives. John Carter was a bold man: from his house on the cliffs he once fired cannon at a customs boat. However, he was not brutal, but had a reputation for being honest and God-fearing.
The story is told that customs officers once came to Carter’s house while he was absent and confiscated a shipload of tea. When he returned home, Carter told his men, “I have promised to deliver the tea, and I must show that I always keep my word.” At night they broke into the government store in Penzance and took back the tea – but nothing else. The customs officers knew that Carter was responsible, because other smugglers would steal everything that they found.
To the east of Penzance, near a headland called Cudden Point, are small bays between cliffs. Above one of the bays John Carter’s farmhouse still stands today. Except at high tide, a rough track can be seen, cut into the rocks below the cliffs. Carter used it to transport barrels of brandy and chests of tea to the top. He also stored his goods in caves here. Nearby is a fine house called Acton Castle, which Carter sometimes used. There are rumours of a secret tunnel leading from the house to the water’s edge. Seven stone cottages on the cliffs were built in 1826 for the coastguards who watched the seas – twenty years too late, because John Carter’s activities had ended. He disappeared mysteriously in 1807. Perhaps he went to Prussia.
The above text is taken from Truly Criminal, a collection of English true crime stories written by myself, published with a parallel German translation. ISBN 978-3-423-09556-3
Der "König von Preussen"
Der Text oben über John Carter, genannt "King of Prussia", ist in deutscher Übersetzung von Harald Raykowski in folgender, von mir geschriebener Publikation zu lesen: "Truly Criminal/Wahrhaft kriminell - eine verbrecherische Landeskunde Großbritanniens", Verlag dtv, ISBN 978-3-423-09556-3
The rock-cut track for smugglers and caves in the cliffs at Prussia Cove
Ein in die Steine gehauener Schmugglerweg und Höhlen in den Klippen bei Prussia Cove.
The Lodge
At Prussia Cove, the coast path passes between two buildings in the Arts and Crafts style, constructed in 1912 to 1914. On the landward side of the path is The Lodge, now available to rent as a holiday apartment. Opposite on the seaward side is the mansion Porth-en-Alls, unimpressive when seen from the path. It stands on the slope above a stony beach and is entered from the top floor, i.e. the facade and rooms with a sea view descend on the other side, invisible to walkers. To see Porth-en-Alls you have to rent one of the three apartments, or look at the photos on prussiacove.co.uk/.
Bei Prussia Cove führt der Southwest Coast Path zwischen zwei Bauwerke im Arts-und-Crafts-Stil. Sie entstanden in den Jahren 1912-14 und können als Ferienwohnungen gemietet werden. Landeinwärts steht The Lodge, oberhalb des Strands Porth-en-Alls. Letzteres präsentiert sich dem Passanten nicht als stattliches Herrenhaus, aber dieser Eindruck trügt. Der Wanderer sieht nur die obere Etage mit Eingang. Die dreigeschossige Fassade auf der Meeresseite zieht sich am Steilhang hinunter, s. Fotos auf prussiacove.co.uk/.
Back to St Michael's Mount
Trenow Cove, near Marazion. John Sykes was here, 3 June 2025.
