Cornish Coast Live Cam

Set in 12 acres of landscaped gardens, the Polurrian offers Edwardian elegance with modern comforts. With friendly yet professional service and attention to detail, the Polurrian Hotel is the ideal venue for reflecting those important decisions or celebrating your special occasions. The sandy Polurrian Cove is part owned by the hotel and only a five minute walk down through the gardens and coastal path. The cove is sheltered and the swimming is safe.

The hotel is set on the spectacular coastline of the Lizard Peninsula which borders the leafy river valleys of the Helford and the Fal. In addition, many guests enjoy local attractions such as the seal sanctuary at Gweek or Flambards Theme Park.

Cornwall has always been remote from the rest of Britain, but strategically placed for trade, and with trade came new ideas, new religions. The early saints and other free-thinkers passed through Cornwall en route between Europe and Ireland. You can see traces of their passage everywhere, in the shape of holy wells and weathered crosses, and in names of churches. Not all visitors were made so welcome. Roman legions, marauding Vikings, the slaughtering armies of Wessex, Spanish raiding parties - all tried to quell the defiant Cornish Celts who, since time immemorial, attempted to fortify the vulnerable coastline. Cliff forts of the Iron and Bronze Age still survive - and indeed, Cornwall's wealth of prehistoric monuments, including stone circles as old as Stonehenge, is the greatest in mainland Britain.

It took the Normans to rationalise the situation. They built with awesome majesty. and they built to last. Most notably, they built Tintagel Castle on the remains of a Dark Age palace which, according to the 12th century Geoffrey of Monmouth, was thebirthplace of Arthur, Once and Future King. Henry VIII was no slouch, either. Mindful of his relationship with the Pope, he built the new-fangled twin castles of Pendennis and St Mawes, whose guns spanned the River Fal, protecting its havens for shipping.

The Civil War enabled the Cornish, for a while, to retake lost ground. Strongly for the King, they seized Plymouth, Taunton and even Bristol - feats of arms for which Charles I thanked them with a Royal decree posted in every parish church. Many of the great houses, homes of Cornish gentry both Royalist and Parliamentarian, are still standing - Lanhydrock and Prideaux Place, Godolphin, Pencarrow and the island fortress of St Michael's Mount. More eloquent still are the derelict mine engine houses which bestride the landscape from Land's End to Gunnislake. These mute witnesses are testimony to a time when the hills echoed to the din of an industry which once dominated the tin and copper markets of the world, driven by engineering giants of Trevithick, Davey and others.

Whilst it is true that those with ambitions for their pectorals will find outstanding opportunities in Cornwall, it is worth emphasising that they are significantly outnumbered by those whose athletic pretensions extend no further than a session over the chess or cheese board. Moreover, so far as can be ascertained nobody has yet broken a leg or suffered from the bends during the course of a weekend of water-colouring; and mental exertion far exceeds the physical when it comes to mastering the syntax of the ancient Cornish language.

Surf if you will: you would have to go a long way (some say, Bondi) to find seas so irresistibly turbulent and exhilarating. Rock climb, where the Royal Marines learn the ropes, by all means. Try a catamaran clinic, canoeing, ballooning, even parachuting- Cornwall provides.