Paul is a small village west of Penzance, Cornwall. It sits high on the hill above its more famous neighbour, Mousehole. Paul’s historic parish church, St Pol de Léon, has origins reputedly dating from late fifth century. The medieval building was (to my ignorant surprise) badly damaged in a raid by the Spanish in 1595, several years after the Armada. Mousehole also suffered great damage in the same raid. Until visiting Paul this summer, I had no idea that the Spanish had ever managed to breach England’s defences. So I checked online and was quickly led to the BATTLE OF CORNWALL, of which I had never heard. So now I know… I hope Hispano-Kernowek relations have improved.
The Church merits its own post in due course. For the moment, the maze-collector in me found a different interest in a nearby extension to the churchyard. An engraved stone set into a wall, and a small diagram nearby, led me to a path and a large area of hillside with extensive views out to sea, and east towards St Michael’s Mount.
Near the more recent gravestones was a sundial; and closer inspection revealed that it was at the centre of a small, overgrown maze outlined on the grass in granite. How I longed, interferingly, to have a strimmer handy. But apart from tracing some of the pattern with my foot, I restrained my quite unreasonable urge to disclose the maze…
ROLLING HARBOUR GALLERY 