Things to do and see

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Pencarrow (above) is a Georgian house with extensive gardens just the other side of Wadebridge from Padstow. Behind the house is an area of formal lawns and pathways. but these soon fade into shrubs, parkland and woodland walks with a large pond to discover, an ancient Celtic cross and, half a mile away through a delightful landscape of rhododendrons, an ancient and impressive earthwork of concentric ditches.

Both the house and the gardens are open to the public, and guided tours around the house depart every forty-five minutes between March and September.

For a more compact and tranquil experience, a delightful Japanese garden can be found in a little village in the middle of quiet countryside between Harlyn Bay and Newquay, where one can lose oneself in a quiet and contemplative maze of little paths through trees, shrubs, statues and stones, an ornamental pond with carp and a temple complete with coin-adorned Buddha and carefully raked gravel. The gardens of Cornwall never disappoint.

To view the district around Harlyn Bay and beyond with google Earth, use the viewer below. To zoom quickly into the locality and take a tour of the district, click the play button on the tour player. Click on any location marker for more information.

In the Silverlight image below the google Earth viewer, move the mouse pointer inside the photograph to reveal buttons that will activate a slide show.