Day 15: Port Isaac to Padstow

Weather: Rain to start followed by showers and cloud
Distance covered today: 23.6  km (14.7 mi)
Last night's B&B: The Old School Hotel
% Complete: Cumulative distance: 28.6%: 290.2 km
Total Ascent/Total Descent: 685 m/ 664 m
GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 15(click!)

Last night, as I sat in the bar of the Old School Hotel in Port Isaac, and enjoyed a pint of Doom Bar ale, I recalled the first pint I had of this delicious brew. On that occasion I was sitting in the Admiral Benbow in Penzance in a state of high anxiety prior to the very first day of my LEJOG adventure. At the time, I thought the name appropriate for my venture and mentioned as much in the blog post, but thought no more of it.

Since then I have occasionally wondered about the name’s provenance, but frankly, life’s too short. Yet last night, when exploring closely the route for today, I was suddenly  amazed to see “The Doom Bar” clearly identified on the OS map in the River Camel, right on my path on the way to Rock.

I immediately googled it, and Wikipedia came up with the following (which I have edited for brevity):

“The Doom Bar is a sandbar at the mouth of the estuary of the River Camel. Like two other permanent sandbanks further up the estuary, the Doom Bar is composed mainly of marine sand that is continually being carried up from the seabed. More than 60 percent of the sand is derived from marine shells, making it an important source of agricultural lime, which has been collected for hundreds of years; an estimated 10 million tons of sand or more has been removed from the estuary since the early nineteenth century, mainly by dredging.

The estuary mouth, exposed to the Atlantic Ocean, is a highly dynamic environment, and the sands have been prone to dramatic shifts during storms. According to tradition, the Doom Bar formed in the reign of Henry VIII, damaging the prosperity of the port of Padstow a mile up the estuary.

Until the twentieth century, access to Padstow's harbour was via a narrow channel between the Doom Bar and the cliffs at Stepper Point, a difficult passage for sailing ships to navigate especially in north-westerly gales when the cliffs would cut off the wind. Many ships were wrecked on the Doom Bar, despite the installation of mooring rings and capstans on the cliffs and quarrying away part of Stepper Point to improve the wind. In the early twentieth century the main channel moved away from the cliffs, and continued dredging has made it much safer for boats, but deaths have occurred on the bar as recently as 1997.

A Cornish folklore legend relates that a mermaid created the bar as a dying curse on the harbour after she was shot by a local man. The Doom Bar has been used in poetry to symbolise feelings of melancholy, and has given its name to the flagship ale from the local Sharp's Brewery."


I took a photo of what I thought was it as I passed it this afternoon, but on further reflection, the thing I saw is probably a much more permanent sand-dune, and in any case wasn’t in exactly the same place as indicated on the OS map. OK, so the Doom Bar can move around, according to the article, but surely not this much! In any case I shall guiltily enjoy another pint tonight as I recall those poor, perishing sailors.

Talking of Google, I see that I used the name as a verb above, indicating that I too am a subject of its ubiquity.  I noticed last night that Google, along with the other tech giants are on the cover of the latest edition of the Economist. I have mentioned previously that my daughter works for Google and I was intrigued to see that, at least in The Economist’s view, the tech giants are the new oil companies, and as such need to be tamed through anti-trust action in the US in a slightly different way to how the oil monopolies were controlled a century ago. It seems that working for international monopolies runs in our blood!

A few years ago, the BBC ran a programme on working in Google, focusing on the company’s strategies to make its workplaces more productive and attractive for the most valuable employees. By coincidence, I had previously come across a similar TV video on Shell in London in the early sixties. I was blown away by the similarity of approach. Of course, this is a very different age. Shell’s hairdressers are Google’s masseurs. Shell’s underground shooting gallery is Google’s gym. The context has changed irrevocably, but the message is the same. With a world of opportunity available, it is vital to attract the right sort of employee. The question always is, how long will it sustain?

As indicated last night, I did do a small Doc Martin tour of Port Wenn (sorry, Port Isaac) last evening. Those of you who either didn’t see the series or didn’t like it, look away now!

My room in the "Old School": Religious Studies!!!

I met a cat on holiday. He didn't think much of it!

Inevitable, but £10! Really?

Port Wenn harbour

The road up to the doctor's house, where the teenagers routinely made fun of him

Bert Large's restaurant where I had hoped to dine, but disappointingly it is actually a private house

Doc Martin's house, with a sign saying "Private Property"

The chemist shop, business of the Doc's ridiculous would-be paramour (what was her name?). It is actually a sort of cafe 

Of course!

The Old School, where Louisa taught and I spent the night

OK, enough of Doc Martin, back to the industrial archaeology of the trail. A mine shaft 

A lovely tunnel through the cliff

Lundy Hole

The countryside is simply alive with colour

Looking towards Pentire Point

A sleeping alligator?

Another colourful, Cornish wall

Surfers on Polzeath Beach

Polzeath Beach

A passing runner insisted on taking this picture. So technically not a selfie!

My version of the Doom Bar!

The ferry to Padstow from Rock. I missed it but caught the next one

Padstow's busy harbour

Big tech as big oil!