Trelawne Manor – Ten Acre Wood Walk – 02.05.2012

It was a pleasant evening, so we decided to take a stroll, no particular destination in mind, just enjoy the sun and warmth while we could. We started out from Trelawne Manor, home to the Trelawny family. I hasten to add the family has nothing to do by the famed Professor Trelawney from the Harry Potter (as far as I know ;-)) The beautiful manor has been around for over 400 years and despite being used by a holiday park, the original manor is still intact. The Trelawny name is in fact a Baronetage of England since 1628 when it was created for John Trelawany. The Trelawny family have been in the Clergy, in parliament, the Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall and another the Governor of Jamaica. Such a mixed history!

From 2012 – 02.05.2012 – Ten Acre Wood

We found a nice little footpath to wander along, which took us past a lake. In fact this was known as a “The Pond” and had been created by Sir William Lewis Salusbury Trelawny (10th Baronet), out of a disused quarry in the grounds of the manor, in 1887. The pond was surrounded by some beautiful trees, in fact one of the them was a Chestnut Tree, which was planted in 1779 is still growing strong, despite being struck by lightning at one point! Evidence of this is an old photograph held by the family which shows the tree in 1889, it also portrays a beautiful pair of swans, which sadly did not stay, however the Lady Trelawny decided to breed ducks instead!

At this point the path passes a some sort of waterworks and then just seems to fizzle out! No public footpath signs or anything! We decided to return to the manor for help, where they dutifully gave us a map and told us to go back to the footpath we had just left! After a touch of deja vu… We eventually discovered that the path did not fizzle out but did in fact shrink substantially in size! We were entering “Ten Acre Wood”. I presume “Ten Acre Wood” refers to the wood size and nothing more. It certainly was not the 100 Acre Wood that would you would associate with Winnie the Pooh. I don’t think that Winnie the Pooh would have encountered the daunting and tumbled down building that found!

From 2012 – 02.05.2012 – Ten Acre Wood

This dilapidated building was in fact an old Lime Kiln. From the early 18th Century onwards, the Looe Valley had a thriving Limestone industry amongst other trades. Limestone was burnt in these type of kilns throughout Looe, to provide a lime fertilizer and later in the 19th Century to provide lime and stone for the building and engineering boom in Looe. To me, it was a sad reminder of how the industry had disappeared, and the building now just looked haunted, awaiting for someone to write some dark tale about it!

The trail took us deeper into the wood, and the afternoon stroll, turned more into a hike! I did feel like I was missing my rucksack and tent! The map that we were had was a little scant on directions, but I a know we did not quite stick to them! The path splits at one point and we took the high path instead of the lower path to follow the stream. The path took us out a muddy track, and we could vaguely see the West Looe River through the trees. We could also see the road below where would should have been according to the map!

Once we found a way down, we made our way over to the river. We had reached the edge of “Kilminorth Woods” These woods had a great walk, which we did not have time to do “The Giants Hedge” apparently is a nine mile ancient earth work bank, apparently 15 feet high and 24 feet wide in places. Historians so that it dates from the dark ages with theories saying it shows a boundary of a tribal chiefs kingdom in 10th Century, where as other say it could have been a “last-ditch” defence of the Cornish against the Saxon’s in the 9th and 10th centuries. Sounds like Offa’s Dyke! Out of all the theories I do like the legend the best –

Jack the Giant having nothing to do,
Built a great hedge from Lerryn to Looe.

We decided to turn around and take a different route back into Ten Acre Wood. The path took us along the stream, which we could only previously see from above. As we walked along we could see sun streaming through the trees, making the trees look tall and majestic. As we made our way along back up the trail, we passed by yet another abandoned Lime Kiln, which was not as clearly visible from the higher trail, and we eventually rejoined our original footpath.

We finished our short walk by returning to Trelawne manor and to eat some dinner, which needed after all that hiking!

To browse through all the photos of the late afternoon walk, please click on the photograph –

2012 – 02.05.2012 – Ten Acre Wood

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