The Scilly Skybus
Skybus is the fastest year-round service flying to and from the Isles of Scilly. The journey takes just 20 minutes from Land’s End Airport to St. Mary’s, 30 minutes from Newquay Airport, and from Exeter it’s an hour. You’ll be flying in a 19-seater plane, where you'll meet your pilot and watch them at work; it’s ‘Real Flying’, as one passenger put it. Flying with Skybus is easy- whether it’s the perfectly-timed transfers, your free luggage allowance, the friendly staff at Land’s End Airport or the onward connections at Newquay and Exeter, we’ll help you to relax before you’ve even checked in.
Another of my poorly copied shots from an old print - taken sometime last century I guess when I was standing on top of Chapel Carn Brea .
From the brow of Britain’s westernmost hill the sea is only a number of fields away on three sides and the commanding view of the surrounding area and the distant Scilly Isles makes it unsurprising that this prominent hill has played an important role in the area since the Neolithic Age, although it is named after a medieval chapel which stood here.
Chapel Carn Brea is riddled with remains of barrows (it is believed that there were originally over ten) and considered to be connected to other ancient burial sites along the coast from Lands End to St Just. Of the original barrows, there are two of particular note: an entrance grave on the brow of the hill from the late Neolithic period and of a type only found in Penwith and Scilly, and another older specimen, a long barrow dating from the early Neolithic period. The entrance grave, with its long chamber and two capstones, would have been covered by an imposing mound measuring over 60’ in diameter and 16’ in height. In the Bronze Age, two stone chambers (cists) were added above the original grave and, when excavated in the C19th, were found to contain burial remains. To the west of this cairn, the earlier long barrow is a long mound of granite rocks.
The chapel of this hill’s name was erected on top of the entrance grave in the C13th: a hermitage dedicated to St Michael of Brae which had been reduced to rubble by the early C19th. A beacon was also lit on the summit, maintained by hermits using the chapel, which served to guide travellers on sea and land and could also have been used to communicate (beacons were used to inform London of the arrival of the Spanish Armada, for example). The beacon is still lit every Midsummer’s Eve to celebrate the solstice, starting a series of beacon lightings across the county.
The geographical significance of Chapel Carn Brea continues and the C20th witnessed further construction on the site of the summit barrow in the shape of a military observation post for WWII.
Behind the De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter coming in to land at Land's End Airport one can see Longships Lighthouse .
The waters surrounding Cornwall’s most westerly point, Lands End, have always been known for their treacherous nature for it is here that the many bodies of water merge and where, in stormy weather, the view from shore is one of a furious, boiling sea pounding against granite. William Turner encapsulated the tumult in his watercolour entitled 'Longships Lighthouse, Land's End'. Since man first took to the water, this area has seen many a boat come to grief on its rocks and, indeed, the local area is famed for having taken advantage of the regular spoils from wrecked ships. It is even said that certain folk would lure ships to their demise with lights and beacons so that they might benefit from the spilled cargo. Such people were known as wreckers.
No surprise, then, that a lighthouse was proposed for this area as far back as the 1700s. The location was not on shore, but on the largest of a group of rocks about one mile west of Land’s End, known as the Longships. The original tower was a fairly stubby affair, built by a Lieutenant Smith in 1795. Although sturdy, given the ferocity of the sea in inclement weather, the lighthouse’s short stature caused its beam to be interrupted by lively seas and, so, confused its signal. A taller tower replaced it in 1873, designed this time by Trinity House’s engineer James Douglass, also responsible for creating the present Eddystone lighthouse a few years later. It was manned by teams of two keepers until 1967, and was made fully automatic in 1988.
The Scilly Skybus
Skybus is the fastest year-round service flying to and from the Isles of Scilly. The journey takes just 20 minutes from Land’s End Airport to St. Mary’s, 30 minutes from Newquay Airport, and from Exeter it’s an hour. You’ll be flying in a 19-seater plane, where you'll meet your pilot and watch them at work; it’s ‘Real Flying’, as one passenger put it. Flying with Skybus is easy- whether it’s the perfectly-timed transfers, your free luggage allowance, the friendly staff at Land’s End Airport or the onward connections at Newquay and Exeter, we’ll help you to relax before you’ve even checked in.
Another of my poorly copied shots from an old print - taken sometime last century I guess when I was standing on top of Chapel Carn Brea .
From the brow of Britain’s westernmost hill the sea is only a number of fields away on three sides and the commanding view of the surrounding area and the distant Scilly Isles makes it unsurprising that this prominent hill has played an important role in the area since the Neolithic Age, although it is named after a medieval chapel which stood here.
Chapel Carn Brea is riddled with remains of barrows (it is believed that there were originally over ten) and considered to be connected to other ancient burial sites along the coast from Lands End to St Just. Of the original barrows, there are two of particular note: an entrance grave on the brow of the hill from the late Neolithic period and of a type only found in Penwith and Scilly, and another older specimen, a long barrow dating from the early Neolithic period. The entrance grave, with its long chamber and two capstones, would have been covered by an imposing mound measuring over 60’ in diameter and 16’ in height. In the Bronze Age, two stone chambers (cists) were added above the original grave and, when excavated in the C19th, were found to contain burial remains. To the west of this cairn, the earlier long barrow is a long mound of granite rocks.
The chapel of this hill’s name was erected on top of the entrance grave in the C13th: a hermitage dedicated to St Michael of Brae which had been reduced to rubble by the early C19th. A beacon was also lit on the summit, maintained by hermits using the chapel, which served to guide travellers on sea and land and could also have been used to communicate (beacons were used to inform London of the arrival of the Spanish Armada, for example). The beacon is still lit every Midsummer’s Eve to celebrate the solstice, starting a series of beacon lightings across the county.
The geographical significance of Chapel Carn Brea continues and the C20th witnessed further construction on the site of the summit barrow in the shape of a military observation post for WWII.
Behind the De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter coming in to land at Land's End Airport one can see Longships Lighthouse .
The waters surrounding Cornwall’s most westerly point, Lands End, have always been known for their treacherous nature for it is here that the many bodies of water merge and where, in stormy weather, the view from shore is one of a furious, boiling sea pounding against granite. William Turner encapsulated the tumult in his watercolour entitled 'Longships Lighthouse, Land's End'. Since man first took to the water, this area has seen many a boat come to grief on its rocks and, indeed, the local area is famed for having taken advantage of the regular spoils from wrecked ships. It is even said that certain folk would lure ships to their demise with lights and beacons so that they might benefit from the spilled cargo. Such people were known as wreckers.
No surprise, then, that a lighthouse was proposed for this area as far back as the 1700s. The location was not on shore, but on the largest of a group of rocks about one mile west of Land’s End, known as the Longships. The original tower was a fairly stubby affair, built by a Lieutenant Smith in 1795. Although sturdy, given the ferocity of the sea in inclement weather, the lighthouse’s short stature caused its beam to be interrupted by lively seas and, so, confused its signal. A taller tower replaced it in 1873, designed this time by Trinity House’s engineer James Douglass, also responsible for creating the present Eddystone lighthouse a few years later. It was manned by teams of two keepers until 1967, and was made fully automatic in 1988.