|
 Bedruthan
became a popular destination when Newquay developed as a holiday resort
100 years ago. Victorian visitors in their carriages found it a
convenient attraction, and the local farmer responded to this interest
by providing stalls for the horses on payment of the following tolls: 1s
for a one-horse, 2s for a two-horse, and 4s for a four-horse vehicle.
Pedestrians had nothing to pay.
There
is an awesome nobility about the view across the famous wave
-swept stacks. The low, unspoilt plateau of Park Head beyond the
dramatic foreground effectively closes the panorama to the
north. Man seems to have had little influence on this scene, but
along 2 miles of this exciting coastline are six Bronze Age
barrows, two Iron Age cliff castles and a nineteenth century iron
mine.
The power of
earth's natural forces is uppermost in the onlooker's mind. The outline
of the stacks has changed in living memory, and the cliffs are
constantly slipping into the sea so that to walk too near the edge is a
hazardous undertaking.
The legend of a giant called Bedruthan using the beach stacks as
stepping stones or 'steps' to achieve a not very obvious short cut
across the bay seems to be a late nineteenth century invention trotted
out to gullible tourists. No early reference to the story has been found
and the truth is probably more prosaic. The first record of the name 'Bedruthan
Steps' is in the 1851 edition of Murray's Handbook, and is likely to
refer to the actual steps, or cliff staircase as it now is. Just north
of Diggory's Island there was a beach access path called Pentire Steps.
This was a zigzag route to the beach, but the bottom section has been
carried away by a landslip.
We suggest that the place name 'Bedruthan Steps' was
originally given to the actual steps, but has since been applied to the
whole beach, and especially to the distinctive stacks. This is not an
original idea. J. R. A. Hockin in his respected book Walking in Cornwall (1936) was
unsure of the derivation of the name. He wrote:- '... there is no
general agreement as to what Bedruthan Steps actually are, whether the
name refers to the great stacks of detached cliff - the giant's stepping
stones - or to the older and damper of the two rock stairways down to
the beach.'
'Rude flights of steps, cut in the profile of the cliffs, and
fortified here and there by a crazy iron or timber hand-rail, lead to
the shore ... The steps ... are ancient beyond knowledge, and have given
a name to the place.'
Over
the years, the steps have suffered from landslips and rock falls,
and in the 1960's and early 1970's the beach was closed as no
safe route was possible because of the crumbling rock. This lack
of access was a danger in itself as foolhardy spirits were
tempted to make their own way down.
Then civil
engineers developed a netting for securing broken rock beside motorways.
This material, secured by rock bolts, was used at Bedruthan, and the new
cliff staircase was opened in 1975. It is closed in the winter, and any
loose stone cleared away by the Trust's warden before the summer season. |
