Cornwall is the long granite peninsula at the south-western end of England, nearly surrounded by sea. It has its own flag, its own language, its own patron saint and a widely held view that it is not really England at all.
A Celtic nation
Cornwall was never fully absorbed the way the rest of southern England was. It kept a Brittonic Celtic language closely related to Welsh and Breton, and a separate identity that persists in a way visitors underestimate.
The Cornish language died as a community tongue in the 18th century — Dolly Pentreath, who died in 1777, is traditionally called the last monoglot speaker — but has been revived, and several hundred people now speak it fluently with a few thousand more learning. Place names across the county are Cornish: tre for settlement, pol for pool, pen for headland.
In 2014 the Cornish were formally recognised as a national minority under the Council of Europe framework, putting them on the same footing as the Scots and Welsh.
Tin and copper
Cornwall was one of the great mining regions of the world, and tin was worked here in the Bronze Age. In the 19th century Cornish mines produced two-thirds of the world’s copper, and Cornish engineering — Richard Trevithick’s high-pressure steam engine — was exported everywhere.
When the industry collapsed, Cornish miners emigrated in enormous numbers. The saying went that wherever there was a hole in the ground anywhere in the world, you would find a Cornishman at the bottom of it. The ruined engine houses on the cliffs are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The coast
Around 400 miles of it, and the reason most people come. The north coast — Newquay, Perranporth, Bude — takes Atlantic swell and is the centre of British surfing. The south coast is gentler: wooded creeks, sheltered harbours, and the fishing villages of Fowey, Mevagissey and Polperro.
Land’s End is the westernmost point of mainland England, and the “Land’s End to John o’ Groats” journey — 874 miles to the far north of Scotland — is the standard British end-to-end challenge.
The food
The Cornish pasty has protected status, and so does Cornish clotted cream. Cornwall is emphatically a jam-first county for scones, and says so loudly. The fishing fleet at Newlyn is one of the largest in England, and the seafood is exceptional.
The tension
Tourism supports around a quarter of the economy and also distorts it. Second homes and holiday lets have pushed house prices far beyond local wages in coastal villages, some of which are largely empty in winter, and Cornwall has some of the lowest average earnings in the UK. Locals are welcoming and the resentment is real, and both things are true at once.