It’s Friday the 13th July and Britain continues to bake in the longest heatwave since '76. Outside the window, the lawn is as scorched as toast and on my desk lays the office tabby cat, sprawled out between sunbeams on the cool pages of a glossy magazine. With not a drop of rain in the long range forecast, this weekend called for nothing but milling around in the warm English sun.
The Stack, a former engine house, is no stranger to reinvention. Starting life as an engine house to the New Terras Mine of Cornwall, the Poldarkian dwelling is believed to have been built in the 1800s and still retains its impressive tall chimney, tapered and truncated from original form. The building served as a family home following an extensive renovation and now offers the perfect base for a Cornish staycation.
The local village of Grampound and its friendly community-run shop offers fresh fruit, yogurt and bread for breakfast (and delicious organic chocolate ice cream pots for the drive), whilst the higgledy-piggledy fishing villages of Charlestown and Mevagissey provide idyllic pit stops for dining by the sea between walks on the coastpath. When the tide rolls in over hot sun-baked rocks, the south-coast's famous shallow turquoise waters are as inviting as the Med's - only topped by a plunge in the sunken Jacuzzi or roll top bath back at the house. Sunday's supper comprises a drawn-out wood-fired feast in the outdoor dining area, partnered with ice-cold rosé brut from Camel Valley (where peddling the cycle path and wine tasting one's way through the sprawling vineyard are a must on any Cornwall summer holiday itinerary).
For much of the early 20th Century The Stack was affectionately known as "The Castle" to locals - and sleeping alone in the sumptuous fifth-floor bedroom certainly feels like being tucked away in Rapunzel’s tower... Although you likely won't want rescuing here (unless it's a horse mounted Aidan Turner perhaps).
