Logan Rock

Perched on top of the Teryn Dinas(Treen Castle) cliffs at Treen, accross the bay from Porthcurno is the Logan Rock. It's a 65 ton, naturally balanced rock about 30 metres above the sea - at one time the rock would sway or 'log' when pushed. Well until 1824 that is!

In that year a group of sailors from the Royal Navy cutter, Nimble decided to disprove a previous assertion that the rock could not be moved. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Hugh Goldsmith, nephew of the poet Oliver Goldsmith, the men succeeeded on tipping the rock into the sea.

The public outcry over the incident was such that the Admiralty ordered Goldsmith to return the rock to it's former resting place at his own expense. At a cost of over £130 this was nearly enough to bancrupt the young lieutenant.

Once the stone was put back it didn't rock anymore. As a consequence the village of Treen lost a good deal of it's tourist trade and was even at one point nicknamed 'Goldsmith's Deserted Village'! However, the arrival of the railway in Penzance and the popularisation of West Cornwall as a tourist destination did much to revive the fortunes of the village.

If you look closely at the rock now you can see bits of iron that were used as attachments by the lifting appartus.